Watched âCrime 101,â 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. Itâs not about justice or good and evil, nor about law or ethics. Instead, a sense of âloveâ for the characters and an almost chivalric code of âhonorâ quietly and satisfyingly come to fruition in the final moments. At one point I found myself thinking, âWhat if Michael Mann had directed this original story?â But director Bart Layton skillfully draws out Donâs deep affection for Steve McQueen. The cast is stacked with actors known for playing comic-book âsuperheroesâ, Thor, Hulk, Storm, and Druig, yet by treating each characterâs background with sincerity, the film succeeds in letting the delicate emotions of âthe pursuer,â âthe pursued,â and âthose caught in betweenâ naturally seep into their actions â something many post-Tarantino noir films seem to have lost. And it was a real pleasure to see Nick Nolte on screen as well.