Best Crime Film

Jean-Luc Godard’s *Band of Outsiders* (1964) presents a meticulously orchestrated heist by a group of Parisian criminals. The film’s innovative use of cinematic techniques, particularly its iconic cafe dance sequence, established the French New Wave movement. It explores themes of betrayal and disil...

While a book, the enduring cultural impact of the film adaptation (especially the 1941 version) makes it a necessary inclusion for understanding the genre's visual language. It defined the look, the dialogue rhythm, and the cynical tone of the hardboiled detective in cinema. For understanding the *f...

Pixote offers a stark portrayal of youth crime within São Paulo’s marginalized communities during the 1980s. The film documents the lives of young street children navigating violence and exploitation. Hector Babenco's realistic filmmaking style powerfully depicts their struggles and vulnerabilities....

Kinji Fukasaku’s *Battles Without Honor and Humanity* offers a stark portrayal of post-war Japan through the lens of yakuza violence. The film, released in 1973, depicts a brutal struggle for survival amongst warring gangs drawing on real accounts of Hiroshima street crime. Its unflinching realism a...

"The Consequences of Love" is a 2004 Italian psychological crime thriller directed by Paolo Sorrentino. The film stars Toni Servillo as Titta Di Girolamo, a solitary man living in a Swiss hotel who hides a dark past connected to Mafia money laundering. As Titta's highly regimented existence unravels...

Carlos is a biographical crime film examining the life of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, also known as “The Jackal.” The movie details Sánchez’s involvement in numerous high-profile terrorist attacks across Europe and Africa during the 1970s and 80s. It offers a portrayal of a radicalized individual and hi...

Election 2 is a 2006 Hong Kong crime film directed by Johnnie To and a sequel to Election. Also released internationally as Triad Election, it follows businessman and triad member Jimmy Lee as the Wo Shing Society prepares to choose its next chairman, bringing criminal tradition into conflict with c...

Blue Ruin is a 2013 American independent revenge thriller film written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier. Funded partly through Kickstarter, the narrative follows a drifter who embarks on a violent quest for vengeance after learning of his parents' murderer's release from prison. The film is noted for...

Infernal Affairs II is a 2003 Hong Kong crime thriller directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. Acting as a prequel to the highly successful 2002 film Infernal Affairs, it traces the parallel origin stories of the police officer who infiltrates the triads and the mobster who embeds himself within the po...

Ash Is Purest White is a 2018 Chinese crime drama directed by Jia Zhangke, starring Zhao Tao and Liao Fan. The narrative spans nearly two decades, following a woman's unwavering loyalty to her mobster boyfriend as China undergoes rapid social and economic transformations. The film explores themes of...

A Hard Day (Korean: 끝까지 간다) is a 2014 South Korean crime thriller directed by Kim Seong-hun. It follows a corrupt homicide detective who, while speeding to his mother's funeral, strikes and kills a pedestrian and attempts to hide the body in his mother's coffin. He is then contacted by an anony...

"Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time" is a 2012 South Korean crime film directed by Yoon Jong-bin. Set in Busan during the 1980s and 1990s, the narrative explores the chaotic rise and fall of a low-level customs official who unexpectedly becomes a powerful crime boss. The film stars Choi Min-sik an...

The Traitor is a 2019 Italian biographical crime drama directed by Marco Bellocchio. The film chronicles the real-life experiences of Tommaso Buscetta, a prominent Sicilian Mafioso who eventually became a state witness, or pentito. Pierfrancesco Favino stars as Buscetta, depicting his crucial role i...

Mesrine: Killer Instinct is a 2008 French crime film directed by Jean François Richet, with Vincent Cassel portraying the French criminal Jacques Mesrine. The film dramatizes Mesrine's early life, military service, entry into organized crime, imprisonment, escapes, and growing notoriety. It forms th...

Drug War is a 2012 crime thriller directed by Johnnie To and set in mainland China. Louis Koo plays a methamphetamine producer who, after his arrest, agrees to help a police captain played by Sun Honglei infiltrate a larger drug network in an attempt to avoid the death penalty. The film combines und...

