10 Best Crime Movies Of The 2010s

Summary

• Crime movies from the 2010s dealt with contemporary social issues, but they still played on timeless themes.
• Some of the genre’s best directors, including Martin Scorsese and David Fincher, produced crime classics.
• Several new talents in the crime genre also made a name for themselves.

The 2010s were a great decade for crime movies, with groundbreaking heist thrillers, detective dramas and much more. Many of the genre’s finest directors returned with movies to build on their legacy, and they continued to push the boundaries of modern crime films. David Fincher, Martin Scorsese and Steven Soderbergh all created some of their most popular crime movies in the 2010s.

The crime genre is one of the oldest staples of Hollywood, but film noir has fallen out of fashion, and the genre has undergone plenty of changes. The 2010s were categorized by crime movies which probed at pressing social trends, such as the role of sensationalist media outlets. Despite some contemporary social issues, these movies still stick to the timeless appeal of the genre.

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Related 10 Movies That Were Inspired By Real Crimes

In Hollywood, there are many successful movies that have been inspired by real criminal events that took place throughout history.

10 Baby Driver (2017)

Edgar Wright’s jazzy thriller is the epitome of cool

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Director Edgar Wright Release Date June 28, 2017 Cast Jamie Foxx , Jon Hamm , Jon Bernthal , Ansel Elgort , Lily James , Eiza Gonzalez , Kevin Spacey

Edgar Wright showed with his “Cornetto trilogy” that he has a deep appreciation for genre traditions. Baby Driver is his take on the heist genre, and it delivers all the requisite thrills. Above all, Baby Driver‘s delightful soundtrack and punchy action sequences make it a gloriously entertaining story. Wright invites his audience to have a good time, and his charms are hard to resist.

Above all,
Baby Driver
‘s delightful soundtrack and punchy action sequences make it a gloriously entertaining story.

Baby Driver has plenty of great jokes, such as the heist carried out with Austin Powers masks, but it’s just as tense as a great crime drama should be. The gags disappear in the third act as the fun and games screech to a halt. What’s left is a brutal succession of duels between Baby and his pursuers, each of whom reminds him that the lighthearted fun is over. Baby is a good man trapped in an ugly business, and this makes him easy to root for.

9 Nightcrawler (2014)

An intoxicating journey into the mind of a sociopath

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Director Dan Gilroy Release Date October 31, 2014 Cast Riz Ahmed , Bill Paxton , Jake Gyllenhaal , Rene Russo , Kevin Rahm , Michael Hyatt , Ann Cusack

Nightcrawler begins with the protagonist, Leo Bloom, attacking a security guard after he is caught stealing scrap metal from a railyard. This sets the tone for his character. Leo is a duplicitous grifter who has no issue with resorting to violence if it gets him to where he wants to be. Eventually, his dark immorality reaches its logical conclusion. Nightcrawler tells the story of a man who wants to work to make a living, but it takes all human decency out of the equation.

The audience may reject Leo’s callous opportunism, but he is merely feeding their own desire.

Nightcrawler is incredibly even-handed for a directorial debut. It’s tense and exciting, with an unsettling message at its heart. As Leo fixates on filming crime scenes and the aftermath of traffic accidents, Nightcrawler questions the human need to watch and consume, especially with such dark materials. The audience may reject Leo’s callous opportunism, but he is merely feeding their own desire.

8 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

McDormand, Harrelson and Rockwell shine in this small-town drama

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Director Martin McDonagh Release Date December 1, 2017 Cast Peter Dinklage , Caleb Landry Jones , Woody Harrelson , Sam Rockwell , Abbie Cornish , Kerry Condon

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Martin McDonagh’s pitch-black comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri stars Frances McDormand in fine form as a woman who rents three roadside billboards to castigate the local police for failing to solve the rape and murder of her daughter. McDormand is backed by Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell. All three actors received Academy Award nominations for their work.

Despite some extremely dark moments, the ending of
Three Billboards
suggests that radical change is possible if people are brave enough to want it.

Martin McDonagh’s best movie to date works so well because each character is so perfectly drawn, and they each represent conflicting views on issues in policing. Mildred is the rightly indignant voice of the victim, Chief Willoughby is a hard-hearted pragmatist with years of experience, and Dixon is a morally corrupt cop who only wants to preserve the status quo that pays his salary and gives him a position of power. Despite some extremely dark moments, the ending of Three Billboards suggests that radical change is possible if people are brave enough to want it.

