Featured image credit: Newsweek
It’s that time of year again! Every December, I roll out a list of the best Crime Movies of the Year. This is my favorite list to make, because I love movies so much. It’s not easy… but someone has to do it.
There were some very, very good crime movies, this year. A lot were set in the 70s! Several explored themes of cult-like worship and crime. Some were supernatural.
If you haven’t seen them and you have the chance to see them in theaters, please do. Let’s support MOVIEGOING, this winter (and always).
All right! Well, I won’t dither, I won’t dally… here is my end-of-year movie tally.
P.S. These films are not ranked!
Frankenstein
It’s insane—insane—to me that this genuine, perfectly-written masterpiece (visually breathtaking and full of incredible performances and with a lot of fascinating stuff to say about religion and politics) did not get a wide theatrical release, but that’s Netflix for you. This is the movie Guillermo del Toro was born to make, and he he absolutely nails it.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
I’m just going to repeat how I opened the previous blurb: It’s insane—insane—to me that this genuine, perfectly-written masterpiece (visually breathtaking and full of incredible performances and with a lot of fascinating stuff to say about religion and politics) did not get a wide theatrical release, but that’s Netflix for you. Rian Johnson’s third Benoit Blanc movie, about a locked-room murder in a local parish presided over by a demagogue-priest, is possibly his best, ever.
Photo: Warner Bros. via Rolling Stone
One Battle After Another
One Battle After Anotherrrrrrrr!!!! If Paul Thomas Anderson doesn’t win Best Director for this dark comic thriller about a washed-up revolutionary hunting for his missing daughter, I’ll… well, I’ll be really mad.
No Other Choice
Park Chan-wook’s black comedy-thriller is one of the best movies about “hitting a breaking point” ever made. I love a satire about capitalism, and this movie, about a middle-class, white-collar worker who gets laid off and subsequently goes on a murder spree to get rid of anyone who might be competition for his old job, is pretty perfect.
Photo: MUBI via the New York Times
The Mastermind
Kelly Reichardt has given us one of the most meaningful heist movies ever made, one which acknowledges the silly fun of the heist genre while also naturalistically telling a story about desperation, loneliness, and depression. Josh O’Connor gives YET ANOTHER fantastic performance as a bumbling art thief in Vietnam-era Massachusetts.
Highest 2 Lowest
Spike is back!!!!!! Long Live Spike Lee!!!!! And in his newest flick, he’s teamed up with Denzel!!!! Highest 2 Lowest, which is a reworking of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film High and Low, which is in turn an adaptation of Ed McBain’s 1959 novel King’s Ransom. Spike knows how to modernize a story while paying homage to its roots, and what spins out is a very clever, class-focused, NYC hostage tale.
Black Bag
Black Bag is Steven Soderberg’s newest film, a movie about married spies whose lives are put to the test when one of them (Cate Blanchett) is accused of treason, and her husband (Michael Fassbender) has to pick a side: his wife, or the intelligence organization he serves. It’s a sexy, satisfying espionage thriller… but it’s also a very effective movie about relationships and what it means to be married to someone.
Sinners
I found Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s 1932-set vampire movie, to be a bit messy (and oddly blurry at times?), but it’s got a lot of big, interesting ideas and a fantastic cast to see them through. It thinks a lot about individuality vs. collectivity and the safety of being absorbed into a white majority and that’s smarter than a lot of movies to date. Can we also applaud a movie that is basically about the extraordinary power of art?
The Secret Agent
Kleber Mendonça Filho’s new film, about a Brazilian technology professor who returns home only to find himself caught up in the dangers of Brazil’s military dictatorship during the 1970s, is a breathtaking political thriller.
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning
I love these things, and this is the last one. (For now.) It’s not as satisfying as the previous two M:I installments, but it’s got an extraordinary underwater sequence and a breathtaking aerial climax. I love excellent stuntwork… and these movies are the gold standard.
