{"id":332294,"date":"2026-02-11T20:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/332294\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T20:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:23:08","slug":"barry-keoghan-brings-his-love-hate-juice-to-la-and-eats-the-role-alive-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/332294\/","title":{"rendered":"Barry Keoghan brings his Love\/Hate juice to LA \u2013 and eats the role alive \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crime 101<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7 \ue9d7<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Director:<\/strong> Bart Layton<\/p>\n

Cert:<\/strong> 15A<\/p>\n

Starring:<\/strong> Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte<\/p>\n

Running Time:<\/strong> 2 hrs 20 mins<\/p>\n

A year or two before the promised arrival of Heat 2, we get a decent crime thriller that swims in adjacent waters to Michael Mann\u2019s<\/a> untouchable 1995 original. <\/p>\n

Mark Ruffalo<\/a> is Lou Lubesnick, a tough, rundown cop who has become obsessed with the man behind a series of exquisitely planned robberies along the 101 freeway in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

That thief is the reserved, disciplined Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth<\/a>). He lives in a cool, soulless apartment. Hitherto reluctant about getting into relationships, he hooks up with a decent civilian (Monica Barbaro) and proposes fleeing the coop whenever his mysterious job allows.<\/p>\n

Sound familiar? It is not just the plot that reminds us of Heat. Bart Layton<\/a>, director of American Animals<\/a>, punctuates the film with shots that communicate the huge unknowability of Los Angeles. Aerial footage of the freeways at night presses home the alienating effect of a city that exists primarily to allow mechanised movement. Blanck Mass\u2019s soundtrack is at home to a familiar bubbling drone.<\/p>\n

None of this is meant as negative criticism. Heat has evolved into a key LA text over the past 30 years, and Layton is allowed to dance in its penumbra. Crime 101, adapted from a story by the prolific Don Winslow<\/a>, is a sleekly made film that gives its strong cast room to exercise different schools of glamour. <\/p>\n

Ruffalo may be wearing a bit of padding, but he remains the same scuffed charmer. Hemsworth is almost good-looking enough to weather a Steve McQueen<\/a> reference late in the film. Halle Berry<\/a> savours her role as a misused insurance broker. <\/p>\n

And then there is Barry Keoghan<\/a>. Energetic as a motorbiking hoodlum who operates in Davis\u2019s shadow, the Dubliner brings a little of his Love\/Hate juice to the city of angels. It is the sort of supporting role he eats alive.<\/p>\n

For all that, there is something a bit flat about Crime 101. This is a more sentimental, less cynical piece than the Michael Mann film. Whereas Robert De Niro\u2019s<\/a> Neil McCauley could be utterly ruthless, Hemsworth\u2019s Davis is a sweetheart who has never discharged a gun in anger. He\u2019s Robin Hood. He\u2019s Raffles, the gentleman thief. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Crime 101 review: Barry Keoghan brings his Love\/Hate juice to LA \u2013 and eats the role aliveOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t demand hard realism from such a project, but a little more edge would have been nice. Solid, middlebrow entertainment, nonetheless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crime 101 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7 \ue9d7 Director: Bart Layton Cert: 15A Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Mark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[69378,140475,546,141375,18,117,48181,19,17,9921,78341,70879],"class_list":["post-332294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-barry-keoghan","tag-bart-layton","tag-chris-hemsworth","tag-don-winslow","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-halle-berry","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mark-ruffalo","tag-michael-mann","tag-robert-de-niro"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116053868689981817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}