7 Prisoners (2013)

Denis Villeneuve’s morally complex is entertaining and intelligent

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Director Denis Villeneuve Release Date September 20, 2013 Cast Hugh Jackman , Jake Gyllenhaal , Viola Davis , Maria Bello , Terrence Howard , Melissa Leo , Paul Dano

Prisoners follows the investigation into two missing children, but the main conflict arises from the dispute between the lead detective on the case and the father of one of the girls. As the detective is duty-bound to follow the letter of the law, the father takes the investigation into his own hands. Prisoners questions the morality of the impulse to do anything to protect one’s family, especially in cases where clear judgment can be clouded by intense emotion.

Like all great crime movies,
Prisoners
poses more questions than it answers about the nature of humanity, and the rigid borders of the criminal justice system.

Prisoners has elements of a ticking-clock mystery and a revenge thriller, but it’s more complex than either of these simplistic categories. The story is about who is responsible, yes, but it’s also about the ways in which violent crime inspires equally violent retribution. Like all great crime movies, Prisoners poses more questions than it answers about the nature of humanity, and the rigid borders of the criminal justice system.

6 Logan Lucky (2017)

Steven Soderbergh’s triumphant to the heist genre

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Director Steven Soderbergh Release Date August 18, 2017 Cast Channing Tatum , Adam Driver , Daniel Craig , Farrah Mackenzie , Jim O’Heir , Riley Keough , Rebecca Koon , Katie Holmes

Steven Soderbergh established himself as the king of the heist genre with his Ocean’s trilogy, and Logan Lucky further bolstered his credentials. Far from the glitzy casinos of Las Vegas or the luxury of the French Riviera, Logan Lucky takes place in an impoverished area of West Virginia. This gives it a more socially conscious bent than the pure romantic fantasy of the Ocean’s movies.

Logan Lucky
could have become a franchise, especially with Daniel Craig’s lovable American outlaw Joe Bang.

Logan Lucky could have become a franchise, especially with Daniel Craig’s lovable American outlaw Joe Bang. Adam Driver and Channing Tatum also join in with some fantastic comedic moments, but Logan Lucky has a dramatic twist in the tale. Most heist movies end right after the heroes pull off the big score. Logan Lucky draws out its conclusion to show the beginnings of the investigation, as the Logan family’s bad luck threatens to undo them once more.

5 BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Spike Lee’s most entertaining and urgent work in decades

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Director Spike Lee Release Date August 9, 2018 Cast Alec Baldwin , John David Washington , Isiah Whitlock Jr. , Robert John Burke , Brian Tarantina , Arthur J. Nascarella

BlacKkKlansman is based on the true story of Ron Stallworth, a black police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. Despite its nostalgic period details, the story has a lot to say about the current state of racial hatred in America, and Spike Lee closes out the film with footage from the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville to illustrate this point. There are a disturbing number of similarities between the film’s portrayal of David Duke and contemporary political rhetoric in some circles.

BlacKkKlansman
uses its comedy for a purpose, portraying the heroes as sympathetic and friendly, while the Klan are ignorant in more ways than one.

Spike Lee and Denzel Washington have worked together on multiple occasions, but BlacKkKlansman stars John David Washington, Denzel’s son. He and Adam Driver make a great team as two perpetrators of a ludicrous hoax that gets them access to the secretive inner circle of the Klan. BlacKkKlansman uses its comedy for a purpose, portraying the heroes as sympathetic and friendly, while the Klan are ignorant in more ways than one.

4 Uncut Gems (2019)

Adam Sandler balances comedy with tragedy in a career-best performance

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Director Josh Safdie , Benny Safdie Release Date December 13, 2019 Cast Jonathan Aranbayev , Eric Bogosian , The Weeknd , Idina Menzel , Noa Fisher , Kevin Garnett , Tommy Kominik , LaKeith Stanfield , Jacob Igielski , Adam Sandler , Julia Fox , Keith Williams Richards

Adam Sandler is virtually unrecognizable in Uncut Gems. The polarizing actor is best known for his crass comedies, but Uncut Gems is as far removed from Billy Madison as possible. It’s a breathless, dizzying thriller that drags the audience along to helplessly watch a desperate gambling addict dig his own grave. Thanks to Sandler’s performance and the chaos provided by the Safdie brothers, Uncut Gems is a masterpiece of anxiety-inducing cinema.

