movie review: crime 101

Heist and diced: Crime 101 (Bart Layton, 2026)
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Heist movies are so trope-laden these days that it’s become something of a weary format. Seven years ago, since when any number of such movies have darkened our screens, the TV cartoon Rick and Morty savagely lampooned the limping genre. “The only perfect heist is one that was never written,” is one relatable summary of the episode. 

In the year of Our Lord 2026, Director Bart Layton is in for one last job, though. Well, a job, anyway. Pleasingly, Layton takes the DNA of such capers and adapts this LA thriller (from a novella by Don Winslow) with originality enough to avoid cliche. It also helps that his assembled cast has the charisma to avoid a slide into mediocrity. 

Mike (Chris Hemsworth) is a lone conman/thief, working for a craggy old cove, and his mentor, known as Money (Nick Nolte). Disheveled, divorce-strewn, Detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), the only LAPD cop with any integrity, takes note of his jewellery store robbery patterns, and starts investigating in his puppy-dog, Columbo-esque style.

Meanwhile, Mike is having doubts after a botched job and is replaced for a big diamond score by Money with an unpredictable, motorcycle-riding maniac Ormon (Barry Keoghan). Mike has also met a woman (Monica Barbaro) that he can only romance by faking normalcy. This situation is strained by his new plan: persuade put-upon insurance agent Sharon (Halle Berry) to give him inside info about a high-worth individual that he can rob, take the money, win the girl and become daddy’s, sorry Money’s, special boy again. 

The less we reveal about the twists and turns, the better. The plot is pacey enough, replete with equal parts action, emotion and an engaging rivalry (unheated) that pitches Mike’s tempered control against Ormon’s feral lunacy. Listen, any expansion on the ‘Barry Keoghan playing a weird little freak’ universe is alright by me. 

I might have misread things, but I thought that Mike was heavily autism-coded for the first hour (straightening cutlery, multiple mentions of his lack of eye contact, etc), but that element seemed to be weirdly dropped. Not that important, I just felt a slight shift in his character that added to the more uneven aspects of the plot. 

Ruffalo and Berry especially have great chemistry, and their half of the story was more engaging to me as they wade through the mire of low pay and abusive disrespect from their bosses. Crime 101 felt to me like a Michael Mann film, but directed by Steven Soderberg (can we call it a Steven Fauxderberg? Probably not, right?). It’s slick, but with a heart. OK, OK, FINE, Bart Layton. I’m in. But this is the last time. (PO)

Crime 101 is playing at cinemas across the city.