Genre: Drama, Thriller
Actor: Alex Kingston, Alexander Morton, Barnaby Kay, Clive Owen, David Hamilton, Eddie Osei, Gina McKee, Kate Hardie, Nicholas Ball, Nick Reding, Ozzie Yue, Paul Reynolds, Rhona Mitra, Sheila Whitfield
Director: Mike Hodges
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Actor: Alex Kingston, Alexander Morton, Barnaby Kay, Clive Owen, David Hamilton, Eddie Osei, Gina McKee, Kate Hardie, Nicholas Ball, Nick Reding, Ozzie Yue, Paul Reynolds, Rhona Mitra, Sheila Whitfield
Director: Mike Hodges
Yasemin Derin is one of Turkey's most famous actresses. But when she's not onscreen or walking the red carpet, she's murdering evil influential people, which garners her the nickname "Hunter." Her double life is put in jeopardy, however, when a stalker sends her a series of cryptic texts.
Actress plays into the "unlikeable main character"; a sarcastic anti-hero on the verge of having more weaknesses as she takes in a young actress and falls in love with a mysterious man. The series has a nice cinematic finish, and Pinar Deniz as Yasemin delivers a nonchalant charisma that's easy to follow.
Genre: Crime, Drama
Actor: Ahmet Rıfat Şungar, Pınar Deniz, Şebnem Hassanisoughi, Serhat Kılıç, Tolga Tekin, Uraz Kaygılaroğlu
Director: Soner Caner
Genre: Action, Crime
Actor: Ben Yuen Foo-Wah, Chen Yi-wen, Cherry Hsieh, Ethan Juan, Gingle Wang, Huang Di Yang, Lee-zen Lee, Ming Che Lee, Nelson Shen, Peggy Tseng, Troy Liu, Yi-Jung Wu, Yu An-Shun
Director: Wong Ching-Po
After the ending of the show Suburra: Blood on Rome, it had seemed like there was nowhere else for the franchise to go, with plenty of the main cast dead. But after three years, the world of Suburra is back on Netflix in Suburræterna, and despite the chaos that reigns in Rome, there are still opportunistic survivors circling over remaining scraps of control. One survivor is Spadino Anacleti, who, after he had left for a more tolerant Berlin, is now forced to return home, with no other suitable heir for the family. While new viewers might be lost with the names referencing previous characters, fans of the franchise would enjoy the way Suburræterna unfolds, as the Suburra story, inspired by the real life Mafia Capitale, takes on a life of its own.
Genre: Crime, Drama
Actor: Carlotta Antonelli, Federica Sabatini, Federigo Ceci, Filippo Nigro, Giacomo Ferrara, Giorgia Spinelli, Marlon Joubert, Paola Sotgiu
In this stunning coming-of-age drama, Hou Hsiao-hsien takes us to the neon-lit streets of Taiwan and the dull beige house of the Lin family. The film is centered around the eldest daughter, Lin Hsiao-yang (portrayed by the Taiwanese pop star Lin Yang), who takes care of her whole family after her mother dies and her father gains employment in another city. Her sister is too young to work, and her older brother is a petty criminal. It’s easy to empathize with her struggles—many of them are issues children shouldn’t face. But she deals with them with a silent sort of strength, with Lin Yang’s stoic face hiding some simmering resentment. Similarly, the film’s slow pace and serene framing hide the underlying violence that affects the Lin family. Juxtaposing Taiwan’s urban and suburban life, Western and Eastern aesthetics, and the film's Egyptian mythos with the struggle of Taiwan’s youth, Hou presents a contemplative view of 1980s Taiwan.
Genre: Crime, Drama
Actor: Fu-Sheng Tsui, Grace Chen Shu-Fang, Hsin Shu-Fen, Jack Kao, Li Tian-Lu, Lin Ju, Vega Tsai, Wu Nien-Jen, Yu An-Shun, 吴念真
Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien
It looks like something you’ve already seen before: a student genius turns a simple high school cheating scheme into a full-blown, high-stakes heist. But layered with great acting, taut writing, and sharp observations about the ways in which education (and society in general) fails its students, Bad Genius turns a familiar premise into something genuinely exciting and impressively affecting. It’s everything you want a caper movie to be: smart and thrilling, with almost no moment to breathe, and of course, peppered with characters you can’t help but root and be nervous and excited for.
