movie review life of crime

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“Everyone has their story.” Director Jon Alpert clearly believes that line, said near the end of his newest documentary. The HBO producer has devoted decades of his life to three stories of people caught in the grip of crime and addiction in Newark, New Jersey. In 1989, Alpert released “One Year in a Life of Crime” on HBO, which filmed his trio around Newark as they committed increasingly dangerous criminal acts. He followed up with his subjects in “Life of Crime 2” in 1998. Now, in a manner that’s reminiscent of Michael Apted ’s “7 Up” series, he has returned again for a final chapter, one that assembles footage from 36 years of documentary filmmaking in “Life of Crime: 1984-2020,” premiering tonight on HBO after a brief run at festivals, including Doc NYC and Venice. It’s a powerful piece of work that details how communities on the edge of lawlessness and poverty were overwhelmed by drugs in the ‘80s and ‘90s, leading to cycles of addiction and violence that can become impossible to escape. It’s not an easy watch, but it’s a moving one.

“Life of Crime: 1984-2020” starts with an almost unsettlingly casual approach to the petty criminal underworld. Alpert follows three people around Newark: Freddie Rodriguez , Robert Steffey , and Deliris Vasquez . These three have the perceived invulnerability of youth as they dig deeper into their own bad habits like theft, drug use, and prostitution. The early years of the film verge on what could be considered exploitation more than later years, such as when Alpert catches domestic abuse or seems to linger on a needle going into a vein. It’s an interesting study in the development of a filmmaker and a human being as the project gains notable degrees of empathy as it goes along, likely charting how much Alpert went from someone “exposing a life of crime for HBO” to someone who clearly cared about his subjects. You can see that growth in the final product as he became attached to his subjects and their plights.

Rob is the most charming of the three, a guy who starts with shoplifting and robbery but develops a pretty serious drug addiction that begins to impact the severity of his crimes and his ability to stay clean after stints behind bars. Freddie is the heartbreaking story, a guy who lands behind bars and watches his addiction take over his life, even after contracting HIV. Upon release, he tries so hard to stay clean and take care of his kids, but life doesn’t seem built to help guys like Freddie. Finally, there’s the rollercoaster ride that is the story of Deliris, once a girlfriend of Rob’s and a severe heroin addict. Even her children know how to look for track marks to make sure she hasn’t fallen off the wagon. She becomes a study in recovery until Covid-19 derails her life. How her life was impacted by Covid feels like it could have sustained its own documentary—and is rushed here in the final minutes—in that the story of how the pandemic impacted this country in ways outside of just catching the virus is only now being told.

What first is like a study in the criminal underworld becomes gradually about how much addiction controls the narrative in parts of this country. These three will often be on the right path in one segment and then Alpert jumps forward a couple years and they’re addicted again, almost unrecognizable at times. The demons always seem to come back, and it doesn’t help that the safety nets that should be put up by this country keep breaking. Rob has a good job and then gets fired because they find out he was a convict. Freddie wants to get his shit together but can’t find a place to live—he even has a parole officer who tells him that he has to live in a hotel he can't afford instead of staying with the addicts in his post-prison home. The place in which Deliris lives has a dozen dealers in the yard, almost calling her name while knowing she’s trying to get clean. Even the people who seem the most together fall apart and the ones who seem likely to break find a way to stay whole. And Alpert shows it all, capturing the near mundanity of addiction, how it can dictate existence when it's got a grip on someone. It’s really a documentary about the stranglehold of drugs more than it is about traditional crime.

These stories of success and failures become very moving. You think of all the people you pass in life and how many of them have stories like this, unpredictable lives of both crime and redemption. To be fair, some of the segments in “ Life of Crime ” feel oddly truncated while others go on longer than they should. There’s an editing rhythm that often involves big jumps—it really covers 1984-2002 and then rushes to the present day—and I wondered if there isn’t a series version of this that’s even stronger. With all the docuseries I’ve seen lately that stretch a feature’s worth of storytelling to hours of episodic television, it’s rare to see something that's so rich that it could have been even longer than its two-hour runtime. Yes, everyone has their story, but the question is if we’re willing to listen to them.

Premieres on HBO tonight and will also be available on HBO Max.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Review: ‘Life of Crime’ is true to mayhem and humor of Elmore Leonard

John Hawkes, left, and Jennifer Aniston star in "Life of Crime."

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No one brought more panache to wised-up crime, crime with a wicked sense of humor, than the late Elmore Leonard.

As the author of close to 50 novels, Leonard’s star has never been brighter, including the publication this week of a collection of four 1970s novels by the prestigious Library of America.

With their snappy plotting and peerless dialogue, Leonard’s books have been turned into dozens of films, the best of which include such favorites as “Out of Sight,” “Get Shorty” and “Jackie Brown” (based on the novel “Rum Punch”).

“Life of Crime,” written and directed by Daniel Schechter, is the latest top-drawer entertainment with the Leonard imprimatur: In fact the book it’s taken from, “The Switch,” is good enough to be included in that Library of America volume.

Schechter received the master’s approval for this project after he wrote the entire script on spec, so it’s no surprise that “Life of Crime” has the authentic Leonard snap, crackle and pop. (The novelist is listed as executive producer, and the film is dedicated to him.)

“Crime” also features an ensemble (top-lined by Jennifer Aniston) of seven actors who understand just how to pull off a disreputable character comedy delicately balanced between mayhem and humor.

One unexpected aspect of “Life of Crime” is that its central bad guys, Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara, are repeat characters from “Jackie Brown,” where they were played by Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro. Here they’re taken on by Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) and John Hawkes, and their strong acting ensures that the storytelling doesn’t lose a step.

The year is 1978, and “Life of Crime” starts, as Leonard novels frequently do, in Detroit, with Ordell and Louis having a pleasantly low-rent conversation about a crime they’re thinking of committing. Though these guys are drop-dead amusing, the film never lets us forget that they can and will be completely ruthless if the situation calls for it.

This disreputable pair have discovered that wealthy real-estate developer Frank Dawson (Tim Robbins at his most pompous, which is saying a lot) has been skimming $50,000 a month off his projects for years and is a millionaire.

A cutthroat country club golfer, Frank has a tendency to call his long-suffering wife, Mickey (Aniston in her best performance since Nicole Holofcener’s “Friends With Money”), “the other trophy in my life.” He calls her a lot of other things as well when he’s drunk, which is often.

Ordell and Louis, who are nothing if not thorough, have also discovered that Frank has a mistress in the Bahamas named Melanie (the always amusing Isla Fisher) he visits every chance he gets. So the plan is, snatch Mickey while Frank is out of town and tell him he has to pay $1-million ransom or he doesn’t get to see his wife again. Ever.

Every criminal team needs a disreputable confederate, and in this case it’s Richard Monk (“Sons of Anarchy’s” Mark Boone Junior), an arms dealer and neo-Nazi racist whose “send them back to Africa” rhetoric amuses the African American Ordell. “He’s so dumb,” he tells Louis, “it’s adorable.”

These men have concocted a fine plan for kidnapping Mickey, as far as it goes, but as in all Leonard concoctions, it doesn’t go far enough. It doesn’t, for instance, know how to deal with Marshall Taylor (Will Forte doing clueless), a persistent country club swain with a yen for Mickey who has a habit of showing up at the least opportune time.

It’s not just that Marshall’s libido complicates things, it’s that it’s a given in Elmoreland that things do more than go wrong, they do so in ways no one could have anticipated. Unlikely alliances and unforeseen collaborations result as self-interested folks look out for themselves in situations where even the scammers can’t be sure who is scamming whom.

Adding to the amusement in this case is the way production designer Inbal Weinberg and costume designer Anna Terrazas have ensured that every location, not to mention every person, looks quintessentially 1970s. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

As “Crime’s” plot gets more complex, it’s hard to avoid trying to figure out how things will turn out, but the truth is it can’t be done. An Elmore Leonard cocktail of crime, comedy and character has to be mixed to exact proportions, and only the master can get it right every time.

----------------------------------

‘Life of Crime’

MPAA rating: R for language, some sexual content and violence

Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes

Playing: In general release

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Movie Reviews

'life of crime' has authentic elmore leonard snap.

Kenneth Turan

The late author wrote close to 50 novels, and several of them, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight , were made into films. His 1978 book The Switch has been turned into a film called Life of Crime .

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Life of Crime Reviews

Jennifer Aniston shines as the confused but composed hostage...

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 18, 2021

A slickly made but blandish adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel The Switch. As usual Leonard's bad guys are more interesting than the straights. The trick here is figuring out who the bad guys are.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 1, 2021

[O]ne of the most, if not the most, faithful to the source material of all the [Elmore] Leonard adaptations...true to the stylized dialogue and wit of the novel itself. Life of Crime is as witty and wonderful on the big screen as on the page.

Full Review | Dec 14, 2019

Life of Crime lets sugar seep into where it could be pouring salt. At the end of the day, it's a film that deserves to be more memorable than the bland title renders it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 5, 2019

With a cast this good, to be this lifeless is criminal.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 25, 2019

The film just feels so...flimsy.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Mar 22, 2019

Hawkes and Mos Def are their charismatic selves and are well placed to deliver Leonard's zippy dialogue, yet the wistful fetishism of the aesthetics smoothers their character's rough corners and dilutes some of their attitude.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 8, 2019

The film stops short of being something truly memorable but has just the right amount of witty turns, deft plot twists, funny situations and interesting characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 14, 2017

No matter what your favourite is of films based on Elmore Leonard books (and I'm for Out of Sight ahead of Jackie Brown), this crime comedy will deliver a surprise.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 16, 2016

Schechter's staging is so flat that Leonard's dialogue never pops. You hear the words but not the music.

Full Review | Jun 9, 2015

Perhaps Schechter should have started with a prequel to Death Proof and worked his way up from there.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 20, 2014

An abiding insignificance looms over the film, but it's a fun 98 minutes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 31, 2014

Though a decidedly down-market adaptation of the great Elmore Leonard crime novel Switch, Life of Crime is never down-and-out.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 2, 2014

It's good, solid Leonard, which, for me at least, is a cosy, comfortable, and extremely fun place to be for ninety-eight minutes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 1, 2014

Fun, throwaway, time-killing crime comedy romp.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 26, 2014

Despite sudden, and uncomfortable, tone shifts and a confusing plot twist, the film is anchored by strong performances from its cast, particularly Aniston.

Full Review | Sep 25, 2014

The script is a nice mixture of suspense and black comic bumbling about.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 22, 2014

Schechter's adaptation feels more cautiously reverent than inspired, denying Life of Crime of snap, style, and, most importantly, a sense of danger.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Sep 22, 2014

Appealing enough to pass, with Schechter locating a casual rhythm to a pressurized situation, relying on the writer's way with characters and twists to feed into well-acted adventures with criminals and the hostages who love them.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 13, 2014

The meagre charms of the first act are soon squandered as this descends into straight-to-video stodge, progressing inexorably to a depressing climax. The book was better.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 7, 2014

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Movie Review

Husband of Kidnap Victim: Take My Wife, Please

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By Ben Kenigsberg

Aug. 28, 2014

LIFE OF CRIME

Opens on Friday

Directed by Daniel Schechter

1 hour 39 minutes

Some lineage is in order. “Life of Crime” is adapted from Elmore Leonard’s 1978 novel, “The Switch,” which features characters he brought back in 1992 for “Rum Punch,” filmed as “Jackie Brown” by Quentin Tarantino. With each year, “Jackie Brown” seems more like a lost classic from 1978. “Life of Crime,” to paraphrase a character from Mr. Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction,” isn’t in the same ballpark or sport.

