Prime Time: Crime 101 (2026)

I doubt there will be any other movie this year that will have a more suitable descriptive title than Crime 101. It's not a terrible film, but it's very easy to figure out as you watch every piece being slowly moved into place. 

Chris Hemsworth plays Mike, a man who has become very adept at committing non-violent robberies within the general area of the 101 freeway. Nobody else really suspects all of his crimes are connected, apart from one determined cop (Mark Ruffalo). There's a big job looming on the horizon, one that could be classed as one last job, but Mike will need the help of a disgruntled insurance broker (Halle Berry), as well as a good bit of luck. His fence (Nick Nolte) is also working against Mike at this point, trying to make use of a young violent lad (Barry Keoghan) who has a very different approach to his work.

Written and directed by Bart Layton, based on a novella by Don Winslow, this is, as I am sure you have seen mentioned elsewhere, very much Heat-lite. You have the professional criminal, the flawed but dogged cop, the woman (Monica Barbaro) who comes into the life of the criminal and makes him consider what he might do with the next stage of his life, and the unhinged crook able to turn a good thing into a huge mess with one bad decision. There's a bit more to it, but nothing that is any further removed from the pages of a book entitled "Writing Crime 101". Of course.

I would say that everything here is fine, when it comes to the actual production, but that wouldn't be strictly true. Layton knows the tropes that he wants to make use of, but he doesn't put enough care into crafting them. When Hemsworth starts to become interested in Barbaro's character it quickly becomes harder to believe than any of the well-executed criminal plans. The same goes for the numerous moments that show our main character making far too obvious mistakes for someone who has maintained a successful streak for so many years.

Hemsworth is decent in the main role, often going through the motions with very little going on behind his eyes. He's focused on the jobs, or focused on not being caught after the jobs are done, and his behaviour conveys that, whether he's being flustered or managing to maintain his cool. Ruffalo plays the kind of Columbo-esque character that I feel he's already played quite a few times before this, whether as a part of the police or in the world of journalism, and he can do it effortlessly. Keoghan is great, despite how irritating and careless his character is, and Berry has a couple of scenes that really allow her to sink her teeth into things in a way that is missing from the rest of the film. Barbaro is pleasant enough, Nolte does what Nolte does, and there's just about enough time for scenes that include Tate Donovan, Corey Hawkins, Paul Adelstein, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, the latter in the film for such a bewilderingly short amount of time that I admit I spent a good 5-10 minutes asking myself "WAS that Jennifer Jason Leigh?"

There are a few decent vehicle stunts and a satisfying resolution for most of the characters, but the 140-minute runtime is a bit of a slog, especially when you get to the point where you can see how all of the characters are going to interconnect and affect one another during the final act.

6/10

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American Animals (2018)

Based on a bizarre true story, American Animals presents viewers with arguably the most incompetent heist in modern times. The film boasts a couple of excellent lead performances, and is helped by the way in which it intercuts the fictionalised depiction of the planning and execution of the crime with comments from the real people involved.

Evan Peters and Barry Keoghan are, respectively, Warren Lipka and Spencer Reinhard, two young men who come up with a half-assed plan to steal some very valuable books from a university library. They rope in two friends, Eric Borsuk (played by Jared Abrahamson) and Chas Allen (played by Blake Jenner), and rush to put their plan into effect, which is when one thing after another starts to go wrong.

I know that nobody ever believes me when I say no pun intended but, honestly, there's no other way I can think of continuing this review without asserting that American Animals is a strange beast indeed. The comments from Lipka and co. often feel like an opportunity for them to somehow deflect responsibility away from themselves, although the juxtaposition is also used to comedic effect when someone wants to point out that they recollect things differently to the way they are being shown. It's a tightrope, tonally, that is skilfully handled by writer-director Bart Layton (nicely blending the narrative with footage more in line with his documentary background - be sure to check out the similarly murky waters of The Imposter).

Peters and Keoghan both do great work, one being far more confident in his abilities than he should be while the other is a bag of nerves at every step of the way, and Abrahamson and Jenner are good fits in their roles. Both Ann Dowd and Betty Jean Gooch (the person Dowd portrays) deserve a special mention, the main librarian who also became the central human victim of the crime, and her participation on the film helps to serves as another reminder that, despite how farcical it became, this was a crime that had consequences.

It's easy to understand why some might view this as something slightly distasteful, especially during the first half, but I would encourage people to watch it, and stick with it. It eventually peels away the layers of optimism and fake attempts to seem confident and cool, showing that this was nothing more than a group of young adults who took a stupid idea too far. The pain resulting from the crime may have not seemed obvious to them at the time, being far too concerned with making a success of their plan and evading capture, but it soon starts to sink in, both in terms of the one person they traumatised directly and the way they shocked and upset their families.

Part comedy, part crime film, part documentary, all astonishing, American Animals is well worth your time. It doesn't glorify the people involved, but it does allow themselves to try and paint things in a better light before the weight of the reality of the situation pushes them further and further down, forcing contemplation and re-evaluation of how they view(ed) themselves.

8/10

American Animals is available to buy here.
Americans can buy it here.