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Actor: Aokbab Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, Chanon Santinatornkul, Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, Ego Mikitas, Eisaya Hosuwan, Kanjana Vinaipanid, Nopawat Likitwong, Pasin Kuansataporn, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Sarinrat Thomas, Suquan Bulakul, Teeradon Supapunpinyo, Thaneth Warakulnukroh, Valerie Bentson, Vittawin Veeravidhayanant
Director: Nattawut Poonpiriya
Genre: Crime, Drama
Actor: Aiyana Goodfellow, Anoop Desai, Archie Panjabi, Chloe Guidry, Ella Dixon, Ezra Faroque Khan, Izzy G., Javon Walton, Lily Gladstone, Riley Keough, Vritika Gupta
Director: Geeta Patel
Child kidnapping is any parent’s nightmare, and it’s the nightmare that drives the events of Spanish crime thriller The Snow Girl. Based on the 2020 novel of the same name, the limited series takes a unique double-pronged approach to the case at hand. The show goes through the regular police investigations we’ve seen previously, but it also comes mainly from the perspective of journalist Miren Rojo, whose previous trauma understandably limits her trust with the authorities. As the show moves the story from New York to Malaga, and switches between perspectives, and timelines, The Snow Girl adeptly maintains the novel’s original suspense, without over sensationalizing the crime at hand.
Genre: Crime, Mystery
Actor: Aixa Villagrán, José Coronado, Loreto Mauleón, Milena Smit, Tristán Ulloa
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: Dylan O'Brien, Johnathan McClain, Johnny Flynn, Mark Rylance, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Scoop Wasserstein, Simon Russell Beale, Zoey Deutch
Director: Graham Moore
This gripping legal drama is based on a case we still don’t know the truth of — which might make it seem like a pointless exercise, were it not for the fact that it’s infectiously fascinated by greater questions than whether wealthy socialite Claus von Bülow (Jeremy Irons) really did attempt to kill wife Sunny (Glenn Close), who was left comatose by the mysterious event. After being convicted, Claus recruited for his appeal then-hotshot lawyer Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver), now better known for personal allegations and his defense of men even more nefarious than Claus. Reversal follows the tricky legal argument-crafting process, embedding us with Dershowitz’s elite team as they meticulously comb through the prosecution’s theory to find the hairline crack they need to break the case open.
But why go to all this effort to exonerate an unlikeable and frustratingly enigmatic man like Claus, whom Dershowitz apparently doesn’t even believe himself? While we’re morbidly fascinated by unknowable cases like this, it’s the passion of the defense that’s really puzzling — something Reversal shrewdly gets as it wrestles with the ethical arguments for and against Dershowitz’s involvement, making for a pre-courtroom drama whose power extends beyond that of the particular case it documents.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Alan Pottinger, Annabella Sciorra, Bill Camp, Brian Delate, Bruno Eyron, Christine Baranski, Christine Dunford, Constance Shulman, Ericka Klein, Felicity Huffman, Fisher Stevens, Frederick Neumann, Glenn Close, Gordon Joseph Weiss, Jack Gilpin, Jad Mager, JD Cullum, Jeremy Irons, Jessika Cardinahl, Johann Carlo, Julie Hagerty, Keith Reddin, Larry Sherman, Leo Leyden, LisaGay Hamilton, Malachy McCourt, Mitchell Whitfield, Redman Maxfield, Ron Silver, Stephen Mailer, Tom Wright, Uta Hagen
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Romance
Actor: Agustín Almodóvar, Antonio de la Torre, Blanca Portillo, Carlos Blanco, Carlos Blanco Vila, Carlos García Cambero, Carmen Maura, Chus Lampreave, Concha Galán, Eli Iranzo, Elvira Cuadrupani, Fanny de Castro, Isabel Ayúcar, Leandro Rivera, Lola Dueñas, Luis Lattanzi, Magdalena Brotto, María Alfonsa Rosso, María Isabel Díaz Lago, Mila Espiga, Natalia Roig, Neus Sanz, Penélope Cruz, Pepa Aniorte, Valeria Vereau, Yohana Cobo, Yolanda Ramos
Director: Pedro Almodoóvar, Pedro Almodóvar
This is a really weird movie starring Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. They play a wholesome and well-off couple where Farrell is a heart surgeon. The movie starts with him taking care of a teenager called Martin, who's not related to him or seems to have any real connection with him. It later turns out that Martin shares a special bond with the surgeon, a bond that will threaten his family in unexpected ways. The camera work and direction by Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Favourite) offset the weirdness to offer an intriguing experience.