But as a late-summer caper movie, it hits the spot. The film offers the intriguing contrast of actors and a director (Daniel Schechter) taking a different approach to known material.

The film follows Ordell Robbie (a droll Yasiin Bey, a.k.a. Mos Def, in the Samuel L. Jackson role) and Louis Gara (a pleasingly dry John Hawkes, subbing for Robert De Niro) in their Detroit years. They plot to kidnap the wife, Mickey (Jennifer Aniston), of a real estate developer, Frank (Tim Robbins), who’s planning to leave her for his mistress (Isla Fisher).

“Life of Crime” quickly settles into a groove, amused by its 1970s décor and what sounds like Mr. Leonard’s dialogue. (The author, who died last year, is credited as executive producer.) When Mickey expresses shock at Louis and Ordell’s kidnapping partner’s collection of Nazi memorabilia, Louis remarks, “What, you don’t like history?” Oddly, that sentiment might apply to “Life of Crime,” which traffics in low-key nostalgia.

“Life of Crime” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Kidnapping, racial slurs, some sex.

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Life of crime, common sense media reviewers.

Cool, funny Elmore Leonard crime tale has sex and language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

All of the characters wind up on the wrong side of

The movie is filled with criminals who eventually

A woman is kidnapped by two men; they're fairly ge

In two quick scenes, a minor character is shown ha

Language is strong throughout, with uses of "f--k,

Characters drink in a background way; no overindul

Positive Messages

All of the characters wind up on the wrong side of the law, and though the movie ends ambiguously, it looks like they'll be rewarded for their illegal efforts, rather than punished.

Positive Role Models

The movie is filled with criminals who eventually influence the few "good" characters to change sides. Only one character really pays for his crimes. One character is shown to be a white supremacist who collects Nazi propaganda.

Violence & Scariness

A woman is kidnapped by two men; they're fairly gentle to her, all things considered. She cuts her foot on some broken glass, and some blood is shown. She's also tied up and fitted with a mask. A man is conked on the head and stashed in a closet. Characters argue and physically struggle with one another. A man is hit by a car. A character goes on a shooting rampage and faces off with a bunch of cops, who surround his house. He's shot and killed. A second woman is tied up.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

In two quick scenes, a minor character is shown having sex with two different women; the women's breasts are shown in both shots. (These are "illustrations" for a conversation between two characters about which woman has the largest breasts in town.) One of the main characters is a married man having an affair; they're shown having sex, but there's no nudity. A female character sunbathes with her bikini unclipped, but her breasts aren't shown. A man cuts a peephole into a door so that he can watch a kidnapped woman.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language is strong throughout, with uses of "f--k," "s--t," and more.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink in a background way; no overindulgence.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Life of Crime is a crime comedy based on a classic Elmore Leonard novel. There's lots of language, including uses of "f--k" and "s--t," as well as some brief but strong sexual content. A couple of brief sex scenes include topless women, and one of the main characters is a married man who's cheating on his wife (there's a sex scene -- no nudity -- between him and his new lover). A woman is kidnapped, some blood is shown, and a man goes on a shooting spree, but violence generally isn't particularly intense. The characters definitely don't face any consequences for their crimes, and in some cases, good people are persuaded to turn bad. Teen fans of Quentin Tarantino may be interested in seeing this, since it has a connection to his film Jackie Brown , with some of the same characters. But it's recommended for mature viewers only. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

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What's the Story?

In 1978, ex-cons Ordell Robbie ( Yasiin Bey ) and Louis Gara ( John Hawkes ) cook up a plan to pull in some easy money by kidnapping aging trophy wife Mickey ( Jennifer Aniston ). Her husband, housing magnate Frank Dawson ( Tim Robbins ), has a secret, illegal account filled with over $1 million, and Ordell and Louis know all about it. Unfortunately, Frank doesn't want Mickey back. He's just filed for divorce and hopes to marry his new, younger lover, Melanie ( Isla Fisher ). Stymied by this new information and losing control of the situation, the kidnappers must come up with an even more brilliant plan.

Is It Any Good?

This film qualifies as enjoyable entertainment, or maybe a "B"-level movie, rather than a great movie. Based on a 1978 novel by Elmore Leonard and featuring some of the same characters from his 1992 novel Rum Punch -- which was the basis for Quentin Tarantino 's Jackie Brown -- LIFE OF CRIME will no doubt suffer from comparisons. And it definitely does feel like the lesser of the two films, but that doesn't necessarily make it a bad film.

Writer/director Daniel Schechter brings a certain kind of economical edge to the production. It doesn't have any big set pieces or action scenes, but the general combination of the period clothes and sets, the great cast, and the colorful dialogue tends to make for a brisk, forward-moving energy. And the conversations that try to anticipate the next move conjure up a kind of low-key suspense that really works.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Life of Crime 's violence . Even though the kidnappers are nice to their female victims, what does it mean to kidnap someone? Why is it always a violent crime?

Frank leaves his wife for a younger woman. Why would he do this? How is sex portrayed in the movie overall?

Which characters did you end up rooting for in this movie? Are they good people? What lessons do they learn? Why are they so likable? What would the real-life consequences be for their behavior/actions?

Why do you think filmmakers included the white supremacist character with the Nazi propaganda? How did this material affect you? Did he get what he deserved? Why or why not?

Movie Details

In theaters : August 29, 2014
On DVD or streaming : October 28, 2014
Cast : Yasiin Bey , Jennifer Aniston , John Hawkes
Director : Daniel Schechter
Inclusion Information : Black actors, Female actors
Studios : Lionsgate , Roadside Attractions
Genre : Comedy
Run time : 94 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : language, some sexual content and violence
Last updated : June 2, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Life Of Crime Review

05 Sep 2014

Life Of Crime

For its first act, this black-comedy crime film, based on an Elmore Leonard book, promises an exceptional tribute to the iconic writer, who died last year. Mos Def is outshone by an excellent, vulpine-looking John Hawkes and an amusingly revolting Mark Boone Junior. They play a bungling trio who kidnap Jennifer Aniston, the unhappy wife of socialite sleazeball Tim Robbins, amid tacky ’70s fashions and tackier attitudes. After the farcical, suspenseful opening, disturbingly funny in the way of Fargo, the film slowly deflates, the dry chuckles thin out, and there’s a disgraceful yuck-it-up punchline.

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Life of Crime Doesn’t Transcend Its Haphazard Story

With a couple of major ( major ) exceptions, film adaptations of Elmore Leonard novels rarely succeed. The breezy menace of his stories, the carefree, sneaky suspense of his plotting, the dim-bulb charm of his characters … it’s all booby-trapped for film. Go in one direction and it’s too bubbly, go in another and it’s all too generic, shorn of what made it special in the first place. If Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown and Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight work so well, it’s partly because those filmmakers themselves share the perverse, wildly varying tonal impulses at play in Leonard’s work. Their movies are like beautiful toy guns that somehow manage to go off.

Writer-director Daniel Schechter is no Tarantino, and Life of Crime (adapted from Leonard’s The Switch ) no Jackie Brown . But the film does manage to capture something special from Leonard’s work. A casual, breezy-cool comedy about a couple of small-time hoods who kidnap the wife of a rich businessman, only to discover that the man himself is having an affair and doesn’t really want to pay to get his wife back, the film seems primed to fall into the usual Leonard trap of being a comedy that’s not funny enough and a crime flick that’s not dark enough.

But Schechter has cast his story well. As Louis and Ordell, the two kidnappers, John Hawkes and Mos Def (or is it Yasiin Bey ?) ably suggest that they’re slightly out of their element, and win us over: When a part of their plan works properly, they seem as surprised as anyone else. They’re also a lot more likable than Richard (Mark Boone Jr.), the neo-Nazi pervert whose house they’re using to stash their prey. Worth noting: Ordell and Louis are the two characters later played by Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro in Jackie Brown (adapted from Leonard’s Rum Punch ), but this doesn’t feel like a prequel, or a related work. Rather, we feel like we’re seeing these characters long before they became their more extreme Rum Punch/Jackie Brown selves, before Ordell became a gun-running nut and before Louis became a useless pothead.

The real heart of the film, though, is Mickey (Jennifer Aniston), the long-suffering wife of neglectful, philandering good-old-boy real estate developer Frank (Tim Robbins). Aniston has to do a surprising amount of heavy-lifting here; in some ways, she’s the only character in the film who is not a total sociopath. She’s surrounded by criminals, and her husband is off cavorting with his younger mistress (Isla Fisher), seriously considering not paying the ransom demand. As we watch Mickey go from brittle, well-heeled victim to take-charge manipulator, the film starts to come to life; we start to care what happens to her. And suddenly, the cloud of careless malevolence that seems to float through every Elmore Leonard novel gathers meaning and weight: Criminality, even the laid-back criminality of a film like this, feels consequential when you start to care for the victim.

Is it enough, though, for the film to truly succeed? I’m not sure. If Life of Crime transcends its lightheartedness to actually make us care for what happens to its characters, it doesn’t quite transcend its own haphazard, impoverished story. I haven’t read The Switch , so I can’t tell how faithful the film is to Leonard’s original. But the author’s narratives, at their best, have a way of sneaking up on the reader: You get wrapped up in the people, and before you know it, you’re feverishly anticipating what happens next. And usually, something does happen next. In Life of Crime , you might care what happens next, but don’t be surprised if you find yourself asking, “Is that all there is?” when it’s all over.

life of crime
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Life of Crime Review

It took a long time for the works of breezily comedic crime novelist Elmore Leonard to be properly translated on screen. After an endless stream of misconceived and overly dour adaptations, the 90s brought audiences the near perfect trifecta in the forms of Get Shorty, Jackie Brown , and Out of Sight . Part of it was timing, as the 90s were an age of the talky crime comedy that Leonard pioneered. Part of it was just the fact that his properties finally fell into the hands of filmmakers like Barry Sonnenfeld, Quentin Tarantino, and Steven Soderbergh who loved his writing and knew how to translate it to the screen. Yet for some reason the golden age of Elmore Leonard movies only lasted for only three titles and the crappy adaptations returned with the forgettable likes of Be Cool , The Big Bounce , and Freaky Deaky . Thankfully, Leonard was able to supervise the TV series Justified before he passed away to ensure audiences got one more decent blast of his writing. And now, almost on a year to the day after the author’s death we’ve gotten one more in Daniel Schechter’s Life of Crime .

