By George & Josh Bate
Despite flying woefully under the radar and getting caught up in the whole MoviePass debacle, Bart Layton’s American Animals was one of 2018’s best movies. Sophisticated, well-acted, and unconventionally blending real-life and actors, the movie established Layton as a filmmaker to look out for, after previously impressing with the documentary The Imposter. It’s taken eight years for Layton to make a follow-up and, once again, the English writer and director dabbles in the world of crime and heists, albeit on a decidedly grander scale this time around. The result is another exquisitely constructed crime thriller, one that embraces its LA setting and Heat-influences but disappointingly lacks personality and overstays its welcome.
Based on the novella of the same name by Don Winslow, Crime 101 stars Chris Hemsworth as Mike Davis, an expert thief who carries out calculated heists along the 101 freeway in Los Angeles without harming anyone. Hot on his tail is Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), an LAPD detective determined to catch him after months of being doubted by his colleagues, and Ormon (Barry Keoghan), a vicious motorcycle rider working for crime lord Money (Nick Nolte). When his latest heist intersects with the business of insurance broker Sharon Colvin (Halle Berry), Mike finds his carefully constructed life, including his new girlfriend Maya (Monica Barbaro), at risk.
Set amidst the grit and sunshine of Los Angeles, Crime 101 has all the trappings of a refined crime thriller. Layton’s keen eye for shot composition from American Animals carries over here to bring an aesthetically magnificent film to life. Sprawling shots of LA freeways at night, gorgeous frames of California beaches, and the juxtaposition of LA’s opulence and seedy underbelly make Crime 101 an atmospheric and immersive viewing experience, not dissimilar from the admittedly far superior Michael Mann heist movie it inevitably draws comparisons too. Add to that an epic, propulsive score by Blanck Mass and kinetic, dynamic directing of chase sequences and heists and Layton ensures that, even as his screenplay falters, that interest in his film never entirely depletes.
Where Crime 101 begins to falter is with its cast of characters. Leading the pack is Chris Hemsworth’s stoic and meticulous thief Mike Davis. When undertaking heists, Mike is precise and unrelenting, but, in his personal life, he is quiet, awkward, and overly serious. It’s clear that Layton and Hemsworth wanted to create a character not dissimilar from Ryan Gosling’s in Drive, someone with a massive heart and incredible empathy that doesn’t show his warmer side due to his dark past and current profession. The problem is that the story surrounding Hemsworth’s character leaves little room for his inner kindness to show itself, leaving audiences with a character almost entirely devoid of personality. Shrouded in mystery for much of the film, Mike’s origins underwhelm when they are eventually revealed to the audience and cap off an uninteresting journey for our leading man. Rather than intriguing the viewer like Gosling in Drive, Hemsworth in Crime 101 more so teeters on boring the audience.
Things don’t get much better with Hemsworth’s adversary, played by fellow MCU veteran Mark Ruffalo. The Academy Award nominated actor could play a cop character like Lou in his sleep, but his natural charm and comfort with this type of character can’t elevate his performance above and beyond thin writing. There are attempts at adding personality to Lou, such as a side gag about him pursuing yoga and the fact that he drives a shitty car (much to the chagrin of his partner played by Corey Hawkins), but, for the most part, Lou is a cookie-cutter crime caper cop character.
The film’s third lead, also played by a Marvel movie veteran, is Halle Berry. Unlike Hemsworth and Ruffalo’s characters, however, Berry’s Sharon Colvin has an interesting and relevant character arc to witness. Sharon has been working at a high-end insurance company for years but has been repeatedly denied a promotion to partner that she has been promised. Her male superiors ogle over her new younger female colleague and openly encourage women to flirt with their wealthy clients to secure deals. When Sharon pushes against the status quo, the niceties from her boss drop and she is met with claims that, at the age of 53, her time in the industry is dwindling as the sex appeal to her male clients lessens. In exploring this angle of Sharon, the film examines ageism and sexism with unexpected care and nuance and makes Berry’s character, an otherwise peripheral figure to the story, surprisingly interesting.
Although absent of the depth of Berry’s character, Barry Keoghan’s menacing Ormon also adds much-needed personality to the mix. Sporting bleached blond hair, a pink rider jacket, and a myriad of tattoos, Ormon is unsettling to say the least. While Hemsworth’s Mike conducts heists with a clear intent to not harm, Ormon callously goes about his business and carelessly puts others in harm’s way. It’s easy to see why Matt Reeves cast Keoghan as the Joker in his Batman films as his turn as Ormon evokes the unpredictability, impulsivity, and threat of DC’s Clown Prince.
Despite the relative strength of Berry and Keoghan’s characters, Crime 101 lulls with an overly long and meandering second act. A lifeless romance with a wasted Monica Barbaro slows the film down considerably, while, unlike most heist movies, the second act does little to effectively set up the big final heist. Instead, this middle portion drags and makes one really feel the length of the film’s bulky 140 minute runtime.
When the third act kicks in, Crime 101 recovers from its second act lull, although its brisker pacing is not accompanied by an interesting-enough heist. Forgiving the need for trimming would have been easier had the final heist worked in regards to its intensity and twists. That’s not the case, however, as, aside from an awaited Heat-lite meeting between Hemsworth and Ruffalo’s characters, the finale underwhelms and resolves with far too many convenient, unearned endings for the characters.
VERDICT: 6/10
American Animals filmmaker Bart Layton returns to the heist genre for an exquisitely constructed old-school LA crime thriller that, while commendably embracing its LA setting and Heat influences, lacks personality and overstays its welcome. Set amidst the grit and sunshine of Los Angeles, Crime 101 has all the trappings of a refined crime thriller, with sprawling night shots of LA freeways and beautiful juxtapositions of LA’s opulence and seedy underbelly. Unfortunately, the film’s aesthetic brilliance is not matched by its bland cast of characters, headlined by a stoic and personality-less Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo’s cookie-cutter cop character. Halle Berry intrigues more with a character that unexpectedly gives way to nuanced commentary on ageism and sexism. Meanwhile, Barry Keoghan brings a menace and unpredictability to his portrayal as the violent biker Ormon. Despite the relative strengths of Berry and Keoghan’s characters, however, Crime 101 lulls with a meandering second act before culminating in an underwhelming final heist. Bart Layton may not have outdone his previous foray in the world of heist and crime thrillers, but he certainly demonstrates a penchant for atmosphere, shot composition, and kinetic directing, which, for the most part, help keep Crime 101 afloat amidst a flawed screenplay.