Crime 101 (2026) [Movie Review] — A Neo-Noir Heist That Delivers Style and Soul

Movie: Crime 101

Director: Bart Layton

Adapted from a novel by: Don Winslow

Cast highlights: Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Peter Banifaz, Babak Tafti, Payman Maadi, Halle Berry, Nick Nolte, Monica Barbaro, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Andra Nechita.

Setting: along the arteries of Los Angeles around the famed US Highway 101.

Rating: ★★★⯪☆ (3.5/5)

Synopsis — lean, noir-tinged storytelling

A heist-thriller that trusts the audience to fill in the blanks.

Crime 101 opens in medias res: a lithe, professional thief (Mike Davis) disrupts a criminal exchange and finds himself out of step with his patron, a shadowy underworld king known as Money. Parallel to the thief’s nocturnal routes are the obsessions of a detective who has spent years tracing a phantom burglar, and an insurance adjuster tasked with fixing the financial and moral mess left in the wake of the robberies. The screenplay steadily knots these lives together, privileging mood and character over plot-by-numbers exposition.

Performances — quietly powerful work

Star wattage used for depth, not just spectacle.

The lead’s silence is the film’s strongest tool: our thief is more posture than proclamation, a man whose outer confidence barely contains a long history of class anxiety and private scarcity. The detective is an offbeat, empathetic study in obsession, quietly funny and morally stubborn; his domestic life adds weight to his choices without ever diverting the plot. The insurance adjuster—career-driven, wry, and under pressure—supplies the film’s best moral confrontation. The supporting cast — notably a dangerously charismatic young upstart and an old-school crime patriarch — give the world texture and menace. Female characters are treated with surprising complexity for a big-budget crime picture; they live beyond plot function, which gives the film emotional traction.

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Direction & Look — Layton wears his influences proudly

Neo-noir cinematography and two spectacular car chases.

The direction nods to Michael Mann’s urban cool and the taut kineticism of 1970s car-thrillers, but it never feels like imitation. Layton’s camera renders the city as a character: neon, asphalt, and private wealth sit on top of visible precarity. Two car-set pieces are staged with real menace and a tactile sense of speed; they’re the movie’s action peaks and earned, not gratuitous. Cinematography bathes familiar streets in noir colors, turning routine L.A. vistas into places of dark possibility.

Themes & Writing — class, fate, and the illusion of individuality

An unexpectedly political crime film that asks who pays for other people’s choices.

At heart, the film is preoccupied with connection: how private aims ripple across public life, and how a cult of individuality can become a social toxin. The adaptation keeps the novel’s moral appetite while tightening scenes for cinematic momentum. Conversations about fate, choice, and social mobility thread through the heists and interrogations, giving the picture an emotional center beyond spectacle.

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Verdict — a modern heist with old-school heart

Not flawless, but often thrilling and emotionally resonant.

Crime 101 is an accomplished genre piece: stylish, thoughtful, and anchored by layered performances. It occasionally lingers too long in melancholy and could tighten a subplot or two, but those are small quibbles beside a movie that still manages to surprise with genuine feeling. For viewers who love neo-noir atmospheres, character-driven crime dramas, and intelligent adaptations, this one’s worth the ride.