Within a few minutes of the film starting, fans of Leonard should recognize the character names Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara, as they were vividly brought to life by Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro in Jackie Brown . Here, Mos Def and John Hawkes more than capably slip into the roles, and since writer/director Daniel Schechter ( Supporting Characters ) gives his film a 70s setting, the movie functions as an unofficial prequel. It’s subtlety done and only really registers if you’re looking for connections, but that makes this Elmore Leonard adaptation rather special as it not only vividly recreates the author’s writing, but also ties into possibly the greatest film based on his work.

In Life of Crime, Ordell (Def) and Louis (Hawkes) are in the early days of their hustling crime careers. The duo decide to kidnap of the beleaguered wife (Jennifer Aniston) of a crooked real-estate developer (Tim Robbins). It all seems simple enough, but then things inevitably go wrong and get interesting. First up, the duo didn’t anticipate that Aniston’s awkward suitor (the always delightful Will Forte) would show up mid-kidnapping in an attempted champignon seduction. Then they underestimate the insanity of their neo-nazi partner (Mark Boon Junior), who was theoretically supposed to look after Aniston. Worst of all, the duo never counted on just what a prick Robbins’ character turns out to be, and when they contact him demanding a ransom, his trophy tail (Isla Fisher) manages to talk him out of payment. Ordell and Louis aren’t murderers, and one of them even starts developing serious feelings for Aniston. Improvisation will be necessary, and that leads to the kind of bumbling criminal activity and fast talk that Elmore Leonard does so well.

As usual in a proper Leonard flick, the performances carry the film with Def and Hawkes making minor nods to their characters Jackie Brown future while leaving their own stamp on these clueless kidnappers. They’re such a charming team that there’s never much of a threat when they’re on screen and thankfully that’s the point. These aren’t scary cons just yet, they’re wannabes with consciences. The element of danger comes in the form of Junior’s hysterical neo-Nazi who practically steals the movie while sling-shotting between feeling like a wounded puppy to a psychotic killer throughout (often within the same scene). Robbins is also amusingly sleazy in a way he does well, Forte is as hilarious as always in a few brief scenes, and Fisher handles her Leonard femme fatale role with ease. The only bum note in the cast is Aniston, and even then it’s not as if her performance is gratingly awful. She’s just got too much celebrity baggage and sheen to play a burned out, average woman at this point.

The film is essentially a gentle comedy with the occasional burst of violence. The sadness and tragedy that flavors Leonard’s best work is missing, but Schechter’s film bounces along with enough energy and joy to prevent that from being much of a problem. It does have to be said that it makes the movie feel like a trifle, which is absolutely fine if that’s all you want. However, I could see some viewers muttering, “that’s it?” once the credits roll. It’s not a particularly fast paced romp, more of an observational crime yarn that unfolds with the quirky pacing of life. Schechter has more transcribed the book onto film rather than really adapting it for a new medium. It’s a film pretty much exclusively for those whose eyes light up when they see Leonard’s name on a project. Not a massive audience to be sure, but one that should eat up the gentle charms of Life of Crime and feel hungry for more.

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‘Life of Crime’ Review: Jennifer Aniston Dark Comedy Is Pure Escapism

This Elmore Leonard adaptation is late-summer piffle, but Aniston and a sharp supporting cast make it an exceedingly entertaining one

If you’re still smarting from a sharp disappointment from this summer (ahem, “Snowpiercer” ), you could do a lot worse than bounce back with a just-good-enough rebound like “Life of Crime.” Much like the unassuming heroine Jennifer Aniston plays (and perhaps like Aniston herself), this Elmore Leonard adaptation doesn’t inspire ardor, but it certainly boasts above-average intelligence and a streak of knowing unpredictability that make the dark comedy a pleasurable morsel of escapism.

While out-in-the-streets women’s libbers enjoyed their 1970s heyday in the battlegrounds of New York and D.C., Aniston’s Mickey, a Detroit housewife, embarks on her own journey of self-actualization in the midst of her abduction. A pair of first-time kidnappers, Louis ( John Hawkes ) and Ordell (Yasiin Bey, aka Mos Def), snatch Mickey from her affluent but unshowy home to ransom her for a million dollars. They’re not aware, though, that Mickey’s bullying husband Frank ( Tim Robbins ) has already filed for divorce — and that he’d just as soon have the kidnappers relieve him of the responsibility of making alimony payments for the rest of his life.

Also watch: Jennifer Aniston Is Kidnapped But Her Husband Doesn’t Want Her Back in ‘Life of Crime’ Trailer (Video)

Mickey doesn’t know about either the divorce filings or Frank’s off-the-books business dealings, which afford him the regular Caribbean vacations he takes with his mistress Melanie (Isla Fisher). When she finally learns of his chicaneries — and his unwillingness to pay for her freedom — Mickey angles to seize control of the narrative and to map out a path to freedom from both her kidnappers and her husband.

Because we’re introduced to Mickey as a browbeaten deer, delicate and wide-eyed, it’s satisfying to see her eventual reinvention as the kind of woman who avenges the invasion of bathroom privacy by thrusting a lit cigarette into her Peeping Tom’s spyhole. (She narrowly misses burning the eye of neo-Nazi Richard (Mark Boone Junior), whose house she’s stashed away in.) She quickly notices Louis’ hangdog affection for her and exploits it to her advantage without ever being unkind.

Also read: Jennifer Aniston, Jon Hamm and Will Ferrell Headlining ‘Stand Up to Cancer’ Telecast

It’s a joy to watch several of the other characters also gradually defy archetype. Writer-director Daniel Schechter (“Supporting Characters”) skillfully interweaves their deepening psychologies with the unfolding abduction caper, with the kidnapping crisis revealing everyone’s true colors. Like her rival, Melanie the Mistress turns out to be much cleverer than her skimpy outfits (and her attraction to blustering, bullish Frank) first suggest. Her married lover, on the other hand, proves compellingly inept, as does the contemptibly spineless Marshall (Will Forte), a fellow country-clubber, besotted with Mickey, who accidentally witnesses her abduction.

Because its expansiveness serves it so well, “Life of Crime” collapses toward the end when Schechter folds the story upon itself to pinch it into a cyclical structure; that might have seemed witty on the page, but it feels calculatingly hollow on screen. To force the narrative trajectory toward its predetermined end, it also necessarily flattens Ordell and especially Louis. With just the outlines of a character, Hawkes works just as hard as the rest of the veteran cast, but he doesn’t have much else to do than bat his sad eyes at Aniston. You can feel Louis’ longing for Mickey, but not his love.

For all its well-timed twists and betrayals, though, there’s a slightness to the film that makes it little more than a congenial distraction in the last days of this drought-choked season. Sure, it’s nice to stare at something that’s not outrageously dumb while sitting in industrial-strength air-conditioning, but if you want a movie you’ll actually remember next month, search elsewhere.

LIFE OF CRIME

By: debbie lynn elias

Who doesn’t love a good Elmore Leonard novel or film adaptation? Certainly writer/director Daniel Schechter does, for with LIFE OF CRIME, an adaptation of Leonard’s “The Switch”, he delivers a film that is not only one of the most, if not the most, faithful to the source material of all the Leonard adaptations, but is true to the stylized dialogue and wit of the novel itself. LIFE OF A CRIME is as witty and wonderful on the big screen as on the page.

Mickey Dawson is the epitome of a trophy wife. Gorgeous and fabulous, her nails and hair are always perfect. Her clothing fashionable for the day, and expensive. Her home, impeccable. Her social manners of being engaging but never upstanding her husband, are flawless. Her husband – a jerk. Abusive, narcissistic, egomaniacal and at times, even cruel, Frank Dawson is the epitome of two-faced with his public persona beloved and his private one, despised yet tolerated by Mickey. A real-estate developer, it seems there’s also a bit of crooked larceny going on with Frank, something that attracts the attention of some two-bit low life and slightly bumbling criminals who see him as the Golden Goose.

The plan: Kidnap Mickey and hold her for $1 million ransom.

What goes wrong: Frank is in the Bahamas with his mistress Melanie and is serving Mickey with divorce papers. In other words, he’s not paying $1 million to get Mickey back. So, what’s a kidnapper and a hostage to do?

The result: Fun and funny thanks to Murphy’s Law and top-notch performances.

Tim Robbins is over-the-top hilarious as Frank, playing two sides of the coin as the insecure buffoon who is putty and childlike with an at-a-loss persona (definite mommy complex going on here) in the hands of Isla Fisher’s Melanie yet demanding, drunk and offensive when playing the dutiful arrogant show-off husband to Aniston’s Mickey. Robbins is delicious.

And speaking of delicious, Jennifer Aniston delivers one of the finest performances of her career as Mickey. For Aniston, it was a “no brainer” to get involved in LIFE OF CRIME, both as an actress as an Executive Producer. “I read the book and it was such a fun, wonderful story. I love how [Elmore Leonard] writes his characters. They’re all so interesting and detailed. Also, his bad guys aren’t the brightest, but yet they somehow always make it happen. They’re the most charming and they’re actually lovable. I also thought that Mickey has such a beautiful arc, and a powerful one in that time. For him to write that for a woman in the 70’s was pretty awesome.” Perfectly embracing the 70’s period with hair, make-up, clothing and attitude (“[Basically] I just tried to rock the old Nancy Aniston [her mom] 1970’s look”), Aniston adds edges to Mickey that are not only warm, but strong and smart – a strength that we see develop fully thanks to strong chemistry between Mickey and John Hawkes’ Louis. Louis’ kindness is the trigger that starts the emotional arc for Mickey and I, for one, as I did with the book and now on screen, love the transformation. As Aniston describes it, “Pretty much Mickey was living in the Petrified Forest with Frank [Tim Robbins] and very repressed, emotionally abused, and had no way and didn’t even know how to make a move to get out of that jail. Oddly enough, the kidnapping is her ‘get out of jail free’ card. As the story progressed and her situation became more dire, that’s how she found that strength, like women do when faced with unimaginable circumstances.” Aniston owns the role.

When it comes to John Hawkes, kind and pragmatic and actually, honesty, are the watchwords that he brings to Louis. A very soft and affable performance from Hawkes that we haven’t really seen before. Crediting Leonard’s source material and writer/director Schechter, Hawkes notes, “A lot of it’s on the page. A lot of it’s in the book and in Dan’s wonderful screenplay. But I was most interested in the relationship between Mickey and Louis. . .[O]ne thing I love about Louis is his grace through it all; that he’s not despondent. . .” Challenging for Hawkes was trying to “lay the character out in pieces” to give Louis a completeness with texture and layers. “I didn’t want to come on screen and for the audience to say ‘There’s a cuddly bad guy. There’s a lovable bad guy.’ It’s important for the story for us to worry about Mickey as well as that Louis needed to be a guy who felt like he was formidable, and he did have some darkness and a bit of a rough side to him early on.”

As co-kidnapper Ordell, Mos Def is his own kind of fun and a great devil-on-the-shoulder foil for Louis’ conscience. The only performance that doesn’t ring true for me is Will Forte’s Marshall. He actually makes Marshall more pervy than Mark Boone’s Richard (a third player in the kidnapping) and I was more unsettled watching his advances to Mickey than Richard’s. Nice little comedic turn by Clea Lewis as Marshall’s whiney wife Tyra.

