405 Best Mystery Movies to Watch (Page 14)

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Staff & contributors

Feeling investigative? If you’re not sure which movie to go for, allow us to clue you in. From detective stories and whodunnits to suspenseful dramas, here are the best mystery-themed movies and shows to stream now.

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, 1997

With his long and extensive career, it can feel that Steven Spielberg can direct everything. The question is, can he direct a movie that depicted one of the most important freedom suits America has ever faced? Amistad, titled after the ship in the case, is his attempt, and while it does employ some tired tropes and it is a tad lengthy, it does a fair job of balancing the real history and the cinematic drama. Detractors have denounced this film as a white savior narrative due to the way the characters that go through the most growth are the white characters, but it’s Cinqué’s story that moves us through Djimon Hounsou’s performance and Spielberg's direction. Amistad is not perfect, but it at least ensures that Cinqué’s actual life would be remembered and learned from for much longer.

Genre: Drama, History, Mystery

Actor: Allan Rich, Anna Paquin, Anthony Hopkins, Arliss Howard, Austin Pendleton, Castulo Guerra, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel von Bargen, Darren E. Burrows, David Paymer, Djimon Hounsou, Eric Bruno Borgman, Geno Silva, George Gerdes, Gerald R. Molen, Harry Groener, Hawthorne James, Jake Weber, Jeremy Northam, John H. Tobin, John Ortiz, Kevin J. O'Connor, León Singer, Matthew McConaughey, Michael Massee, Michael Riley, Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne, Paul Guilfoyle, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Pete Postlethwaite, Peter Firth, Ralph Brown, Razaaq Adoti, Rusty Schwimmer, Stellan Skarsgård, Tomas Milian, Victor Rivers, Willie Amakye, Xander Berkeley

Director: Steven Spielberg

Rating: R

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, 2009

A woman joins some acquaintances on a sailing trip only to get caught in a storm. They are rescued by a seemingly empty cruise ship and struggle to make sense of the mysteries that unfold. Definitely one of those "The less you know the better" type of films. If you like well-written creepy thrillers with a nice amount of gore, you will most likely enjoy this.

Genre: Horror, Mystery

Actor: Bryan Probets, Emma Lung, Henry Nixon, Jack Taylor, Joshua McIvor, Liam Hemsworth, Melissa George, Michael Dorman, Rachael Carpani

Director: Christopher Smith

Rating: R

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, 2022

The Outfit doesn’t need to do a lot to be as sleek and surprising as it is. In fact, much of the film takes place in a single place while consisting of only a few (albeit memorable) characters. It’s deceptively simple, but the tricks it hides up its sleeves are plentiful and pleasurable. It’s a well-made and even better-performed gangster movie. Led by a quietly powerful Mark Rylance (who plays Leonard, the tailor with hidden depths), the actors are serious enough to lend it gravitas but easygoing enough to make it light on its feet.  

All in all, The Outfit is an agile action film with twists that will keep you at the edge of your seat right till the very end. 

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Alan Mehdizadeh, Dylan O'Brien, Johnathan McClain, Johnny Flynn, Mark Rylance, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Scoop Wasserstein, Simon Russell Beale, Zoey Deutch

Director: Graham Moore

Rating: R

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, 2023

Red Rooms is a slow-burn thriller that follows Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) as she gets drawn into the case of a suspected serial killer in Montreal. She religiously attends every trial, even camping outside the courthouse to secure a seat, and eventually neglects work for it. Her obsession—maybe more than the case itself—is the film’s true mystery. Why is she so invested? What does she have at stake? Does she know the killer? Is she for or against his incarceration? The entirety of Montreal is split between his innocence, and yet the film doesn’t let us in on what Kelly-Anne thinks. This can feel frustrating if you’re used to the instant gratification of fast-paced thrillers, but Red Rooms’ payoff is rewarding. With every passing scene, Gariépy turns increasingly unpredictable which, in turn, makes for an increasingly unsettling watch.

Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Charlotte Aubin, Élisabeth Locas, Frédérick de Grandpré, Juliette Gariépy, Laurie Babin, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Natalie Tannous, Vitali Makarov

Director: Pascal Plante

Rating: NR

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, 2023

When Big Tech and trolls have all but villainized the internet, it's hard to forget that good can come out of it sometimes. But Missing makes a case for its usefulness by making it the sole means by which an 18-year-old tries to find her missing mother. Played by Storm Reid, June Allen is endlessly creative in the digital sphere, which makes sense given she's from a generation that grew up with cutting-edge technology. She makes use of geotrackers, earth cams, and even digital watches to get ahead of the authorities, who for their part, are tied down by legalities and red tape. Missing shows us the potential of the internet, what it can do if used resourcefully and for good, and it's a refreshing take given the (understandably) many films that are fearful of tech. 

Missing embraces all this newness and builds a solid thriller out of it, making it a worthy and possibly seminal entry in the screenlife genre. 

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Amy Landecker, Briana McLean, Dalila Ali Rajah, Daniel Henney, Danielle Nottingham, Esteban Dager, Jalil Jay Lynch, Jameel Shivji, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Javier Grajeda, Jill Remez, Jill Smith, Joaquim de Almeida, Karina Noelle Castillo, Kelly Stables, Ken Leung, Kimberly Cheng, Lisa Yamada, Mauricio Mendoza, Megan Suri, Michael Segovia, Monica Bhatnagar, Nia Long, Oscar Camacho, Rick Chambers, Rita Rucker, Roy Abramsohn, Scott Menville, Sean O'Bryan, Sharar Ali-Speakes, Storm Reid, Thomas Barbusca, Tim Griffin, Tracy Vilar, Wolfie Trausch, Zeke Alton

Director: Nicholas D. Johnson, Will Merrick

Rating: PG-13

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, 2023

The single-take conceit of this high-camp whodunnit set in the world of competitive hairdressing is not without its knots. Without the charity of a cut, it falls on the screenplay to pull us through the film’s murder mystery in real-time, and the result contains more than a few inorganic segues, despite the cast’s best efforts at smoothing things out. What’s more, when the mystery does eventually unravel, it feels unsatisfying in a way that even a heavy round of conventional editing couldn’t resolve.

And yet, with its very game cast; razor-sharp one-liners; inspired hairdos; Robbie Ryan’s wheeling, smartly perspective-hopping cinematography; and a wry chamber-piece premise — in the midst of a cutthroat contest, a senior stylist is found with his scalp removed — Medusa Deluxe still bristles with passion and wit. It’s abundantly clear that first-time director Thomas Hardiman and his crew are as ostentatiously die-hard about their film as the catty characters are about their hair design, and the sheer force of their enthusiasm is enough to zhuzh up even the plot’s flattest moments. A feature debut doesn’t often come without flaws, but it’s equally as rare for one to be as boldly ambitious or as irreverently fun as this.

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Clare Perkins, Darrell D'Silva, Harriet Webb, Heider Ali, John Alan Roberts, Kae Alexander, Kayla Meikle, Lilit Lesser, Luke Pasqualino, Michelle Parker, Nicholas Karimi

Director: Thomas Hardiman

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