Mix a splash of The Driver (Walter Hill, 1978), a pinch of The Thomas Crown Affair (John McTiernan, 1999) and a big cup of Heat (Michael Mann, 1995) and you will get Crime 101a delightful action thriller that combines suspense, psychology and captivating car chases and which marks British filmmaker Bart Layton’s place in the great tradition of neo-noir detective films of the late 20th century.e century.
Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth) is an efficient jewel thief, whose charm is matched only by the surgical precision with which he carries out his operations. However, the pattern of his crimes, all perpetrated along the famous 101 freeway in Los Angeles, is spotted by Detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), an honest and intelligent police officer on the verge of losing faith in the institution he serves.
Everything becomes complicated when one of Mike Davis’s operations goes wrong, and the blues take hold of him. His boss, Money (Nick Nolte), decides to test a recruit, Ormon (Barry Keoghan), an unpredictable and impulsive young man who drives a noisy motorcycle and who does not hesitate to be brutal to achieve his ends.
Determined to make the final strike that will allow him to leave his life of crime behind, Mike collaborates with Sharon (Halle Berry), an insurance agent disillusioned by an environment rife with sexism and ageism. As the four protagonists converge on an inevitable confrontation, the roles are reversed and mixed, leading each character into a reflection on the choices and actions that define them and on their conception of good and evil, wealth and success.
Even if he never achieves the mastery of his models, Bart Layton has the merit here of offering a film like no other: an original story, not taken from any metaverse, with antiheroes, each more charismatic than the other for whom we cannot help but fall for.
Like Mann, who forged the flaws of his protagonists in what connected them to life – love, family -, the director of Crime 101 also offers a reflection on what unites its characters, namely, here, disappointment with the environment they serve. This idea provides an interesting gateway to a critique of capitalism, the incessant quest for wealth, the corruption of the police environment, class and gender inequalities.
Everything often threatens to sink into didacticism, but the filmmaker makes sure to maintain the pace, notably thanks to exciting car chase scenes, which give pride of place to the contrasting setting of Los Angeles, and to felt and tense clashes between his different protagonists.
The production and photo direction remain fairly classic, and are probably hampered by the film’s destiny of being mainly seen on the small screen – Amazon Prime obliges. The exciting storyline could still have benefited from tightening up, greater generosity towards the female characters and a less candy-pink finale. The director is, however, well served by an impressive line-up of actors and a fabulous job of casting the roles.
date: 2026-02-13 05:04:00
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