Writer/director Schechter does a wonderful job of weaving Leonard’s double entendre absurdity of dialogue within the script while developing visuals that capture and compliment without turning the film or the characters (but for “Richard” with the whole pervy Nazi obsession which is an absolute hoot) into a caricature or mockery, much credit for which goes to the fact that Schechter felt Leonard’s novel “felt really adaptable. It felt like a movie as I was reading it. I could see it in my eye. And it felt like the epitome of what he does. There’s a very basic crime at the heart of it, and then the characters are what I find super fascinating about the story and how they bump up against each other and their motives.” Schechter keeps the film moving at a fast-paced clip, allowing the performances to breathe while bathed in some wonderful light, bright white lighting by cinematographer Eric Edwards. The entire tonal bandwidth has the essence of wearing a smile with a slight knowing smirk. White natural lighting gives us the idea that everything is out in the open yet, as the story moves forward, we find that even in the light of day, secrets can be found hiding right in front of your face. Delightful!

Although some of the characters are not as fleshed out in backstory on film as in the book, the stellar performances more than provide the visual backstory so a fan of the book will never feel out of place or that “something is missing” when watching the film. The performances are rich, textured, flavorful and beyond fun, all lending to an engaging humorous effect.

One of the great things about LIFE OF A CRIME is that our criminals do have a code, a sense of ethics, a conscience, and a sense of right and wrong, all of which just feed the comedy and propel the red herrings and twists and turns of the story, epitomizing “Murphy’s Law” at every turn. But for the buffoonish pervert Richard, you actually feel empathy and sympathy and at various moments, find yourself rooting for the “bad guys”. Hell, everyone has a little bit of larceny in them …… as we see in the ultimate twist final scene, which had me rolling with laughter.

Production values are top notch, starting with Edwards’ cinematography. From the Dawson house (which is stunning in its decor and design thanks to production designer Inbal Weinberg) with the use of natural light, ample windows (very metaphoric for Frank wanting the world to see him in all his glory and to show off) give and open airy, easy breezy feel that carries through to the balcony scenes of Fisher’s Melanie in Freeport. Lighting and lensing never get heavy or weigh us down. Notable is that even a bathroom scene in Richard’s house where Mickey is being held hostage, even the bathroom has large window continuing that bright, white on white, easy breezy feel. Wonderful contrast to the darker umbered and shadowed hostage bedroom, yet even that has a balance with the light pink curlers and crystal perfume bottles. Clean and unfettered lensing lets you focus on the twisty story and the performances.

I would be remiss not to mention Jennifer Aniston in her capacity as Executive Producer. This is her bailiwick. Several years ago when she stepped into the producer’s chair with a very hands on approach with the movie “Management”, I told her then she has a real gift and knack for development and delivery. Again with the comedy “The Switch” (which is why the Leonard adaptation here had to have a different title) her ethics and style were everywhere and now with LIFE OF CRIME, her keen eye is again evident with casting, below the line artisans and the film’s overall vision and adherence to theme. Aniston is the kind of producer we hope to be and/or want to have.

Original score by the Newton Brothers is marvelous as are the actual vintage 70’s tracks popping up throughout the film. While no “mix tape 1” from “Guardians of the Galaxy”, the tracks are still period perfect and fun, adding their own level of tongue-in-cheek cheese to the proceedings!

It would be criminal for folks to not see LIFE OF CRIME!

Written and Directed by Daniel Schechter based on the novel “The Switch” by Elmore Leonard

Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins, John Hawkes, Isla Fisher, Will Forte, Mos Def

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Movie Review: Life Of Crime

Director: Daniel Schechter Cast: Tim Robbins, John Hawkes, Jennifer Aniston and Mos Def Crime comedies are a delightful breed of movies. They have the right amount of thrill and ample room for wit. Life Of Crime is one such gem. It’s genuinely funny, cleverly written and smartly acted. Author Elmore Leonard is known to be an excellent crime novel writer, and Life Of Crime is based on his acclaimed book The Switch. So the inventiveness and dexterity in writing is no surprise. With a stellar cast on offer this one does become a proverbial steal of a deal. This is a period film. It’s based in the late ‘70s and the setting makes it an even fresher prospect. Two con men hatch a plan to kidnap the trophy wife of a real estate magnet. Everything that could go wrong does go wrong. It helps that every character has an odd trait that makes the situation even more hilarious. The bad guys aren’t all that bad, the good guys aren’t all that good. The result is a nice blend of comedy of errors. There are certain insights in the writing that just blow you away. For instance, when the con men break into the house to kidnap the wife, they can’t move in at the instant, because she’s talking on the phone. There are many such instances of sublime intelligence. But if there’s one thing that movie lore has taught us, it’s that good source material doesn’t always make a good film. It all boils down to the interpretation and execution of the team making the film. It’s here that Life Of Crime truly finds its force. With names like Tim Robbins, John Hawkes, Jennifer Aniston and Mos Def on the roster things have to go right. But it’s the relatively new director / writer Daniel Schechter who surprises. His take on the story and his treatment of situations is brilliant. The characters are odd, the humour is subtle, witty and wry and the situations are ever so surreal. It’s reminiscent of the Coens’ brand of cinema. At least superficially. It’s definitely not as dark and masterful as a Coens’ film. But it is appropriately dialogue heavy and the scenes unintentionally funny. As it happens in every Coens’ movie, it’s the actors who hit the home runs. Life Of Crime benefits hugely due to the talents of Tim Robbins, John Hawkes, Mos Def and Jennifer Aniston. Robbins and Def are supporting characters. Yet they light up the situations with clinical performances. Hawkes and Aniston on the other hand make the odd couple. One is the kidnapper the other is the trophy wife. Put together they’re as unique and odd as the seventies. If you’re in India, do not waste time with other big ticket releases playing in theatres right now. Go watch this wonderfully executed and delightfully funny crime caper comedy. The characters will engage you, the story will surprise you and the dialogue will make you laugh out loud. Go criminally good time.

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Home » Review » Movie » Life of Crime

Life of Crime

Like a Diet Coke version of a classic Elmore Leonard romp.

A particularly muted Elmore Leonard adaptation, Daniel Schechter ‘s Life of Crime has real value in its cast and their skillful performances, but the remaining elements of the film, while not disastrous, lack focus and flair, eliciting half-hearted shrugs and soft laughs. It’s like a Diet Coke version of a classic Leonard romp: While Out of Sight and Jackie Brown crackled and popped, Life of Crime (based on “The Switch”) lightly fizzles and lacks the same big flavor. It’s tasty enough, but it’ll make you long for the real stuff.

We meet two small-time crooks in 1978 Detroit named Louis and Ordell (played by John Hawkes and Yasiin Bey , respectively). In their first kidnapping job, they target Mickey Dawson ( Jennifer Aniston ), the wife of country club blowhard Frank Taylor ( Tim Robbins ). Frank’s been doing illegal funny business on the side for a while (involving an off-shore bank account and other big-wig nonsense), knowledge of which Louis and Ordell use as leverage to up the pressure. One million dollars is the ransom, but as it turns out, Mickey isn’t worth a million dollars to Frank at all, since she and her drunk, boorish husband positively despise each other. In fact, Frank’s been secretly shacking up with another woman in the Bahamas named Melanie ( Isla Fisher ), who he plans on marrying. (The divorce papers were in the mail pre-kidnapping.)

Melanie forcefully takes the reigns on Frank’s side of the hostage negotiations, cunningly bending the situation to her whim. Few revelations or genuine surprises arise as the caper unfolds, but there are a few amusing tangles in the plot. Mark Boone Junior plays a burly Nazi nut whose grungy home the crooks use to stash Mickey, but when he’s left alone with her, things get pretty dicey. Will Forte plays a family friend who’s the only witness to Mickey’s kidnapping (he’s got the hots for her, too), but there’s little for him to do in the grand scheme of things.

Mickey develops a sort of friendship with Louis, who she senses is a generally nice guy, despite him being her captor and all. Aniston’s evolution throughout the film–from hapless housewife to thick-skinned tigress–is gratifying to watch. Hawkes and Bey complement each other surprisingly well (though Robert DeNiro and Samuel L. Jackson’s interpretations of the same characters in Jackie Brown are pretty untouchable), and Hawkes enjoys even better chemistry with Aniston. Robbins and Aniston have fun slinging venom, but there’s little drama at the bottom of it all.

Characters swap positions, deceive one another, and the sprawling plot spirals into a controlled chaos (as many Leonard capers do). The way the film wraps up, however, is so meek and uneventful that it’s hard not to feel disappointed. The labyrinthine events that lead us there aren’t anything to get excited about either. Most moments of tension feel way less tense than they’re supposed to, and most chats shared between the quippy characters are thin and soulless. The film just feels so…flimsy.

As far as set design, the period elements are so inconsistent I often forgot the film takes place in the ’70s. Schechter exhibits skill for sure, but whether or not he was pushing himself to be his best, I couldn’t tell. I don’t think so. He surely had a hand in his actors’ good performances, but there’s a pervading sense that he didn’t impose his style onto the project enough, as if he let the Hollywood stars do their own thing because they know what they’re doing. Check out Supporting Characters if you want to see what he’s really capable of.

Life of Crime trailer

Life of Crime Movie review

Life Of Crime Movie

Who's Involved:

Jennifer Aniston, Isla Fisher, John Hawkes, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Mos Def, Will Forte, Lee Stollman, Mark Boone Junior, Michael Siegel, Dan Schechter, Elmore Leonard

Release Date:

Friday, August 29, 2014 Limited

Plot: What's the story about?

Career criminals Ordell and Louis team up to kidnap Mickey Dawson, the wife of a corrupt Detroit real estate developer. When the husband refuses to pay the ransom for his wife's return, the ex-cons are forced to reconceive their plan, and the angry housewife uses the duo to get her revenge.

modified plot formulation from variety.com

2.86 / 5 stars ( 22 users)

Poll: Will you see Life Of Crime?

Who stars in Life Of Crime: Cast List

John Hawkes ... Louis Gara

End Of Sentence, Everest

Jennifer Aniston ... Mickey Dawson

Horrible Bosses, Just Go With It

Mark Boone Junior ... Richard

The Gateway, IDA Red

Mos Def ... Ordell Robbie

16 Blocks, Brown Sugar

Isla Fisher ... Melanie Ralston

The Present, Rango

Will Forte ... Marshall Taylor

Scoob!, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

Who's making Life Of Crime: Crew List

A look at the Life Of Crime behind-the-scenes crew and production team. The film's director Dan Schechter last directed Life of Crime . The film's writer Dan Schechter last wrote Life of Crime .

Dan Schechter

Screenwriter

Production Company

The Gotham Group

Watch Life Of Crime Trailers & Videos

Theatrical Trailer

Production: what we know about life of crime.

Based on the novel "The Switch," written by Elmore Leonard.

Filming Timeline

2013 - October : The film was set to Completed status.

Production is scheduled to start May 2012.

