Crime

It’s hard not to sympathize with Hugh Jackman’s character in Prisoners. He’s a devoted father who just lost his young daughter. There’s no trace of her anywhere and the one suspect in custody isn’t talking. It’s enough …

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints tries hard to be a good historical crime drama, but falls flat trying to hit all the right plot points. It had romance, tension, forbidden love, crime, guns, and an attractive young couple …

George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez have a lot of movies in the running for hottest ever made, but Out of Sight beats them all. Never has a movie been sexier. The cast is extremely attractive — everyone …

Only God Forgives reminds me of a teenager who gets really into poetry and thinks they’re really deep but in reality are the most annoying person to be around. Nicolas Winding Refn was really going for …

Derek Cianfrance weaves an intricate tale with The Place Beyond the Pines. The story follows how the crime of one person can ring throughout a family through generations. Luke (Ryan Gosling) commits a crime that Avery (Bradley …

Child actors have to hit a high bar for me to laud their performance. I find that a lot of performances from young actors tend to disappoint me because they haven’t yet found their voice …

She Done Him Wrong is one of Cary Grant’s first memorable films and one of Mae West’s most famous. Despite premiering over 90 years ago, its story is still entertaining for the modern audience. One of …

Thomas Newman is my all-time favorite film composer. I love his scores for Cinderella Man, Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and Road to Perdition. I don’t know a lot about music theory, but I do know that Newman’s scores …

Living in Gotham City isn’t the best gig in the world. Living in Gotham City with Batman and Robin running around destroying half the city in the name of “justice”? That’s nearly unbearable. It’s like …

Clean is a passion project of sorts for one Mr. Adrien Brody. He serves as the film’s star, co-writer, co-producer, and even composer. It took about a decade to get this film from his imagination, to …

Cape Fear is a Hitchcock film without Hitchcock. Who better to make it than Martin Scorcese, the master of all things bloody and dark? It’s the kind of film that theaters were made for. Cape Fear is …

At 83 years old, Ridley Scott is still cranking out consistently great and entertaining films. Just last month, he released The Last Duel which is the frontrunner for the most underseen and under-appreciated film of 2021. Now …

You never really know what you’re in for when you watch Drive. You think it’s a movie about crime, then it becomes a slow-burning journey of self-discovery, then it’s a romance, then it’s back to a crime …

The Women and the Murderer starts with a series of clips of young, happy women dancing, going out. This footage is interspersed with pictures and images of murder scenes. Then, we are introduced to Anne …

I’ll be honest, I only watched this film to see the underutilized Shea Whigham in a lead role. I’ve been a big fan of him ever since his supporting turn in the glorious HBO crime …

Santiago Segura takes the driver’s seat in the fast-paced journey that is The Five Rules of Success. This is not for the faint-hearted.  X (Santiago Segura) is an ex-convict newly released back into the world. …

Netflix is home to far too many crime documentaries, especially about murder, so you might be tempted to skip this one. However, that would be a shame. After all, Murder by the Coast isn’t a …

As attractive as Kevin Costner is, his portrayal of Robin Hood should not be considered a hero. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is just a two-hour-long crime movie. Much like the characters in Goodfellas or Heat, this version of …

I find myself thinking about 2017’s Get Out, a lot. It being one of the best movies made in my lifetime aides to that, but I often find myself reflecting on Jordan Peele’s decision in …

The Alexanderplatz in Berlin. Even if you have never been there, you can easily imagine what it looks like. You must have seen it on the news, a documentary, a video clip, or another movie. …

The Silence of the Lambs scares the living daylights out of me. Anthony Hopkins is possibly the most terrifying actor to exist. I’m not sure if he should take that as a compliment or not, but …

You’d think that after Portrait of a Lady on Fire, we wouldn’t need romances, or even narrative films, anymore. I mean, Céline Sciamma has kinda been there and conquered that. Be that as it may, …

In case you were not aware, Goodfellas actually doesn’t have good fellas in it. I don’t mean the actors — the actors are great and are on par with every other Martin Scorsese film. What I …

A mob enforcer with a troubled conscience, a crime boss who wants to go legit, and an oilman with a fatalistic code of honor. These are the three main players of Scott Wiper’s The Big …

As they say, truth is often stranger than fiction. No better show demonstrates than the longstanding, recently revived program Unsolved Mysteries. The show covers a variety of cold cases that show just how unexplainable our …

On the first day of October, 2017, tragedy struck in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the final night of Route 91 Harvest, an outdoor country music festival. An estimated 22,000 people were in attendance. At …

One of my deepest fascinations in film is when artists find a way to blur the line between art and reality. As I’ve said time and time again, meta readings of films are some of …

Clark Duke has made a sizeable living being the dependable comic relief. He was the one who traveled to the fictional eighties alongside John Cusack in Hot Tub Time Machine; he was the nerdy sidekick …

I like to think I’m a fan of most film genres, but there’s something about a taut mystery that is extra exciting. Disappearance at Clifton Hill channels a lot of what makes the genre great, trapping …

After my first experience at Sundance last year, I arrived this year at the festival cognizant of the hyperbolic reactions that come with the environment. (Or, at the very least, I did my best. I’m …