𝙀𝙭𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙣

Watched “Crime 101,” the film adaptation of a novella by our Don Winslow. It was excellent! Completely satisfying! The balance between thrills, action, drama, character work, and foreshadowing is spot-on, all ultimately converging onto the central spine of the story: Highway 101. It reminded me of the kind of high-quality noir films I loved as a kid. Rather than leaning too heavily on extreme violence, excessive car chases, or nonstop gunplay, the film sustains tension through to the end while deeply exploring where each character is headed. It’s not about justice or good and evil, nor about law or ethics. Instead, a sense of “love” for the characters and an almost chivalric code of “honor” quietly and satisfyingly come to fruition in the final moments. At one point I found myself thinking, “What if Michael Mann had directed this original story?” But director Bart Layton skillfully draws out Don’s deep affection for Steve McQueen. The cast is stacked with actors known for playing comic-book “superheroes”, Thor, Hulk, Storm, and Druig, yet by treating each character’s background with sincerity, the film succeeds in letting the delicate emotions of “the pursuer,” “the pursued,” and “those caught in between” naturally seep into their actions — something many post-Tarantino noir films seem to have lost. And it was a real pleasure to see Nick Nolte on screen as well.