2010 - May : The film was set to Announced status.

Life Of Crime Release Date: When was the film released?

Life Of Crime was a Limited release in 2014 on Friday, August 29, 2014 . There were 7 other movies released on the same date, including As Above, So Below , The Congress and The Last of Robin Hood . As a Limited release, Life Of Crime will only be shown in select movie theaters across major markets. Please check Fandango and Atom Tickets to see if the film is playing in your area.

Life Of Crime DVD & Blu-ray Release Date: When was the film released?

Life Of Crime was released on DVD & Blu-ray on Tuesday, October 28 , 2014 .

Q&A Asked about Life Of Crime

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Also known as

Jackie Brown Prequel

Follow the Updates

Sun., Jul. 5, 2015
added Theatrical Trailer to trailers & videos
changed the status of Ty Burrell to Former
Sun., Sep. 14, 2014 from Amazon
added the US DVD release date of October 28, 2014
Sun., Mar. 23, 2014 from Roadside Attractions
changed the US film release date from TBA 2014 to August 29, 2014
Wed., Oct. 9, 2013 from Variety
changed the US film release date from TBA to TBA 2014
added Lionsgate Films as a distributor
added Roadside Attractions as a distributor

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LIFE OF CRIME

"life of grime".

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

What You Need To Know:

(RoRoRo, PaPa, LLL, VVV, SSS, NN, AA, DD, MMM) Very strong Romantic worldview with strong pagan elements; at least 70 obscenities, nine strong profanities and five light profanities; strong violence, mostly played for laughs, includes one criminal intentionally hits another with his van and then backs up over the man again, several gunfights, people shot, woman pokes peeping tom in eye with lit cigarette when she catches him, serious scene involving attempted rape, but woman kicks attacker in groin, and criminal is beaten by other criminal, who’s started to like the woman, man knocked unconscious in head and locked in closet, criminal accidentally hit by police car and gunfight ensues; three graphic depicted sex scenes but brief, and themes of adultery; upper female nudity; alcohol use and drunk driving causes crash; smoking and one character smokes marijuana; and, Neo-Nazi kidnapper dresses up like a police officer in an attempt to scare answers out of a man, kidnapping for ransom, everyone seems to be lying, disguising and deceiving each other over the million dollar ransom they’re fighting for with the kidnapping, greed, man doesn’t want to provide ransom for his wife because he just filed divorce papers.

More Detail:

LIFE OF CRIME is a crime farce that follows the double-crosses and mishaps that occur when a cheating husband surprisingly won’t pay the $1 million ransom for his kidnapped wife. LIFE OF CRIME is an abhorrent movie with a very strong Romantic worldview containing strong pagan elements, foul language and explicit lewd content.

The movie takes place in 1978 Detroit and appears to be trying to replicate the sense of style and time period that worked so well for AMERICAN HUSTLE last year, although it’s decidedly a more lightweight movie. Jennifer Aniston stars as Mickey, a rich housewife whose husband is cheating on her while also hiding nearly $2 million from her in a secret bank account through his shady real estate deals.

When two bumbling criminals played by Mos Def and John Hawkes are hired to kidnap her for a $1 million ransom, they think it will be an easy score. What they didn’t count on is that Mickey’s husband (Tim Robbins) had filed for divorce just two days before and has no interest in saving her. Instead, he’s at a getaway with his mistress and tries to see if the kidnappers are bluffing. Adding to the mayhem is the fact that a neighbor (Will Forte) who’s secretly in love with Mickey shows up trying to seduce her and is knocked out and locked in a closet by her kidnappers.

The kidnappers hold Mickey at the house of their Neo-Nazi criminal friend who’s both comically overweight and whose house is filled with Hitler memorabilia. More complications ensue as the kidnappers start to bicker among themselves. This leads to one of them making his own set of plans with the kidnap victim’s husband’s mistress.

Based on a novel by acclaimed writer Elmore Leonard, this is a complicated plot with a lot of twists. On an artistic level divorced from moral considerations, it’s well done and often funny. However, from a Christian standpoint, only Mickey the kidnap victim is an innocent and appealing figure. Everyone else is engaged in all manner of criminal or immoral behavior.

While it is hard to take these actions seriously since they are portrayed in a ridiculous fashion, it may be that the fact the filmmakers try to make viewers laugh at such behavior is of even greater concern. If any of this was meant to be taken truly seriously, it would be an unbearable two hours at the movies.

The performances are all solid, with everyone scoring laughs on a morally base level, yet with Aniston still stronger than everyone else as she delivers a fully sympathetic performance. Her performance only goes wrong in the movie’s closing shot when [SPOILER] it becomes clear that Mickey’s about to turn the tables on nearly everyone by joining her kidnappers in seizing another person.

Writer/Director Daniel Schechter does a good job of keeping humorous crime novelist Elmore Leonard’s work moving at a fast pace. Sadly, he includes a lot of strong, explicit foul language and lewd content in LIFE OF CRIME. Ultimately, the main question for media-wise viewers is whether there is any redeeming or positive message to this movie. LIFE OF CRIME has its laughs, but it will make discerning viewers feel like they’re covered in grime by the end.

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Movie review: Life of Crime

Life of Crime is about four people who have all seen better days, living in a city that has seen better days. This sense of what could have been permeates this crime caper/character study.

Directed by Daniel Schechter Starring Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins, Mos Def, John Hawkes, Isla Fisher, Mark Boone Junior Stars 3.5

Based on Elmore Leonard’s novel The Switch, it involves two small-time crooks, Louis (Hawkes) and Ordell (Def), and a woman, Mickey (Aniston), they kidnap hoping to make money off her rich, philanderer and not-so-above-board husband (Frank, played by Robbins). Only the husband, being the philanderer and not-so-above-board man that he is, isn’t interested in paying up. Any good intentions he has are cleverly tackled by his pushy mistress, Melanie (Fisher), while disinterestedly adjusting her bikini straps.

That’s not the only problem Louis and Ordell face. On the day they broke into Mickey’s immaculate suburban home to kidnap her, a family friend who has a crush on her also landed up with martinis in hand. If that guy is a ticking time bomb, so is the owner of the house Louis and Ordell are keeping Mickey in. Richard (Boone Junior) has Nazi flags all over his house, a vague hatred for Jews and “niggers” — though no problems with the very Black Ordell — and wields guns and herbs with equal ease. Unknown to Louis and Ordell, he has drilled holes in walls and the toilet door to watch Mickey.

Louis and Ordell incidentally featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, based on Leonard’s own sort-of sequel to The Switch: The Rum Punch.

At the leisurely pace set by Schechter, also the screenwriter, each of the actors has a clear understanding of what is demanded of him or her. Hawkes is the lover boy half in awe of Mickey even before he has entered her house. Def is the driver of this crime who knows when he is being had. Aniston is the long-suffering and (yes!) drab wife who perceptibly blossoms away from her husband’s company. Robbins is the unlikeable cad who throws his weight around but, when the going gets tough, lets his much-too-young mistress do all the heavy lifting. Boone Junior is the clumsy oaf who may or may not be the killer he thinks he is. Fisher does the most delicate balancing act of all, knowing when her man wants her to lie low and when he wouldn’t mind her on top.

The film itself could do with some bit of tightening, but while they are on screen, it’s a pleasure to watch each one of them. Particularly Aniston, who once again shows that she clearly understands what she represents and how to make the most of it.

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Under the Bridge review: Lily Gladstone stars in true crime drama that gets under the skin of small-town life

Television: killers of the flower moon star doesn’t get enough to do here, but the show still feels chillingly real.

Lily Gladstone struggles to bring her character to life in the early episodes. Photograph: Getty Images

Thrillers centred on the murder of a child or teenager make for gruelling viewing – even more so when the perpetrators are adolescents, too. That is the gristly scenario at play in Under the Bridge (Disney+, from Wednesday) a bleak true crime miniseries starring Killers of the Flower Moon Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone as a cop in 1990s Canada investigating the disappearance of a local teen.

The 1990s are becoming television’s favourite new backdrop – particularly where troubled teenage girls are involved. The decade is the setting for the Paramount+ hit Yellowjackets, about a high-school soccer team stranded in the wild, where they immediately turn feral. Under the Bridge, meanwhile, nods gravely at a Kurt Cobain lyric (from Something In The Way) and unfolds in 1997 on Vancouver Island off the coast of mainland British Columbia.

Gladstone plays an officer contacted by the family of Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta), a 14-year-old who vanishes after going out to party with some friends. In fact, her “friends” are a group of girls from a local care home with whom she has an unhappy history – a fact uncovered by Riley Keough’s investigative journalist Rebecca Godfrey, a Vancouver local who has returned from New York to write a book about teen delinquency.

Godfrey was a real person and the author of the 2005 non-fiction bestseller Under the Bridge (she died in 2022 from cancer). Reena Virk was real too – and her death was a defining chapter in Canada in the late 1990s, credited with fuelling a “moral panic” over the misbehaviour of teen girls.

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It’s far too late to protest the rise of the true crime genre and the repackaging for mass entertainment of the suffering of innocent people. In its defence, Under the Bridge is respectful of Virk and what her family went through. The show is chiefly interested in the teenage subculture that provided the context for her murder.

That isn’t to say it doesn’t occasionally lay on the melodrama. A cringeworthy opening monologue will have viewers fearing the worst as Keough waffles on about the cruel fate invariably suffered by girls in fairy tales.

Still, Keough has a lot to work with as Godfrey – a small-town kid who got out and forged her own life but has always carried some backwoods Canada with her. Gladstone is less well served by Detective Cam Bentland, who initially comes across as just another disinterested cop. Cam is fleshed out further in, but, in her early episodes, she is an underwritten pen-pusher – a two-dimensional character Gladstone struggles to bring to life.

Under the Bridge is heavy with menace, and its air of pervasive doom won’t be to all tastes. It isn’t much of a whodunit either – we know from the outset what happened and why. But as a portrait of small-town poverty and prejudice, it feels devastatingly true to life and often is horrifying to watch.

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What Is Cinema?

Perfect Wife Makes Gone Girl Look Like a Fairy Tale

By Eve Batey

Image may contain Electrical Device Microphone Adult Person Paparazzi Accessories Glasses Wristwatch and Jewelry

You’re forgiven if you think you’ve already watched a true-crime docuseries about the case in Perfect Wife. It’s the story of a beautiful blond woman who was mysteriously abducted from a Northern California town in the mid-2010s, then emerged from captivity to growing skepticism from local law enforcement. Based on that outline alone, it sounds enough like the recent series American Nightmare that a certain amount of market confusion is understandable—but it’s also incorrect.

That’s because Perfect Wife, which drops on Hulu Thursday, June 20, is a photo negative of the abduction and vindication of American Nightmare ’s Denise Huskins. Instead, it’s the story of a bizarre, yearslong deception, by a (spoiler alert!) convicted perpetrator who still insists they did nothing wrong.

