February 14, 2026
by Carla Hay
Directed by Bart Layton
Some language in Arabic with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in the Los Angeles area and briefly in California’s Santa Barbara, the dramatic film “Crime 101” (based on the novella of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A mysterious jewel thief is hunted by police, gets unexpected competition from another thief, starts a tentative romance with a publicity assistant, and meets an insurance agent who is at a crossroads in her career.
Culture Audience: “Crime 101” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the novella on which the movie is based, and twist-filled crime dramas where the principal characters eventually cross paths or are connected to each other in some way.
“Crime 101” is a suspenseful thriller that doesn’t always have credible scenarios but has credible characters. The movie’s story about jewelry heists doesn’t just focus on cops and robbers but also has the perspective of an insurance agent. It’s a stylish and solid drama that has overt messaging about some of the toxic things that can happen when people’s self-esteem is deeply embedded in their career achievements or income levels, and they turn to committing crimes, as their inner happiness remains elusive.
Written and directed by Bart Layton, “Crime 101” is based on Don Winslow’s 2021 novella of the same name. The movie takes place in the Los Angeles area, where “Crime 101” was filmed on location. “Crime 101” also has some scenes that take place in Santa Barbara. It’s the type of movie that juggles various storylines for multiple characters without making the story jumbled. However, viewers with short attention spans need patience to see how all these storylines converge in the end.
“Crime 101” begins and ends with an unidentified voice of a yoga instructor giving life-affirming and confidence-boosting messages. It’s the movie’s way of showing that all the movie’s principal characters could use some of this self-help advice because they are emotionally broken inside in some way, but they are doing what they can to survive. Most of the movie’s principal characters seek validation through their work and/or their income level.
The movie’s opening sequence shows a man with the last name Davis (played by Chris Hemsworth, one of the producers of “Crime 101”) preparing to do what he’s been doing for the past several years: stealing jewelry from a jewelry dealer. Davis’ heists are worth a few million dollars each. Davis (who is in his early 40s) is tall, good-looking and can easily look like someone who belongs in the wealthy groups of people whom he enjoys robbing.
Davis’ method of operation is to pretend to be a security driver hired to transport a jewelry dealer who’s carrying high-priced jewelry somewhere. Davis does this impersonation through meticulous research in finding out in advance who the real driver is and the route the driver will take on the day of the jewelry transportation. Davis (wearing a ski mask) then incapacitates the driver in some way, such as kidnapping the driver and putting him in the trunk of the stolen car that Davis is driving. Davis takes any phones and weapons that the driver might have.
Davis steals the driver’s car and then pretends to be the driver to pick up his crime target. He then robs the target at gunpoint and steals the jewelry while still wearing his mask. He drives to a parking garage, where he makes his escape in another car that he pre-planned to be the getaway car. Davis has blue eyes and wears brown contact lenses during these robberies, in order to further disguise his identity.
Davis always commits these robberies near the 101 Freeway (which is why the story is called “Crime 101”), so he can make a quick getaway on the freeway instead of taking a risker route on surface streets. Another characteristic of this mysterious thief is that even though he points a gun at his theft victims to get them to do what he wants, he never physically hurts his victims. This reluctance to commit violence is rare for a thief who always robs people at gunpoint.
Davis commits his jewelry heists by himself, but he has been mentored by an elderly criminal nicknamed Money (played by Nick Nolte), who gets a cut of whatever Davis steals. Gravelly-voiced and cantankerous Money usually provides information to Davis on jewelers who could possibly be the next theft victims. If Davis wants to take the job, it’s up to Davis to plan the theft.
A conversation between Davis and Money reveals that Davis is starting to feel disillusioned by this unbalanced partnership because Davis is doing all the dirty work, while Money gets a percentage of Davis’ heist haul without Money taking any risks. Money tries to maintain control by shouting at Davis that Davis would be nowhere without Money. This conversation takes place in a restaurant/bar, which isn’t the smartest thing to do if they want to keep this type of criminal alliance a secret.
And who is Davis? The beginning of the movie shows that he’s a bachelor with no kids, and he lives by himself. He’s a loner with no known family or friends. Even though he’s stolen jewelry worth millions of dollars per haul, the movie never actually shows Davis selling the jewelry or getting any cash from the sales.
Davis isn’t a big, flashy spender because he doesn’t call attention to the fortune he has. He lives a vaguely affluent life, but he doesn’t look over-the-top wealthy. For example, he seems to be living in hotels and isn’t spending his money on mansions and yachts.
Davis’ only noticeable spending indulgence is the fact that he has several cars. His prized car possession is a dark green 1968 Chevrolet Camaro. (He’s a big fan of Steve McQueen’s 1968 movie “Bullitt,” which features this type of car.) When necessary, Davis likes to drive like a professional racer. It’s the only time he really “shows off” that he has racing skills when driving at dangerous speeds.
