Crime 101

Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth

Bart Layton's Crime 101 is the most satisfying noir in some time. Layton has relied heavily, but not slavishly, on Don Winslow's sleek and superb novella. A number of critics have compared this new film to Michael Mann's Heat, but the surface similarities between the two films, both are LA based heist flicks, are simply that. Heat, like most Michael Mann films, is focused on the mythos of machismo. I revere Heat, but, frankly, that daylight robbery of the bearer bonds or whatever the hell they were is ludicrous. Now I enjoy the kinetic rush of the sequence, but it is not, in any way, a realistic portrayal of how and where to go about an armed robbery. Nevertheless, the whole tone of the film is mythic rather than realistic, so why carp. Winslow's novella and Layton's film(s) are more interested in realistic characterization than mythic figures. At the end of Heat, the cop upholds his duty and nails the perp. That is not what happens at the end of Crime 101. The cop in the Layton film knows the beast of societal justice must be fed, but he ultimately follows his own code.

Every character in Crime 101 masks his true self. This Layton makes plain in the scene in which Halle Berry goes through her daily make-up routine. One's true self is irrelevant to one's success in society. This is as true for the cop (Mark Ruffalo) as it is for the insurance agent (Ms. Berry) and thief (Chris Hemsworth). It is when these character put down the masks they have constructed for themselves that they can find a sense of commonality. The main problem I have with this movie is Chris Hemsworth. He's ok when the mask is in place, but he telegraphs his character's moments of vulnerability. Think of Brad Pitt in this role and you might see what I mean. I also felt that Nick Nolte's performance is disastrous. It was like watching Willie Mays when he played for the Mets. Otherwise, the ensemble is superbly cast and at the top of their game. Excellent work from Ms. Berry, Mr. Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Tate Donovan, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The score by Blanck Mass is spine tinglingly effective without being obtrusive.

The Best of Robert Duvall

1931 -- 202

                                     To this day, I still think Lonesome Dove was my best part.

1)     Lonesome Dove                                       Simon Wincer, etc.                                   1989

2)     Apocalypse Now                                      Francis Ford Coppola                              1979

3)     The Great Santini                                    Lewis John Carlino                                  1979

4)     Tomorrow                                                 Joseph Anthony                                       1972

5)     Colors                                                       Dennis Hopper                                         1988

6)     The Godfather                                         Francis Ford Coppola                              1972

7)     To Kill A Mockingbird                             Robert Mulligan                                       1962

8)     The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid  Philip Kaufman                                         1972

9)     The Apostle                                              Robert Duvall                                          1997

10)   Tender Mercies                                        Bruce Beresford                                      1983

He rarely made a bad performance. Often, as in Apocalypse Now and The Betsy, he gave by far the best performance in the film. I want to stress the above rankings are not based on the overall quality of the film. Tomorrow is a poor film and I've never been too thrilled by either To Kill a Mockingbird or Tender Mercies. However, the sheer volume of his varied film work rivals any of his contemporaries, even Gene Hackman. I especially enjoy his work in The Chase, True Grit, The Rain People, MASH, Joe Kidd, The Outfit, The Godfather 2, The Killer Elite, Network, True Confessions, Rambling Rose, Geronimo..., Something to Talk About, Sling Blade, Assassination Tango, Thank You for Smoking, and The Road. 

There was a chameleon quality to his work and he never suffered typecasting. He was not sought out for romantic leading man roles, but his turn in Assassination Tango showed he could command oodles of charm if need be.  After he had established himself in Hollywood, he was often called upon for villainy at which he was adept: his Jesse James is the most vicious in film history and Duvall was also quite pungent in True Grit, Joe Kidd, The Killer Elite, and Network. His death scene in Colors is a model of his realistic understatement.

   

Quick Takes: February 2026

Mirjami Kuosmanen

Erik Blomberg's The White Reindeer is a 1952 Finnish fairy tale film set in a gorgeously glacial Lapland. Mirjami Kuosmanen stars as a Sami maiden cursed with a legacy of pagan gods and witchcraft. The horror elements of the film are mild and predictable, but the ethnographic documentary aspects are stunning in their beauty. There is a little animal cruelty, reindeer are lassoed and wrassled like steers, but children would be entranced by the sequences featuring the reindeer both in the wild and harnessed to sleighs for races. Currently streaming on Tubi.