Sherri Papini, then a 34-year-old mother of two, made national headlines after she vanished while out on a run near her Redding, California, home on November 2, 2016—leaving behind her cell phone, headphones, and a chunk of hair. Keith Papini, her husband, was targeted as a suspect by online sleuths, who dissected every move he made in his many media appearances. “Everybody thought I was a suspect,” he says in an interview. “But I had nothing to hide. And I certainly, at that time, did not think Sherri had anything to hide.”

Three weeks later, on Thanksgiving Day, Sherri was discovered by the side of a remote road, covered in injuries and a chain around her waist. She refused to speak with police initially, but eventually said two women had taken her captive, trapped her in a small, dark room, and starved, beat, and branded her. A dispute in Spanish between the pair prompted one of the women to release her, Papini said. Her memories of her captivity were foggy, and her trauma appeared severe.

Law enforcement tried in vain to find the women, as the community worried that Sherri’s abduction was part of a larger pattern. Suspicion shifted from Keith to any pair of Latinx women you might see on the street. Reunited with her family, Sherri appeared to struggle emotionally, telling Keith at one point that “I have to live with the fact that you never found me.”

“I remember I was pleading with her,” Keith says now. “Like, ‘I did everything I could, I’m so sorry you had to go through that.’”

“She knew what she was doing in that moment. And to this day, I remember that time, and it hurts. I’ll forever remember that.”

That’s because in 2020, after years of dead ends, investigators with the FBI and the Shasta County Sheriff's Office discovered that Sherri hadn’t been abducted at all.

That shocking twist is what attracted true-crime filmmaker Erin Lee Carr ( Britney vs Spears , The Ringleader ) to the story. Carr, an executive producer on the series, suggested director Michael Beach Nichols tell the tale.

“I was immediately compelled, and shocked that I hadn’t heard about it before,” Nichols says. “There’s this huge hook—just when you hear what the story is, you’re immediately sucked in.”

The three-episode series unfolds chronologically, rewarding viewers who stick with an initial episode that appears to detail a straightforward kidnapping. Nichols admits that the approach was a gamble, saying that he wanted to “immerse the audience in what everyone was experiencing at that time, in real time.” It’s as the show continues, and we see more and more interviews with Keith—but none with Sherri—that we start to realize that things aren’t what they seem.

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In a stunning piece of interrogation room footage , we finally learn the truth. DNA discovered on Sherri’s clothing was linked to James Reyes, one of Papini’s ex-boyfriends. When investigators tracked him down, he told them that Sherri had asked him to pick her up at a staged abduction site, then to take her back to his home in Costa Mesa, hundreds of miles down the coast. She’d even asked him to help her injure herself to bolster her kidnapping claims, he said. (Reyes was not charged in connection to the crime.)

A federal agent and sheriff’s deputy reveal this to Sherri as Keith sits next to her, and we watch via a camera above. It’s a remarkable, axis-shifting moment. “She fooled him, which is a lot more understandable because it's his partner,” Nichols says. “But she also fooled law enforcement, high levels of law enforcement.”

Almost two years later, Sherri pleaded guilty to lying to a federal officer and to mail fraud (the latter related to funds she received from California Victim’s Compensation Board based on her false story), and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. When asked by a federal judge if she had been kidnapped, she answered “No.” Keith filed for divorce two days later.

“It's sad,” Keith says now. “I loved this woman. I would have done anything for her. I love our children. I was blindsided.”

According to Nichols, Keith would make self-deprecating jokes about being the “idiot husband” to the crew. “And we were just like, ‘What are you talking about? Like, who would think that their partner would lie about all of this?’”

“His whole sense of identity was tied into having this relationship with his wife, the mother of his children.” Nichols says. “If he doesn't believe in that, then all of that just crumbles. I completely understand why someone would want to fight for that, and would want to fight for the relationship and would want to believe their partner.”

In the years since, Keith has grown more clear-eyed about what he refers to as Sherri’s “craft.” But he doesn’t seem angry or resentful. In fact, there’s a comforting sense of peace to the man. More than once, he expresses concern to me that, as a NorCal resident myself (I live in San Francisco), I might have lived in fear when news of Sherri’s abduction broke.

He’s not wrong. When Sherri’s kidnapping was in the news, my husband asked me not to go for a run in Golden Gate Park—and if I must go, not to wear headphones. Keith winces when I tell him that. “The ripple effect,” he says, “I take that on.

“I think of all the people that didn’t let their kids ride bikes anymore. I just overwhelmingly…” He trails off. “I'm just so sorry.” That self-inflicted guilt is one of the main reasons he participated in the series, Keith says. “I really wanted to say thank you, for everyone coming together.”

Sherri was released from prison last fall, and has returned to the same community that searched so hard for her eight years ago. Keith, however, has no contact with her. “I don't talk to her whatsoever, with the exception if we have a court date. We’re not talking, but we’re in the same room. And she sees the kids once a month on professionally supervised visits.” A final custody arrangement has yet to be agreed upon.

Nichols says he tried every avenue he could to speak with Sherri, but she never responded. That means the motive for her deception remains a mystery. Even now, Nichols thinks Keith is still “worried that Sherri will be believed, because he believed her for six years.” When I ask how this could be, after she admitted to the hoax in court, Nichols pauses for a moment.

“Based on what we’ve heard from people that are closer to Sherri, it seems like she’s sort of sticking to her story, that she was abducted. There’s a whole story that she’s still telling.”

“I would wager that she’s not happier now than she was when this all happened,” the filmmaker adds—a notable contrast to how Keith says he feels today.

“I wanted to let the community and my friends and family members know that we’re doing great, the kids are thriving,” he says. “A lot of people will go through a lot of very crazy things in their lives. Mine was publicized, and mine was put out there. And it’s very odd and strange. But you know, I need to be there for my kids. I don’t have time to sit there and yell at everybody. And I just need to keep moving forward.”

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The 25 Best Crime Movies of All Time, Ranked

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Real-life crime might not be the greatest thing in the world, but movies about crime? That's another matter altogether. The crime genre is one of the most thrilling, engrossing, and emotional of all the core movie genres. Some offer escapism through anti-hero characters, some fictionalize real-life stories in a more cinematic fashion, and some are more serious, tackling grim or dark stories that aim to challenge audiences or otherwise prove thought-provoking.

It's naturally a genre that's all-encompassing, given how fun some crime movies can be, and how crushingly sad or brutally realistic others can be. Some even juggle multiple tones at once, and so it stands to reason that the crime genre can be pretty easily combined with other genres. As such, coming up with a definitive list of the greatest crime movies of all time is a difficult task, but what follows is an attempt to do just that (and hopefully, any potential omissions won't feel too criminal).

25 'Ocean's Eleven' (2001)

Directed by steven soderbergh.

Linus (Matt Damon), Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) sitting at a poker table in their room Ocean's Eleven

2001's Ocean's Eleven is the rare example of a remake surpassing the original . While the 1960 film of the same name was decent for its time, the updated version made noticeable improvements when it came to tone, pacing, and characters, and is an overall breezier, more enjoyable heist movie than the original. It also has one of the most impressive casts of all time, including big names like George Clooney , Matt Damon , Brad Pitt , and Julia Roberts , too.

The plot is technically about assembling a team to steal $150 million from several Las Vegas casinos in one night, but it's really just an excuse to get as many big Hollywood stars in one movie as possible (and the cast is great, so it's hard to complain). Its sequels weren't quite as good, but Ocean's Eleven holds up well as a solidly entertaining crime/thriller movie .

Ocean's Eleven

Rent on Apple TV

24 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover' (1989)

Directed by peter greenaway.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover takes place inside a classy restaurant... though the titular thief ( Michael Gambon in an amazing villainous performance ) dining there every night is making it a far less desirable place. He bullies his entourage of gang members, makes the restaurant staff uncomfortable, and consistently torments his wife ( Helen Mirren ), who one day strikes back against his behavior by starting an affair with one of the restaurant's other frequent patrons.

This kicks off a very disturbing yet engrossing (and also just kind of gross) story about murder, sex, abuse, and greed, and on top of all that, it can also be read as a darkly comedic critique of Britain's political climate in the 1980s. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover is a brilliant, nauseating, relentless, and multi-layered film , and arguably one of the most underrated within the crime genre.

Buy on Amazon

23 'Gangs of Wasseypur' (2012)

Directed by anurag kashyap.

An Indian crime epic that runs for over five hours and was released in two parts, Gangs of Wasseypur is everything you could want out of a large-scale gangster movie . It begins in the 1940s and ends seven decades later, telling the story of three generations worth of warfare between two crime families in the Indian city of Dhanbad.

It's a film that overall wears its influences on its sleeve, but borrows from enough sources - and remixes them in interesting enough ways - to ensure it never feels like it's ripping anything off. There's nothing else quite like it, and it impressively stays exciting and entertaining for every minute of its gargantuan runtime. This makes Gangs of Wasseypur a fantastic epic movie , and one of the best to come out in the last decade or so, with the 5+ hours of runtime being more than worth sticking with.

Watch on Mubi

22 'Dog Day Afternoon' (1975)

Directed by sidney lumet.

Al Pacino as Sonny aiming a gun while at a bank in Dog Day Afternoon

Al Pacino has always been able to pull off some fantastically "big" performances, and the classic Dog Day Afternoon gives him plenty of chances to do just that. It's a consistently tense film, following the true story of a bank robbery that spirals out of control and becomes a huge sensation in the news.

It's such an efficiently paced and always engaging movie, with the action kicking off almost immediately and things never really letting up until the end. Dog Day Afternoon is the kind of film where it feels as though everything fits into place neatly, and as such, it's hard to come up with too many things about it that can be criticized . When it comes to picking which Al Pacino movies are the best he ever starred in, Dog Day Afternoon will always be right up there.

Dog Day Afternoon

21 'white heat' (1949), directed by raoul walsh.

James Cagney standing on top of a burning tank in White Heat - 1949

Old-school black-and-white gangster movies might feel like a product of their time to some fans of the crime genre, but those viewers might be surprised to learn how well some of the genre's early films hold up. White Heat was by no means the first film of its kind, but it arguably represents the "classic" (or at least pre-1960s) gangster movie at its best. White Heat stands out among these classic gangster films , considering it was released in the 1940s rather than the 1930s, but is definitely a highlight of its decade.

It follows one particularly intense criminal as he plans a heist shortly after breaking out of prison, only for things to inevitably collapse around him. It stars the great James Cagney in what might be his very best role, and proves to be an explosive send-off to the sorts of crime movies that Hollywood made in the 1930s and 1940s.

Watch on IndieFlix

20 'The Untouchables' (1987)

Directed by brian de palma.

Crime movies set during the Prohibition era don't get much more iconic than The Untouchables . Make no mistake; it's a far from historically accurate movie, but is instead a highly fictionalized (and very Hollywood) depiction of how law enforcement agent Eliot Ness put together a team to try and take down Al Capone and his criminal empire.

As long as you accept that it breaks from reality a bunch of times, The Untouchables is a blast. It's got a great cast that includes Robert De Niro , Kevin Costner , and Sean Connery , features the flash and style you'd expect from a Brian De Palma movie, and also has a great score by the legendary Ennio Morricone . Perhaps it's a little bit schmaltzy and over-the-top in parts, but in typical De Palma style, the heightened elements of The Untouchables work and serve to make it more memorable.

