Crime 101
- Mar 15
- 3 min read
We've all heard of the perfect crime.
CRIME 101 is the perfect crime film. It's early in 2026, but I think it will be hard for any film this year to top this slick, intricately constructed mystery thriller.
The best of its kind since Pierce Brosnan's "The Thomas Crown Affair" in 1999, CRIME 101 pulls you into four characters that will eventually collide on screen.
Chris Hemsworth is excellent as James, a meticulous & mysterious jewel thief executing a precisely planned series of robberies against high stakes diamond couriers. His targeted crimes all take place a ramp away to the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles. He's very much in control and no one gets hurt.
Mark Ruffalo is dynamite as Lou, a rumpled detective who's personal life is falling apart at the same time as his position on the force. He's too old school for the squad and decidedly not a team player, driving his younger partner Tillman (Corey Hawkins from "BlacKkKlansman" and "In the Heights") crazy. Tillman's career is tied to Lou's and the older man is not out to make any friends.
Halle Berry is Sharon, a high level insurance broker who's company insures some of those hardest hit by James' robberies. She's a woman just into her fifties, long past partner at the firm and at a turning point. Berry has rarely been more tightly wound on film, she's an emotional powderkeg waiting to explode.
Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin, Saltburn) is his own kind of TNT, a young and violent thief who's anxious to take over part of James targets. He and James both report to a mysterious older figure, Money, played to grizzled perfection by Nick Nolte in a very welcome screen appearance.
The supporting cast is beyond approach, including Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight, Fast Times at Ridgemont High) as Lou's fed up wife Angie, Tate Donovan (Argo) as Monroe, a very, very wealthy LA man who's pending wedding becomes James' latest target and Peyman Maadi (6 Underground) as Sammy, the jewelry store owner who is James' victim in the opening heist.
There are two other MAJOR stars that contribute in superb ways to the film's flawless execution.
The score by Blanck Mass (The Rig) is a perfect, haunting blend of mood setting music that somehow perfectly blends electronic, symphonic and power into a blend of Wendy Carlos/Tangerine Dream and Wang Chung's score for "To Live and Die in LA" into something wholly new and stunning.
The photography by Erik Wilson (Better Man) captures Los Angeles in its darkest sheen and perfect blue skies, echoing the look of Michael Mann's "Heat" while literally turning the city on its head. This is a great looking movie.
The combo of Mass and Wilson is a stunner.
The film was adapted from a novella by one of my favorite crime thriller novelists, Dan Winslow. If you haven't read Winslow, you are really missing out.
Writer/Director Bart Layton not only captures the tone of Winslow, he fills it with fascinating people in every corner. When the film explodes into action, it truly goes off. At one point, the characters on screen reference the 1967 Steve McQueen film, "Bullitt". It's a perfect touch point. That classic film was also, at its heart, a character study punctuated by a few scenes of now classic action, including one of the screen's best car chases.
CRIME 101 features one of the best car/motorcycle chase scenes in memory, a high speed pursuit through a night time LA that blew me away.
If you loved "Bullitt" or "Heat" or Michael Mann's "Thief" with James Caan (huge yes for me on all three) this film is going to blow you away.
At least three times during the film, I caught myself thinking "this is an incredible movie" and smiling at how carefully constructed every scene is, leading up to a finale I never could have predicted.
Like the rest of the film, it's flawless.
CRIME 101 will be a very high hurdle for any film to leap this year. It's an exciting, suspenseful, perfect crime thriller that deserved to be a much bigger hit in theaters. My bet is that it will gain the same respect that Mann's films did in the years ahead.
It steals an A+.
Don't miss it.
Looking forward to seeing it!