In the shimmering haze of Los Angeles asphalt, where money and morality melt together in the heat, Bart Layton’s “Crime 101” looks like a new-school crime opera with old-school teeth. The first trailer for Amazon MGM Studios’ slick adaptation of Don Winslow’s novella teases a combustible triangle between a desperate thief, a lonely broker, and the detective determined to bring them down. The film opens exclusively in theaters globally on February 13.
Written and directed by Layton — the sharp-eyed provocateur behind “American Animals” and “The Imposter” — the film follows an elusive thief (Chris Hemsworth) whose string of high-stakes heists along the 101 Freeway has left police guessing. When he sets his sights on one last score, his path crosses with an insurance broker (Halle Berry) at her own existential breaking point. Meanwhile, a dogged detective (Mark Ruffalo) tightens the net, blurring the line between predator and prey as loyalties crumble and greed takes over.
Adapted from Winslow’s taut, sun-baked story of ambition and obsession, “Crime 101” channels the seductive fatalism of Michael Mann’s “Heat” while anchoring itself in Layton’s documentary-rooted realism — a blend of verité tension and pulpy, widescreen spectacle. The ensemble is stacked: Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte, and Berry, with Ruffalo and Hemsworth circling each other like twin planets locked in moral decay.
Produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Derrin Schlesinger, Dimitri Doganis, Bart Layton, Shane Salerno, Chris Hemsworth, and Benjamin Grayson, the film arrives courtesy of Working Title, RAW, and Wild State Production, in association with The Story Factory.
If Layton’s past work blurred the border between truth and fiction, “Crime 101” looks to stretch it to breaking point — a heist thriller soaked in moral ambiguity, romantic fatalism, and that unmistakable Winslow heat. Take a look at the first trailer for the film below.