Davis’ jewelry heists have left the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) baffled. Most of the police investigators think these robberies are being done by several thieves who do not work together. However, one LAPD detective named Lou Lubesnick (played by Mark Ruffalo) has an unpopular theory: He thinks all the robberies were committed by a thief working alone.
Lou is somewhat of a non-conformist who isn’t afraid to stand up for what he thinks is right, even if it means many of his cop colleagues will end up disliking him. It’s mentioned in the movie that Lou’s blunt and outspoken style is the reason why he’s been passed over for job promotions. Lou’s stubborn refusals to back down from his “lone wolf” theory about the jewelry thefts have turned him into a pariah among his colleagues. Later in the movie, it’s shown that Lou takes big risks to prove his theory.
Lou’s cop partner Detective Tillman (played by Corey Hawkins) tells Lou that people in the LAPD have advised Tillman to find another cop partner if Tillman wants to advance in his career. Lou’s police captain boss, whose last name is Stewart (played by Matthew Del Negro), reminds Lou that some of the jewelry thefts that Lou thinks the “lone wolf” committed are considered solved cases by the LAPD because suspects have already been arrested. Captain Stewart tells Lou that if Lou continues to push this “lone wolf” theory, it will undermine the credibility of his colleagues who worked on the “solved” cases.
Meanwhile, the jewelry dealer who was robbed in the movie’s opening scene has filed a $7 million insurance claim for the theft. His name is Samir “Sammy” Kasem (played by Payman Maadi), who was with his cousin Ali (played by Babak Tafti) when they were robbed at gunpoint by Davis. The insurance company handling Sammy’s claim is Laidlaw & Vile, where the insurance agent overseeing the investigation ends up getting involved in Davis’ life of crime.
Sharon Coombs (played by Halle Berry) is a 53-year-old bachelorette who’s been an insurance agent at Laidlaw & Vile for the past 11 years. She has risen through the ranks of the company through hard work and talent. But lately, she’s been frustrated with her bosses, who have delayed the promise that she would be promoted to partner of the firm. This delay has been going on for about a year. Sharon’s immediate supervisor Mark (played by Paul Adelstein), who is a partner in the firm, is very condescending to Sharon about this delay.
Sharon is first seen in the movie as she’s trying to close a deal to insure the jewelry and valuable art of a billionaire technology mogul named Steven Monroe (played by Tate Donovan) at his mansion. The meeting is somewhat awkward. First, because Steven pressures Sharon to fire a glock on his property for target practice and says he’ll close the deal if she hits the target. Sharon has never fired a gun before, but she hits the target on her first try.
Steven looks like he might be close to signing the deal near the mansion’s swimming pool. But then, things get awkward again. When a bikini-clad young woman named Adrienne (played by Andra Nechita) walks by to lounge at the pool, Sharon mistakenly assumes that Adrienne is Steven’s daughter. Steven coldly tells Sharon that Adrienne is actually his fiancée.
Sharon tries to distract from her mistake by suggesting that Steven hire Laidlaw & Vile to also insure Steven’s upcoming wedding. But the insulted expression on Steven’s face tells Sharon that she’s lost her chance to convince him to close this deal with Sharon. Sharon is too proud to admit it to her insurance colleagues during a time when she’s trying to become partner in the firm. And so, she uses the excuse that she’s still working on closing the deal.
Later, during a work meeting in a conference room, Sharon is dismayed when a newly hired insurance agent in her 20s named Madeleine (played by Crosby Fitzgerald) is assigned to close the deal with Steven. As Sharon comments later in the movie, she knows her bosses think young, attractive Madeleine will be better at “closing the deal” because Madeleine’s physical appearance is being used as “bait” for a potential client such as Steve. Sharon is given the less-lucrative assignment of investigating the insurance claim made by Sammy.
This insurance claim is how Sharon ends up meeting Lou. She wants to know if the police believe that the theft is legitimate and not a scam concocted to get insurance money. Sharon also mentions that Laidlaw & Vile might want to give Sammy a polygraph test to see if he’s telling the truth about the theft not being insurance fraud.
Meanwhile, Davis (who uses the first name Mike, but it’s not his real first name) unexpectedly gets a romantic interest when a bachelorette in her mid-to-late 30s named Maya (played by Monica Barbaro) accidentally rear-ends his car when he suddenly stops on a street. Davis offers to pay Maya a wad of cash to get her car fixed without reporting it to any insurance companies.
Maya says that the car she’s driving is actually owned by her boss, an entertainment publicist who represents actors and musicians. Maya insists that she and Davis “go through the proper channels” by reporting the accident to insurance companies. During this conversation, Maya and Davis have an obvious attraction to each other. They exchange contact information.
It isn’t long before Davis asks Maya out to dinner for their first date. She says yes, and the relationship turns into a romance. Davis has told Maya that he works in computer technology and travels a lot for work. When she asks him where he’s from, he tells her he’s lived in several different places, but he doesn’t go into details.