The Untouchables

Watch on Hoopla

19 'Rope' (1948)

Directed by alfred hitchcock.

There are obviously plenty of great Alfred Hitchcock movies that cross over into the crime genre, though many are more clearly identifiable as thrillers. Still, it would be unjust to completely pass over all Hitchcock movies when going over some of the best crime movies of all time, and one of his best (and most underrated) crime-related movies would have to be Rope .

It follows two young men who attempt to pull off the perfect crime and get away with it, hiding the body of their newly murdered classmate under a table and then having his family/friends around to their apartment for a dinner party. Rope takes place in real-time and is filmed to look like one shot, making it a technical marvel on top of being tension-filled and exciting throughout.

Watch on Criterion

18 'Once Upon a Time in America' (1984)

Directed by sergio leone.

Robert De Niro as Noodles in Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

It's fitting that Sergio Leone 's final film ends up feeling like a farewell to a certain point in history, as well as something of a eulogy for the gangster genre as a whole, given its deconstructive nature. That film is the nearly four-hour epic Once Upon a Time in America , and it stands to this day as a massive achievement that's seldom been topped; indeed, one of Leone's very best movies , which is really saying something.

It spans decades and follows several young boys who grow up to become successful bootleggers during Prohibition, only for greed to tear their once tight-knit group apart. Once Upon a Time in America is a disturbing and sometimes hard-to-watch film, but is ultimately a powerful one that's unafraid to show a criminal lifestyle at its ugliest (that it looks and sounds beautiful also helps it hold up as a masterpiece).

Once Upon a Time in America

Watch on Tubi

17 'Uncut Gems' (2019)

Directed by the safdie brothers.

Adam Sandler showing off a gold necklace in Uncut Gems

While Uncut Gems has a little comedic relief, those expecting it to be a light-hearted and/or silly comedy like most Adam Sandler movies are going to be in for a shock. It's an anxiety-inducing movie about a compulsive jeweler who never knows when to quit, and is continually borrowing money (and angering loan sharks) in his never-ending quest to earn the ultimate score. This makes Uncut Gems a dark comedy, an intense thriller, and a grim exploration of the nature of addiction, too .

Much of the film has a frantic feel to it, with constant profane dialogue - much of it yelled - and characters seemingly always talking over each other. Like its protagonist, Uncut Gems never slows down, and though it might be too stomach-churning for some to handle, you have to admire a film that can sustain a level of stress for an entire 2+ hour runtime.

Watch on Netflix

16 'L.A. Confidential' (1997)

Directed by curtis hanson.

Russell Crowe standing next to Guy Pearce who is looking into a car in L.A. Confidential

The original era of film noir movies may have only lasted throughout the 1940s and 1950s, but movies like L.A. Confidential have been instrumental in keeping the spirit of film noir alive. It's one of the best neo-noir movies of all time, and follows three detectives in the 1950s who are trying to solve a series of brutal murders.

L.A. Confidential is an exciting and unpredictable film, and has more than enough plot twists and narrative left-turns to keep even hardened film noir connoisseurs on their toes. It's a dark, gritty, but always entertaining look at Hollywood's sleazier side, and seamlessly catapulted various film noir tropes and traditions into the post-modern 1990s. L.A. Confidential is certainly the greatest film Curtis Hanson ever made, and probably stands as the best movie Kim Basinger has ever appeared in, too.

L.A. Confidential (1997)

15 'badlands' (1973), directed by terrence malick.

In his debut feature film, Terrence Malick took on writing, directing, and producing duties, and made a movie that stands as a classic of the crime genre in the process. The movie in question is 1973's Badlands , which follows two young lovebirds who go on the run after one of them commits a murder. It's straightforward in a way that stands out among Terrence Malick's films , but retains the poetic visuals and overall feel present in his later films.

Violent crimes follow this murder, leading them to need to venture further away from civilization if they're to have any chance of living in peace. Badlands is a movie that's as poetic as it is shocking and violent , and is overall a beautifully shot and surprisingly emotional film that also contains two great performances from Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen (both very young at the time of release).

14 'City of God' (2002)

Directed by fernando meirelles and kátia lund.

city-of-god-alice-braga-alexandre-rodrigues

City of God is frequently regarded as one of the greatest Brazilian films of all time , and is right up there with the best crime movies of the 21st century so far. It follows a large group of characters who are living in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, following them while they're children in the 1960s and then teenagers/young adults in the 1970s.

It spans a good deal of time and bounces around between characters frequently, but never becomes unfocused or hard to follow. It's a well-balanced and very moving film, and highlights a difficult and often cutthroat way of life that was reality for many, given the film's loosely based on true events and people. City of God doesn't just work as an ambitious/sprawling gangster film, but its focus on younger characters also enables it to be a surprisingly great coming-of-age movie .

Watch on Paramount+

13 'Chinatown' (1974)

Directed by roman polanski.

Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway as Jake Gittes and Evelyn Cross driving in Chinatown

Neo-noir crime mysteries don't get a whole lot more iconic than Chinatown . It's a film that's set in Los Angeles during the 1930s, and follows a private detective ( played by Jack Nicholson , who's seldom been better than he is here) who gets wrapped up in a surprisingly complex conspiracy that involves murder, corruption, and various other unpleasant things.

The plot thickens after basically every individual scene in Chinatown , but it's never too confusing for viewers who are open to paying attention, with the film striking a great balance between being clear and also keeping various mysteries up in the air. It all comes together (and comes crashing down) during its memorable ending, too, which is essentially what cements an already very good film as a classic.

12 'Double Indemnity' (1944)

Directed by billy wilder.

Barbara Stanwyck standing behind a door as Fred MacMurray stands in the door way in Double Indemnity

Even though it's almost 80 years old, Double Indemnity is still a fantastic watch and has basically aged like a fine wine. When it comes to picking the greatest classic film noir movie of all time, Double Indemnity is usually a contender, as it epitomizes the genre and represents the overall style of film noir at its best.

In classic noir fashion, the protagonist is an inquisitive man who gets immersed too deeply into a complex plot filled with betrayal, greed, and passion, and it benefits from having an all-time great femme fatale villain as well. Parts of it might feel cliché nowadays, but Double Indemnity was a formative film noir movie , and in many ways helped define how these sorts of movies play out, which is something that most classic movies tend to do.

11 'Reservoir Dogs' (1992)

Directed by quentin tarantino.

Two characters pointing guns at each other in Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Tarantino exploded onto the film scene with his debut feature, Reservoir Dogs , and his career has been going strong ever since. It's a complex film made with a fairly low budget, centering on the aftermath of a heist that went disastrously wrong, and the way all the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of their own may be working with the police.

Reservoir Dogs is a fierce and often confronting film, being surprisingly uncompromising for a director's debut , and overall manages to be one of his most violent movies while also being a little more grim and serious than many of the movies he'd direct after 1992. Yet it's also very stylish and consistently entertaining, and though it borrows from other movies (as Tarantino likes to do), it combines its influences in a way that still manages to feel distinct and unlike much else out there.

Reservoir Dogs

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10 'Bonnie and Clyde' (1967)

Directed by arthur penn.

Bonnie and Clyde looking in the same direction in Bonnie And Clyde (1967)

The American film industry started to get more radical in the 1960s (an undeniably great decade for cinema, it has to be said), with the movement away from the Hays Code and towards auteur filmmaking ultimately giving birth to the New Hollywood movement in the 1970s. And one film that's always mentioned as being instrumental in ushering in that era is 1967's Bonnie and Clyde .

Bonnie and Clyde is a stylish depiction of its titular duo's exploits during The Great Depression , with the two falling in love and pursuing a restless life of crime, mainly through various bank robberies. For its time, Bonnie and Clyde was a shockingly violent and jarringly edited movie, but it helped redefine what the American film industry was capable of producing, and helped audiences get acclimated to a higher level of violence and more morally complex characters.

Bonnie and Clyde

9 'zodiac' (2007), directed by david fincher.

Robert Downey Jr.sitting next to Jake Gyllenhaal watching him write in Zodiac

The Zodiac Killer is one of the most infamous serial killers in history, particularly because the five known murders they committed remain unsolved to this day. 2007's Zodiac is a film that explores the drama surrounding the case at the time it was unfolding, and follows three determined men who try (yet ultimately fail) to identify the killer.

Making a movie about such a well-known case could have led to something uninspired or superfluous, but director David Fincher spared no expense in making the most comprehensive movie about the case possible, leading to a great film . It remains unnerving and engaging for its entire runtime (over 2.5 hours) even with the knowledge that the movie will ultimately finish with the case still unresolved. It's safe to say that this makes Zodiac a tremendously intense and uneasy crime/mystery film.

8 'High and Low' (1963)

Directed by akira kurosawa.

Toshiro Mifune as Kingo Gondo smoking a cigarette and staring at shoes kept on the table in 'High and Low'

One of many great Akira Kurosawa movies , High and Low is a film that shows the legendary Japanese filmmaker was capable of more than just samurai movies. High and Low follows a complex kidnapping case after the employee of an executive has his son held for ransom, with the executive becoming a victim of extortion as a result.

It's a movie that always moves at a steady pace, benefiting from Kurosawa's typically great direction and a large cast that showcases some of Japan's best actors, including the always great Toshirō Mifune , Tatsuya Nakadai (who also starred in Kurosawa's Ran ), and Takashi Shimura (who's the actor who most often collaborated with Kurosawa). It's a complex and rewarding film, and arguably the greatest Japanese crime movie of all time.

High and Low

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7 'Scarface' (1983)

Even though 1932's Scarface is very good, 1983's Scarface is even better. It's a perfect crime movie for the 1980s, being big, showy, and even excessive while exploring excess, greed, and the unstoppable appetite of its main character, Tony Montana, which ultimately proves to be his downfall. Its message is far from subtle, but the overall bombastic style and theatricality of Scarface makes it work, and it ends up being a surprisingly great morality play as a result.

Scarface may be a little over-the-top for some, but it embraces those over-the-top elements and weaponizes its grandiosity to comment on the criminal lifestyle of its heavily flawed protagonist. That it does this while also having great pacing, fantastically bombastic performances, and an iconic soundtrack is inevitably what makes it such a superb crime film.

6 'Fargo' (1996)

Directed by the coen brothers.

Marge Gunderson closes one eye as she aims her pistol in Fargo

The Coen Brothers are no strangers to crime-related movies, and though 2007's No Country for Old Men was their most successful come awards season, it's 1996's Fargo that arguably stands as their best crime movie (or maybe even their best film in general). If you were to count it as a comedy, it would have to rank as one of their best, though it's arguably more of a crime/drama/thriller film than a comedy.

Fargo has an iconic setting, endlessly quotable dialogue, and too many memorable performances to count , with Frances McDormand (who's been in a great many movies directed by the Coen Brothers ) winning an Oscar for her lead performance as Marge Gunderson. It's thrilling, darkly funny, and even has a surprising amount of heart for a crime movie, making it an all-around classic by any definition of the word.

