Film reviews: Crime 101 is a sprawling crime drama reminiscent of Heat
Barry Keoghan in 101 Crime
★★★★☆
(15A) stars Chris Hemsworth as Davis, a gentleman thief who specialises in targeting diamond couriers operating along California’s Route 101. Something of an obsession for Detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), Davis targets the professionally frustrated insurance agent Sharon (Halle Berry) as he plots his last big score, but Davis has reckoned without Ormon (Barry Keoghan), a sociopathic hustler with eyes on Davis’ prize.
Adapted from Don Winslow’s novella by Bart Layton, who also directs, is a sprawling crime drama reminiscent of Heat, in which the growing tension of the cat-and-mouse narrative gradually exposes the flaws in all the main characters. Bart Layton established a fine reputation for off-beat crime dramas with American Animals (2018) and The Imposter (2012), but here Layton’s admirable ambition to render every character fully rounded results in a 140-minute story that eventually grows a little too long and unwieldy. The performances, though, are all strong, with Hemsworth nicely understated as the monosyllabic and emotionally distant thief (hence the Steve McQueen references), and Ruffalo terrific as the wearily middle-aged but doggedly idealistic Lubesnick.
★★★★☆
Blessed with a wealth of never-before-seen footage, Amy Berg’s documentary (15A) charts the meteoric rise of the singer-songwriter whose persona — the sensitive troubadour with the four-octave range — was entirely at odds with the hair metal and grunge that were dominating the American music scene when he came of age with the album Grace in 1994. ‘Music was my mother, my father,’ declares Buckley, a pointed statement that alludes to the vast sense of absence created when his father, Tim Buckley, abandoned his young family to pursue his own musical career.
This is a beautifully intimate portrait of Jeff Buckley, with the main contributions coming from the women who knew him best — his mother, Mary Guibert, and his partners and fellow artists Rebecca Moore and Joan Wasser — all of whom have a distinctive take on the restlessly creative soul who ‘soaked up the world like a sponge’ with ‘a mind tuned to all frequencies at once.’
- All theatrical releases
