“Crime 101” is a Smoggy Throwback Crime Thriller
Given the state of the global economy, it would make sense that we might be on the precipice of a resurgence in crime thrillers. Anxiety and frustration have been bubbling for years, and it looks like they might be boiling over. Bart Layton’s Crime 101, adapted from Don Winslow’s novella of the same name, is a return to the gritty ’70s crime dramas where even the supposed good guys have a dark agenda. In a broken system like the one we’re living in, does anyone really play by the rules?
Photo Credit: Dean Rogers
Davis (Chris Hemsworth) is the definition of a smooth criminal. When the camera first sets its sights on him, he’s meticulously scrubbing dead skin cells off his body, shaking out loose hairs, and collecting all the evidence. He’s getting ready for a heist of $3 million in diamonds from an unassuming courier. Davis’ M.O. is to expertly plot out the daily lives of his targets, make the grab, and disappear onto Highway 101. He’s never violent but always exacting, and that has worked for him until this latest diamond heist. Things go south and it rattles him to his core. Davis wants out, but hasn’t reached a number that will allow him to walk away. Little does he know that a cop (Mark Ruffalo) is hot on his trail and ready to put a stop to Davis’ thieving.
Layton co-wrote and directed 2018’s American Animals, a stylish caper in its own right, but one that’s focused on a far less likable set of criminals. American Animals faltered in its treatment of the female characters and the glorification of the needlessly violent young men at the center of the story. Crime 101 is a massive leap forward for Layton. The sleek, mesmerizing style of American Animals is (thankfully) alive and so very well here, but Winslow’s source material has allowed for a more emotional arc. Not only does Crime 101 weave a heist-ridden web, but the characters have fulfilling stories as well. Hemsworth’s Davis could have been a simple, man-on-the-fringes loner, but he has some fleshy vulnerabilities beneath a steely exterior. On the flipside of this coin is Barry Keoghan’s Ormon, a young man whose father had some kind of legacy in the criminal underworld that Ormon is desperate to live up to. He acts first in violence, rarely thinking of the consequences until they’re staring him in the face. The dichotomy of Davis and Ormon, their opposing views of their line of work, provides a pulsing undercurrent of tension. Ruffalo’s cop is chasing both of them, but they’re also at odds with each other.
Photo Credit: Dean Rogers
While the title may imply that the film is an introductory course in the world of criminology, it primarily refers to the fact that Davis’ crimes are dotted along the 101 freeway in California. He uses it as an easy means of escape. Crime 101 feels classic in that sense. It’s set in a time when the stakes aren’t world-endingly high, but the crime has consumed an entire city. It’s as though all of Los Angeles is in the palm of Davis’ hand, his to exploit as he sees fit. As stylish and as sleekly presented Crime 101 is, there’s an undeniable dirtiness to it. No one’s hands are really clean.
Therein lies the issue with the whole of Crime 101: its ending. The film’s premise is built on the idea that people are messy. There’s no sense of neatness when it comes to matters of humanity. Crime 101 wraps everyone’s storyline up with a tidy bow, but not in the way one would hope. It’s not a matter of loose ends being tied up, but more of an unrealistic, too-perfect ending for the film’s characters. What Crime 101 does so expertly until its final moments is recognize that people forced into corners will make choices that elongate their survival, often to their own detriment. The Disneyfied ending does nothing for these characters, and it undermines the message of a broken system negatively impacting everyone, regardless of social status. Make no mistake, though, Crime 101 is a hell of a ride and a throwback to the smog-filled heists of yesteryear LA.
Follow me on BlueSky, Instagram, Letterboxd, TikTok, YouTube, & Facebook. Check out Movies with My Dad, a podcast recorded on the car ride home from the movies and I Think You’ll Hate This, a podcast hosted by two friends who rarely agree.
support your local film critic!
~
support your local film critic! ~
Beyond the Cinerama Dome is run by one perpetually tired film critic
and her anxious emotional support chihuahua named Frankie.
Your kind donation means Frankie doesn’t need to get a job…yet.