Davis is extremely vague about his personal background to everyone he meets in this story. Predictably, Maya gets more and more suspicious about what Davis might be hiding. She first became suspicious when he took out a large sum of cash as an offer not to report the car accident.
As Davis’ love life is heating up, Lou’s love life is in shambles. His wife Angie (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh), who’s in the movie for less than 10 minutes, admits that she’s cheated on him, and she tells Lou that she wants a separation from Lou. Angie offers to move out of their home, but Lou is so distraught, he is the one who says he’ll move out. He takes a pet cat with him and moves into an apartment.
Meanwhile, Davis will find out that he has unwelcome competition. His soon-to-be-estranged mentor Money offered Davis a heist job at a jewelry store in Santa Barbara, but Davis adamantly refused to do the job because Davis thinks it would be too risky and because he thinks people could get physically hurt. Money assigns the Santa Barbara robbery to another protégé named Ormon (played by Barry Keoghan), who is in his early 30s.
Davis and Ormon are opposites, in terms of their personalities and methods of committing crimes. Davis is level-headed and calculating and doesn’t believe in physically hurting his victims. Ormon is an impulsive hothead who doesn’t hesitate to get violent during his crimes.
When Money recruits Ormon for the Santa Barbara robbery, he uses a psychological tactic of telling Ormon that this assignment will be Ormon’s chance to prove he can be just as great as Ormon’s father. Who is Ormon’s father? The movie doesn’t answer this question, but it’s an indication that Money targets younger men with family problems to be his protégés. Davis fits that description, as a little more (but not a lot) of his personal background is revealed in the movie.
Ormon is eventually ordered by Money to stalk Davis and rob Davis of whatever Davis steals in Davis’ next heist. Davis notices that Ormon is stalking him. And it’s the first time that Davis becomes very unrattled. It leads to an intense car chase and a confrontation where Davis shows he has a violent side to him.
All of these various storylines are quite a lot to handle for this 139-minute movie. Some of “Crime 101” is fast-paced (especially in the adrenaline-pumping action scenes), but during other times, the movie pace comes dangerously close to being tedious. A few of the supporting characters (such as Detective Tillman and Maya) are underdeveloped, but the cast members portraying these characters still do a good job in these roles.
The romance of Davis and Maya shows Davis’ vulnerable side. Instead of being a stereotypical swaggering ladies’ man, Davis is actually shy with women, which is a hint that he’s not very experienced with dating and romantic relationships. An early scene in the movie shows him hesitantly interacting with a sex worker named Lisa (played by Hanako Footman), who substitutes for the sex worker he regularly sees.
But some things in “Crime 101” just don’t ring true, particularly when Lou makes a decision that permanently alters his career. Let’s just say that it would be hard to do what Lou does in the last third of the movie without the LAPD knowing about it. And the movie has a scene where Maya gets upset with Davis because he hasn’t told her anything about his personal background, but she hasn’t revealed much about herself either.
As already shown in the “Crime 101” trailer, Sharon happens to meet Davis when they’re waiting outside a restaurant for parking valets to bring them their respective cars. You can easily predict how Sharon gets involved in Davis’ secret life, considering she feels overworked and underappreciated at her job. “Crime 101” doesn’t glamorize her questionable decision, but the movie doesn’t really show her being held accountable for those decisions either.
Even though Ruffalo and Berry portray the characters who have the most unrealistic storylines in “Crime 101,” their performances are the best in the movie in portraying these flawed characters. They also have the best dialogue in the movie. Davis is still a mystery by the end of the movie, which doesn’t really show or tell how long Davis has been a criminal and what motivated him to turn to a life of crime. And therefore, Hemsworth is just playing a typical enigmatic anti-hero.
Keoghan and Nolte have roles as menacing villains who would be cartoonish if not for the talent of Keoghan and Nolte in portraying them as believable people. Still, the movie doesn’t tell much about Ormon and Money, whose only purpose in the story is to become the main antagonists of Davis. As for tech billionaire Steven (who ends up becoming a big part of the movie’s climactic scenes), he’s a cliché of an arrogant rich jerk, so Donovan doesn’t have much to work with for a nuanced portrayal of this character.
On the surface, “Crime 101” could be viewed as just another crime thriller, but the movie has a deeper meaning in showing how anyone’s obsession with getting the exterior and materialistic trappings of “success” can rot a person’s soul on the inside. And although the movie has obvious villains in thugs such as Ormon and Money, “Crime 101” also has something to say about the villainy and corruption among those who want profits at the expense of other people suffering. “Crime 101” has a very Hollywood ending, but the movie is realistic in showing that money obtained from crimes doesn’t really make anyone truly happy and can often create its own type of personal hell of paranoia and emotional isolation.
Amazon MGM Studios released “Crime 101” in U.S. cinemas on February 13, 2026. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on February 9, 2026.
