Crime 101 (2026) Review
Crime 101 (2026)
By Ian M
Crime 101 is a perfectly passable heist movie, and that’s not a bad thing.
The working lives of a thief, an insurance broker, and a police detective intertwine as the former plans one final heist and escape from his life of crime.
Written and directed by Bart Layton and based on the novella by Don Winslow, there is a lot to like here, even if it is fairly forgettable. Layton continues his crusade of becoming an auteur of the crime-heist, building on the foundations laid in 2018’s American Animals. While the genres play in the same park, that’s where the comparisons between the two end, as by taking on a work of fiction this time around, Layton loses the unpredictability of American Animals true to life events.
Despite being fairly inert, Layton has managed to keep a sense of authenticity to events, trying desperately to anchor the movie in ‘real’ people. There is a moment in the film where our main protagonist, Davis recites a story of watching Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair. You quickly realise the movie isn’t trying to be a Thomas Crown Affair clone, but rather about a down on his luck kid, who watched The Thomas Crown Affair film and saw it as a life lesson. It’s about the circumstances that lead to the crime as much as it's about the crime itself, and it's this that grounds the movie in a way that sees you empathise with the characters much more than in other heist movies.
Maybe it's in the writing, or perhaps in the way the film is shot, but there is a palpable texture to the film. Layton avoids overindulging in the genre, by keeping things to a minimum. There are car chases, but it doesn’t cause a 10 car pile up on the motorway. There are hold-ups, but they don’t end up in shoot-outs. I’ve heard comparisons made between this and Michael Mann’s Heat, and while it's an apt comparison, Crime 101 is grounded more than Mann’s genre tentpole, making you less interested in the action as a spectacle, and more as an exercise in tension. This feels like our world, and the littlest of action set pieces hit harder as a result.
The cast is stacked with some serious names, and they all pull their weight here. All performances are on point, Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry and Mark Ruffalo are solid in their roles, and Barry Keoghan, who previously worked with Layton on American Animals, also has a strong turn here too. The support cast is massive, with the likes of Nick Nolte, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tate Donovan showing up and chewing it up whenever they can. Not bad for a mid budget crime-caper. Where there is an issue however, and a rather big one, is with the casting of our lead. Hemsworth is more than capable in the role, but he is an odd choice given the roll calls for personality traits the actor just doesn’t seem to have. Sure, some may say that is acting, and that all films call for a suspension of disbelief; but this feels like Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher - a capable actor, and good in the role, but doesn’t quite fit.
The early months of the year are often violated by a slate of films that don’t quite hit the mark. Often seen as a dumping ground, or worse still, a graveyard for what will eventually be a company tax write-off, it's nice to see a decent film brighten up the February box office. I would be surprised to see this in anyone’s top 10 of the year, but there is a sleeper hit here that will have a long life as a Friday night couch movie, with a big box of popcorn.