Crime 101 ★★★★

Released: 13 February 2025

Director: Bart Layton

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keohan, Monica Barbaro, Halle Berry, Nick Nolte, Corey Hawkins

Don Winslow is one of the premier crime writers working in America today, with his Border Trilogy earning particular acclaim. His 2020 short story collection Broken is the basis for director Bart Layton’s latest LA crime film, Crime 101, based on the novella of the same name from the collection. As with the novella, we follow master thief James/Mike (Chris Hemsworth) who commits a string of jewellery heists along the 101 coastal highway. Hot on his pursuit is jaded LA detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo).

The interplay between thief and detective (not to mention the LA setting) has already seen it earn comparisons to Michael Mann’s Heat. It is perhaps hard to judge a film on its own merits when comparing it to such an imitated and acclaimed film. There is plenty of unique DNA in Crime 101 with a broader ensemble that consists of Halle Berry’s Sharon, a frustrated insurance broker who is drawn into Mike’s world and a key figure in proceedings. Monica Barbaro also impresses in a smaller role as Maya, Mike’s love interest.

Having such a strong ensemble across the board ensures the film is always watchable. Layton has made an incredibly stylish thriller here with breakneck car chases and plenty of suspenseful moments. If there is one weak link in the cast, it is Barry Keoghan’s Ormon, an unhinged biker criminal who shows up throughout, but is afforded far less development than the other cast members. As such his moments can feel tonally jarring. Layton impressively manages to stretch the 60-page novella to 2 hours 20, but in truth, it is possibly 10-15 minutes too long. Even with so much more substance than Winslow’s source material, the spirit and tone are retained which looks set to be the start of a string of adaptations of the author’s work.

Crime 101 is an incredibly stylish, action-packed, cat-and-mouse thriller. Hemsworth and Ruffalo’s performances keep us invested and form its backbone with the ever dependable Halle Berry a fine foil for the pair. This feels like the kind of film that would have been a huge smash in the 1990s or early 2000s with plenty of style and panache to separate it from other thrillers of a similar ilk. It does enough to emerge from the shadow of Heat, Thief and other Michael Mann films it has earned comparisons to.