Miss Bala is a 2011 Mexican crime drama directed by Gerardo Naranjo. The film follows Laura Guerrero, a young woman aspiring to compete in a beauty pageant who is inadvertently thrust into the violent world of drug cartels after witnessing a shooting. Starring Stephanie Sigman, the narrative explore...

Mesrine: Public Enemy Number One is a 2008 French crime film directed by Jean-François Richet, serving as the second half of a two-part biopic following Jacques Mesrine. Starring Vincent Cassel as the notorious French criminal, the narrative covers Mesrine's later life, including his escapes from hi...

Exiled is a 2006 Hong Kong action crime film directed by Johnnie To. Set in Macau in 1998 just before the territory's handover to China, the plot follows a group of hitmen who reunite to carry out a contract on a former colleague, leading to conflicts over brotherhood and loyalty. The film features...

A Dirty Carnival is a 2006 South Korean crime drama film directed by Yoo Ha. The narrative follows Kim Byung-du, a low-ranking gangster who resorts to extreme violence to climb the ranks of Seoul's organized crime syndicate. Starring Zo In-sung and Cheon Ho-jin, the film is recognized for its gritty...

"Romanzo Criminale" is a 2005 Italian crime film directed by Michele Placido, based on the novel of the same name by Giancarlo De Cataldo. The narrative chronicles the rise and fall of a criminal gang in Rome during the 1970s and 1980s, spanning from street-level crime to high-level political terror...

The Outlaws is a 2017 South Korean crime action film written and directed by Kang Yoon-sung. It stars Ma Dong-seok (also known as Don Lee) as Ma Seok-do, a tough police detective stationed in the Garibong-dong district of Seoul. The plot centers on Ma's efforts to maintain peace between rival Chines...

"Running Out of Time" is a 1999 Hong Kong crime thriller directed by Johnnie To, produced under the Milkyway Image film production company. The plot centers on an elaborate cat-and-mouse game between a brilliant criminal, played by Andy Lau, who discovers he has terminal cancer, and a dedicated poli...

Pusher 3 is a 2005 Danish crime film written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. It serves as the final installment of the Copenhagen-set Pusher trilogy, shifting focus to Milo, a middle-aged drug dealer attempting to balance his daughter's birthday celebration with a massive heroin deal. The film...

The Sicilian Clan is a 1969 French crime film directed by Henri Verneuil and scored by composer Ennio Morricone. The story revolves around a master criminal who plots an audacious jewelry heist in Rome with the assistance of a Sicilian mafia patriarch planning to relocate his family to Paris. The fi...

36th Precinct, originally titled 36 Quai des Orfèvres, is a 2004 French police thriller directed by Olivier Marchal. Starring Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu, the film follows two rival police chiefs competing for a promotion while attempting to capture a violent gang responsible for a string of...

Suburra is a 2015 Italian neo-noir crime film directed by Stefano Sollima, based on the novel by Carlo Bonini and Giancarlo De Cataldo. The film intertwines the worlds of organized crime, corrupt local politics, and the Vatican over a seven-day period in Rome, leading up to the apocalypse prophesied...

"Graveyard of Honor" is a 1975 Japanese yakuza film directed by Kinji Fukasaku, based on the life of real gangster Rikio Ishikawa. The film chronicles Ishikawa's violent trajectory through the yakuza underworld, depicting his rapid rise and subsequent fall with characteristic brutality and social cr...

Set It Off is a 1996 American heist film directed by F. Gary Gray and written by Takashi Bufford and Kate Lanier. It stars Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise as four working-class friends in Los Angeles who, each facing financial hardship and personal loss, plan and...

The Connection is a 2014 French crime thriller directed by Cedric Jimenez that chronicles the real-life conflict between a local magistrate and a mafia boss in 1970s Marseille. The narrative follows Pierre Michel, a determined judge tasked with dismantling the city's vast heroin trafficking network,...