With its jolting camera movements and its naturalistic dialogue,
Uncut Gems
often feels like a sickening amusement park ride.

Adam Sandler may be the biggest surprise in the cast of Uncut Gems, but Kevin Garnett also delivers a great performance as a warped version of himself. His character helps to ground the story of Uncut Gems in the real world, not that it needs any more help to feel realistic. With its jolting camera movements and its naturalistic dialogue, Uncut Gems often feels like a sickening amusement park ride.

3 Gone Girl (2014)

David Fincher delivers another twisty, intoxicating thriller

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Director David Fincher Release Date October 1, 2014 Cast Ben Affleck , Rosamund Pike , Neil Patrick Harris , Tyler Perry , Carrie Coon , Kim Dickens

Based on Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel, Gone Girl bites into social media’s obsession with true crime, and the tendency of the media to scrutinize everyone involved in a case. In a broader sense, Gone Girl is about how people hunger for good stories, often to the detriment of basic human decency. David Fincher recaptures the form that makes some of his other crime classics so absorbing.

Gone Girl
is everything that a crime drama should be: tense, surprising and thought-provoking.

Fincher is the perfect director for Flynn’s novel. His exacting attention to detail puts the audience in the same shoes as the obsessive media scrum depicted in the movie. He sets the stage for his characters perfectly, which allows for Gone Girl‘s unforgettable ending to hit with a staggering impact. Gone Girl is everything that a crime drama should be: tense, surprising and thought-provoking.

2 The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)

Martin Scorsese reminds the world why he is the master of the crime genre

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Director Martin Scorsese Release Date December 25, 2013 Cast Margot Robbie , Leonardo DiCaprio , Jonah Hill , Kyle Chandler

Martin Scorsese has long been the master of crime movies, and his biggest hits have helped shape the industry ever since Taxi Driver. The Wolf of Wall Street is about white-collar crime, but Scorsese draws several comparisons between Jordan Belfort’s financial fraud and the run-of-the-mill thuggery that his gangster movies focus on. Scorsese makes the true story behind The Wolf of Wall Street seem just as outrageous and brazen.

It’s a joy to see Leonardo DiCaprio on top of his game, and his performance digs deep into the psyche of Belfort without ever straying into melodrama.

The Wolf of Wall Street is an endlessly entertaining movie, with shocking humor and bursts of action. It’s a joy to see Leonardo DiCaprio on top of his game, and his performance digs deep into the psyche of Belfort without ever straying into melodrama. There are times when the excess of The Wolf of Wall Street seems aspirational, but it’s clear from the context that the characters who are having so much fun are no more than selfish criminals.

1 Drive (2011)

Nicolas Winding Refn’s stylish thriller gets the best out of Ryan Gosling

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Drive

Director Nicolas Winding Refn Release Date September 16, 2011 Cast Ryan Gosling , Albert Brooks , Bryan Cranston , Carey Mulligan , Oscar Isaac , Ron Perlman , Christina Hendricks

Drive stars Ryan Gosling as a Hollywood stunt driver moonlighting as a getaway driver. Gosling delivers one of his subtlest performances, and one of his best. The Driver is pressured from all sides by the creeping consequences of his criminal lifestyle. As danger lurks in Nicolas Winding Refn’s dimly lit vision of Los Angeles, he finds that his only way out is to fall deeper down the rabbit hole.

One of
Drive
‘s most breathtaking moments is a slow-speed chase with nothing but the voices on a police scanner to break the silence.

With superb supporting performances from Albert Brooks and Carey Mulligan, Drive has the perfect amount of tenderness to contrast its gritty violence. The emotional stakes are so clearly defined that Refn is able to peel back the theatrics for some of the action scenes. One of Drive‘s most breathtaking moments is a slow-speed chase with nothing but the voices on a police scanner to break the silence. Drive taps into the primal associations of a police chase, where the prey can either run or hide to avoid being eaten.

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