Hit Crime Drama to Finally Start Streaming 25 Years After Series Ended

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The hit crime drama series Homicide: Life on the Street will soon finally start streaming. The news comes 25 years after the series ended its run in 1999.

The show, which ran for seven seasons from 1993 to 1999, was based on the book by David Simon. On social media, Simon revealed that NBC had finally managed to clear the rights to the music used for Homicide: Life on the Street , the apparent hurdle that has been holding up the show from getting a proper streaming release. While a specific platform has not yet been named, it seems that NBCUniversal's Peacock would be the most likely home.

Law & Order: SVU Gave This Stranger Things Star One of His First Roles

While David Harbour is a household name due to his role in Stranger Things, one of his first big roles came from Law & Order: SVU.

"Word is that NBC has managed to finally secure the music rights necessary to sell Homicide: Life on the Street to a streaming platform ," Simon said, going on to pay tribute to some of the show's stars who've since passed away. " Andre [Braugher] , Richard [Belzer], Yaphet [Kotto], Ned [Beatty], and so many others who labored on that wonderful show on both sides of the camera will soon regain a full share of their legacy. Stay tuned for more details."

"Word is that NBC has managed to finally secure the music rights necessary to sell Homicide: Life on the Street to a streaming platform."

When asked to clarify the situation with the rights to Homicide , Simon added, "In the case of Homicide , the rights were negotiated long ago before streaming existed as a viewing platform. A fair compensation for the new use needed to be negotiated ."

Split Images of hilip Seymour Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson in Law and Order 1991

This Early Law & Order Episode Is Still One of Its Best

Law & Order as a franchise has had countless iconic episodes, but one of its earliest still stands apart as one of the show's greatest of all time.

In December 2023, Simon had hinted that NBCUniversal was "at last attempting, along with Fremantle on the overseas rights, to clear music rights on Homicide for eventual streaming. Lot of work to do [to] achieve that, however, I am also told... There is a lot of licensed music in the show from a vast array of artists. They didn’t pay for future platforms [in the 1990s]. And do you know what? Artists deserve to be paid for their work earning money for corporations on various platforms.”

Homicide: Life on the Street to Start Streaming Soon

The TV series was developed by Paul Attanasio. It followed the officers of the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit with a large ensemble cast. The show was connected to the Law & Order franchise by featuring Richard Belzer's John Munch as a main character. Other cast members included Andre Braugher, Daniel Baldwin, Clark Johnson, Yaphet Kotto, Melissa Leo, John Polito, Kyle Secor, Ned Beatty, Isabelle Hofmann, Reed Diamond, Jon Seda, Željko Ivanek, and Giancarlo Esposito.

For the sake of the fans, hopefully, a streaming premiere date will be announced soon for Homicide: Life on the Street .

Homicide: Life on the Street

An American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit.

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COMMENTS

Life of Crime movie review & film summary (2014)
Life of Crime. The late great Elmore Leonard, on whose novel "The Switch" this movie is based, gets an executive producer credit on the movie. It's significant, perhaps, that said credit doesn't appear until after the movie's played out. Shows a certain confidence on the part of the other filmmakers: they didn't feel the need to ...
Life of Crime (2013)
Life of Crime is as witty and wonderful on the big screen as on the page. Dec 14, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews Audience Reviews View All (189) audience reviews. Jerod S For all that was going ...
Life of Crime: 1984-2020 movie review (2021)
Life of Crime: 1984-2020. "Everyone has their story.". Director Jon Alpert clearly believes that line, said near the end of his newest documentary. The HBO producer has devoted decades of his life to three stories of people caught in the grip of crime and addiction in Newark, New Jersey. In 1989, Alpert released "One Year in a Life of ...
Life of Crime (2013)
Life of Crime: Directed by Daniel Schechter. With Jennifer Aniston, John Hawkes, Isla Fisher, Will Forte. Two common criminals get more than they bargained for after kidnapping the wife of a corrupt real-estate developer who shows no interest in paying the $1 million dollar ransom for her safe return.
Life of Crime (2013)
8/10. An excellent low-key thriller. johnpetersca 8 September 2014. In Life of Crime, unlike many crime thrillers, the focus is on the characters rather than on achievement of maximum possible violence.
Review: 'Life of Crime' is true to mayhem and humor of Elmore Leonard
The year is 1978, and "Life of Crime" starts, as Leonard novels frequently do, in Detroit, with Ordell and Louis having a pleasantly low-rent conversation about a crime they're thinking of ...
Life of Crime (film)
Life of Crime is a 2013 American black comedy crime film written and directed by Daniel Schechter, based on Elmore Leonard's novel The Switch (1978), which includes characters later revisited in his novel Rum Punch (1992), which was adapted into the Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown (1997). Life of Crime was screened on the closing night 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, on the ...
Life of Crime
Life of Crime - Metacritic. 2014. R. Lionsgate Films. 1 h 38 m. Summary The wife (Jennifer Aniston) of a corrupt real estate developer (Tim Robbins) is kidnapped by two common criminals (Yasiin Bey and John Hawkes), who intend to extort him with inside information about his crooked business and off-shore accounts.
'Life Of Crime' Has Authentic Elmore Leonard Snap : NPR
His 1978 book The Switch has been turned into a film called Life of Crime. Review Movie Reviews 'Life Of Crime' Has Authentic Elmore Leonard Snap. August 29, 2014 5:02 AM ET. Heard on ...
Life of Crime
Life of Crime lets sugar seep into where it could be pouring salt. At the end of the day, it's a film that deserves to be more memorable than the bland title renders it. Full Review | Original ...
'Life of Crime,' Based on Elmore Leonard's 'The Switch'
"Life of Crime," to paraphrase a character from Mr. Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction," isn't in the same ballpark or sport. But as a late-summer caper movie, it hits the spot.
Life of Crime Movie Review
The movie is filled with criminals who eventually. Violence & Scariness. A woman is kidnapped by two men; they're fairly ge. Sex, Romance & Nudity. In two quick scenes, a minor character is shown ha. Language. Language is strong throughout, with uses of "f--k, Products & Purchases Not present. Drinking, Drugs & Smoking.
Life Of Crime Review
Read the Empire Movie review of Life Of Crime. Missing the punchy plotting of the Coens thriller it resembles, the early chuckles don't quite...
Life of Crime Doesn't Transcend Its Haphazard Story
movie review 1:30 p.m. Harmony Korine's New Anti-Movie Aggro Dr1ft Looks Cool For a Few Minutes The night-vision hit-man feature starring Jordi Molla and Travis Scott is a unique exercise in tedium.
Life of Crime Review
It took a long time for the works of breezily comedic crime novelist Elmore Leonard to be properly translated on screen. After an endless stream of misconceived and overly dour adaptations, the 90s brought audiences the near perfect trifecta in the forms of Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, and Out of Sight.Part of it was timing, as the 90s were an age of the talky crime comedy that Leonard pioneered.
'Life of Crime' Review: Jennifer Aniston Dark Comedy Is Pure Escapism
While out-in-the-streets women's libbers enjoyed their 1970s heyday in the battlegrounds of New York and D.C., Aniston's Mickey, a Detroit housewife, embarks on her own journey of self ...
LIFE OF CRIME
It would be criminal for folks to not see LIFE OF CRIME! Written and Directed by Daniel Schechter based on the novel "The Switch" by Elmore Leonard. Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins, John Hawkes, Isla Fisher, Will Forte, Mos Def. Behind the Lens is your home for in-depth movie reviews, filmmaker & celebrity interviews, and more, all by ...
Movie Review: Life Of Crime
Reviews; Movie Review: Life Of Crime; Movie Review: Life Of Crime. Follow On. Rachit Gupta Sep 4, 2014, 15:04 IST. Director: Daniel Schechter Cast: Tim Robbins, John Hawkes, Jennifer Aniston and ...
'Life of Crime' movie review: When ransom goes wrong
August 28, 2014 at 3:13 p.m. EDT. Louis (John Hawkes) and his partner kidnap Mickey (Jennifer Aniston), the wife of a crooked businessman, with the intent to seek a ransom in "Life of Crime ...
Life of Crime Movie, Review
A particularly muted Elmore Leonard adaptation, Daniel Schechter's Life of Crime has real value in its cast and their skillful performances, but the remaining elements of the film, while not disastrous, lack focus and flair, eliciting half-hearted shrugs and soft laughs.It's like a Diet Coke version of a classic Leonard romp: While Out of Sight and Jackie Brown crackled and popped, Life of ...
Everything You Need to Know About Life Of Crime Movie (2014)
Life Of Crime was a Limited release in 2014 on Friday, August 29, 2014. There were 7 other movies released on the same date, including As Above, So Below , Yellow and The Last of Robin Hood . As a Limited release, Life Of Crime will only be shown in select movie theaters across major markets.
LIFE OF CRIME
LIFE OF CRIME is an abhorrent movie with a very strong Romantic worldview containing strong pagan elements, foul language and explicit lewd content. The movie takes place in 1978 Detroit and appears to be trying to replicate the sense of style and time period that worked so well for AMERICAN HUSTLE last year, although it's decidedly a more ...
Movie review: Life of Crime
Life of Crime review. Directed by Daniel Schechter Starring Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins, Mos Def, John Hawkes, Isla Fisher, Mark Boone Junior Stars 3.5. Life of Crime is about four people who have all seen better days, living in a city that has seen better days. This sense of what could have been permeates this crime caper/character study.
'Fresh Kills' Review: The Stench of Crime on Staten Island
The phrase provides a sly double-entendre for a mafia movie set in the New York borough, and in her debut feature as a writer-director, actress Jennifer Esposito has done a creditable job of re ...
Under the Bridge review: Lily Gladstone stars in true crime drama that
Under the Bridge review: Lily Gladstone stars in true crime drama that gets under the skin of small-town life Television: Killers of the Flower Moon star doesn't get enough to do here, but the ...
'Perfect Wife' Makes 'Gone Girl' Look Like a Fairy Tale
That shocking twist is what attracted true-crime filmmaker Erin Lee Carr (Britney vs Spears, The Ringleader) to the story. Carr, an executive producer on the series, suggested director Michael ...
Episode 605: The life and crimes of Nathan Kinsella
IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers.
20 Movies To Watch If You Loved The Gentlemen
The Long Good Friday appears to have been a huge influence on The Gentlemen, with some scenes in Guy Ritchie's movie directly paying homage to ones from the excellent British crime movie from the ...
25 Best Crime Movies of All Time, Ranked
An Indian crime epic that runs for over five hours and was released in two parts, Gangs of Wasseypur is everything you could want out of a large-scale gangster movie.It begins in the 1940s and ...
Hit Crime Drama to Finally Start Streaming 25 Years After Series ...
The hit crime drama series Homicide: Life on the Street will soon finally start streaming. The news comes 25 years after the series ended its run in 1999. The show, which ran for seven seasons from 1993 to 1999, was based on the book by David Simon. ... Movie Reviews TV Reviews Inside Out 2 Review: Pixar's Long-Awaited Sequel Is a Near ...

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