For most moviegoers, a life of crime is an escapist fantasy. There are plenty of real criminals, but the majority of audiences that go to see crime movies aren’t hardened gangsters; they’re law-abiding citizens. It can be fun — and eye-opening — to imagine the danger of the criminal lifestyle and live it vicariously through fictional characters.
From the looming fear that the cops will catch on to the constant looking over the shoulder that comes with clashing with mobsters, crime thrillers have plenty of opportunities to create tension. The Safdie brothers’ anxiety-inducing thriller Uncut Gems is one of many great examples.
Uncut Gems (2019)
The Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems has been aptly described as a two-hour anxiety attack. The increasingly frustrating decision-making of its protagonist Howard Ratner keeps viewers on the edge of their seat, following his treacherous get-rich-quick scheme.
Adam Sandler gives one of his finest dramatic performances in the role of Howard, who is deeply flawed but also deeply human. This movie expertly builds the tension from its intriguing opening to its shocking conclusion.
Drive (2011)
Ryan Gosling stars as a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver in Nicolas Winding Refn’s gorgeous L.A.-set neo-noir Drive. The Driver makes an emotional connection with his neighbor Irene, but things get complicated when he does a job with her newly released ex-con husband and the robbery goes horribly wrong.
Irene’s husband is killed and the Driver narrowly dodges the cops with the third member of the crew, Blanche. They hide out at a motel, where Blanche is killed by mob hitmen, and the Driver is forced to face the gangsters alone, armed with nothing but a hammer and a lack of empathy.
The Town (2010)
Ben Affleck proved his prowess as an actor-director two years before his true-life thriller Argo won Best Picture at the Oscars with The Town, a riveting crime thriller about a bunch of bank robbers in Boston who plan one last job: robbing Fenway Park.
Affleck stars alongside such A-listers as Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, and Jeremy Renner, whose performances bolster the visceral thrills of the movie’s shootouts with real emotions.
Dragged Across Concrete (2018)
S. Craig Zahler followed up the blood-drenched western adventures of Bone Tomahawk and the skull-scraping brutality of Brawl in Cell Block 99 with Dragged Across Concrete, a timely thriller tackling the dicey subject of police brutality.
Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn star as a pair of cops who traverse the criminal underworld when they’re caught on video assaulting a suspect and get suspended from the force.
The Departed (2006)
Martin Scorsese finally won an Academy Award for Best Director after decades of being snubbed when he helmed The Departed, his American remake of Infernal Affairs that recontextualizes the story to revolve around the Irish Mob in Boston.
Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio star as a mob boss’ police mole and an undercover cop, respectively, who are each chasing each other in a fun spin on a cat-and-mouse thriller.
Nightcrawler (2007)
After more than two decades of experience as a screenwriter, Dan Gilroy made his directorial debut with the psychological thriller Nightcrawler. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Louis Bloom, an aimless loner who finds purpose in his life when he takes up a video camera and starts documenting crimes around L.A. and selling the footage to news stations.
Gyllenhaal plays Bloom’s disturbed mindset masterfully as he falls deeper and deeper down the mental rabbit hole and walks a fine line between reporting headlines and creating them.
Eastern Promises (2007)
The premise of Eastern Promises alone is shocking: a pregnant drug-addicted 14-year-old forced into prostitution dies in childbirth and the midwife will do whatever it takes to protect the baby from the Russian Mafia, who will stop at nothing to kill the child.
Naomi Watts gives a terrific performance as the midwife, but the true standout here is Viggo Mortensen as a mob enforcer who gets swept up in it.
The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
Anthony Hopkins made an unforgettable icon out of Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter with less than 20 minutes of screen time in The Silence of the Lambs. Jodie Foster is the real star as Clarice Starling, an FBI rookie who’s tasked with catching a serial killer named Buffalo Bill who’s been targeting women.
Jonathan Demme’s sharp direction captures the frustrations of being a woman in a male-dominated workplace more effectively than most other mainstream Hollywood movies.
You Were Never Really Here (2017)
Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here stars Joaquin Phoenix as an ex-soldier named Joe who returns from war with a devastating trauma that drives him to spend his days liberating victims of child prostitution as a hired goon.
When a politician hires him to save his daughter, he gets wrapped up in a sinister conspiracy that involves a morally bankrupt governor and a bunch of corrupt cops.
No Country For Old Men (2007)
The Coen brothers beautifully translated the bleak realism of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men to the screen in a movie that’s been described as a “crime western noir horror comedy.”
Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones’ stellar lead turns anchor the movie, while Javier Bardem’s emotionless performance as cold-blooded killer Anton Chigurh resulted in one of the most memorable villains in movie history.