Robert Day's The Initiation of Sarah is a mildly horrific exploitation film made for ABC television in 1978. The direction is indifferent and the story is a Stephen King ripoff: mostly Carrie and the maze out of The Shining. Kay Lenz stars as a college freshman with telekinetic powers who gets involved in sorority shenanigans. The California Institute of Technology locations are attractive and the cast is way above average. Ms. Lenz offers a sensitive performance and Morgan Fairchild is delightful as the head mean girl on campus; a role that led to her being typecast forever as a conniving bitch. I also enjoyed the efforts of Tisa Farrow, Shelley Winters, Tony Bill, Kathryn Crosby, Morgan Brittany, Robert Hayes, and Talia Balsam. What a cast for a throwaway piece of crap!

François Ozon's When Fall is Coming is an ironic melodrama set in Burgundy and spanning a decade or so. The tone is subdued, especially for Ozon, and autumnal. The focus is more on a decades long friendship between two seniors (Hélène Vincent and Josiane Balasko) than on the more feckless younger generation. The film contains three deaths, sins of the past, poison mushrooms, and a ghost. I could have done without the ghost but found When Fall is Coming droll and arresting. The cast is sublime and the production design, costumes, and cinematography unostentatiously gorgeous.

Howard Bretherton and William Keighley's Ladies They Talk About, from 1933, is a subpar Barbara Stanwyck vehicle from the Pre-Code era. The plot, in which mob moll Stanwyck falls for milquetoast evangelist Preston Foster, is tommyrot with one of the worst finales I've ever seen. Ladies They Talk About was originally a play, but passed through the hands of many scribes before reaching the screen: too many cooks, etc.  The chemistry between Stanwyck and Foster is nil, but at least Stanwyck ends up in prison, San Quentin, twenty minutes into this 69 minute flick. The prison depicted is the cushiest jail I've ever seen in an American film, it even has a beauty parlor. Stanwyck is well cast and wonderful, but the picture is haphazard, veering from crude to punchy. This is one weird film. Lillian Roth is a welcome sight as Stanwyck's best bud in stir. She even gets to warble a love song to a studio portrait of Joe E. Brown, then a Warners contract player. The picture's racial humor is particularly offensive.

Kogonada's A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a miss, but not the debacle some have declaimed. Kogonada's Bressonian distance doesn't ever mesh with the twee romantic fantasy penned by Seth Reiss. I loved Benjamin Loeb's cinematography and the performances of Kevin Klein, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Hamish Linklater, and Lily Rabe. Rabe, who is 42, plays the mother of Margot Robbie, age 35. The appeal of Robbie continues to elude me. Colin Farrell's charming performance is the reason to see this flick, particular when he gets to relive his character's high school performance of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

John Sturges' The Law and Jake Wade, from 1958, is an average Western from MGM. Surges handles the action scenes well, particularly the opening in which top billed Robert Taylor busts old pal Richard Widmark out of jail. Robert Surtees' cinematography makes stunning use of the Death Valley exteriors. The production design stands out, especially the ghost town in the finale where a bag of loot is buried. However, the script is an assemblage of cliches. Studio shots mesh poorly with magnificent exteriors. Widmark is outstanding, as are Robert Middleton, Henry Silva, and DeForst Kelly. Unfortunately, Robert Taylor is a black hole at the center of this picture. Any Western associated leading man would have been better, but he was MGM's (aging) boy. 

Claude Sautet's Max et les ferrailleurs (Max and the Junkmen) is a genuine sleeper, a film that lingers. Max (Michel Piccoli) is a divorced robbery detective with a wintry heart who is getting heat from his superiors. He needs to take down a crew and, to his dubious fortune, finds a patsy in the person of an old Legionnaire buddy named Abel (Bernard Fresson). Abel and his small time hood pals strip precious metals from abandoned buildings and construction sites in the suburb of Nanterre. However, Abel has a prostitute girlfriend named Lily (Romy Schneider) who turns tricks in Paris and thinks Abel should ditch his penny ante career. Max becomes fixated on her. Posing as a wealthy banker, Max manipulates Lily into convincing Abel that a local bank is easy pickings. Things end badly for all concerned in this 1971 flick.

Max... is a low key, almost humdrum police procedural. It is more of a character study than an action film. The Nanterre cafe that serves as the clubhouse for Abel's gang is dappled with the pop colors of the era. The police stations are a putrid blue, grey, green. Max's fake love nest, a study in beige. The characters' cigarettes are matched, also: Marlboro for Abel, Kool for Lily, Gitanes, bien sûr, for Max. The story all told in a flashback as distant as Max who prefers to tinker with clocks instead of schtupping Lily. Sautet may not be a master, but he directed many fine films and has received insufficient attention in the anglophone world.