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Actor: Alicia Silverstone, Anita Farmer Bergman, Barry G. Bernson, Barry Keoghan, Beverly Kristy, Bill Camp, Bryant Bentley, Carly Tamborski, Charles Poole, Colin Farrell, David Pittinger, Denise Dal Vera, Drew Logan, Dylan Keith Adams, Herb Caillouet, Jerry Pope, Joanne Popolin, John Newsom, John W. Harden, Lea Hutton Beasmore, Megan Chelf Fisher, Michelle Dobrozsi, Ming Wang, Nicole Kidman, Raffey Cassidy, Robert Gerding, Steven Schraub, Sunny Suljic, William C. Ingram
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
In The Kid Detective, Adam Brody stars as Abe Applebaum, a once-beloved child prodigy turned pathetic P.I. stuck in the glory days of his past. At 32 years old, he’s still solving petty mysteries and coasting on his parents’ money, but things start to change when he is finally dealt with a real, adult case: a murder that confounds even the local police. As Abe uncovers more details about the case, he also unwittingly finds a connection to his traumatic past and begins a long-overdue coming-of-age journey.
Released during the first year of the pandemic, The Kid Detective understandably flew under the radar when it first came out, garnering sufficient critical praise but not enough fanfare. It will no doubt find a second life among film lovers, though; it’s too smart and riveting to go unnoticed. Most impressive is how director Evan Morgan, in his feature debut, deftly balances multiple genres in a movie that often feels as if Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, Roman Polanski's Chinatown, and modern stoner humor were somehow rolled into one. The gags consistently amuse, the drawn-out mysteries pay off, and the human element persists throughout. Adam Brody, himself a kid celebrity back in the day, expertly carries this delightful and sobering film.
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Actor: Adam Brody, Alan Catlin, Alicia Brand, Amalia Williamson, Avery Esteves, Barbara Rajnovich, Bethanie Ho, Brent Skagford, Bruce McFee, Dallas Edwards, David Rosser, Deborah Tennant, Devin Myler, Giovanna Moore, Isaac Kragten, Jake Bell-Webster, Jesse Noah Gruman, Jonathan Whittaker, Kaitlyn Chalmers-Rizzato, Kaleb Horn, Kevin Hoffman, Kira Gelineau, Lisa Truong, Marcia Bennett, Marcus Zane, Marlaina Andre, Maurice Dean Wint, Peter MacNeill, Sarah Sutherland, Sharon Crandall, Sophia Webster, Sophie Nélisse, Sophie Nélisse, Steve Gagne, Tracy Rowland, Tyler Duke, Tzi Ma, Wayne St-George, Wendy Crewson
Director: Evan Morgan
With the number of murder mysteries popping up since Knives Out, Death and Other Details can seem like a copy. However, the latest mystery show on Hulu has a few twists up its sleeve, as Detective Coteworth and Imogene Scott aim to solve two cases at once– the first, of course, being the luxury liner murder, and the second being the murder of Scott’s mother eighteen years ago. Because of this, the backstory has more personal stakes, as it puts into question human memory itself. While the balance between timelines sometimes falters, Death and Other Details has enough style to at least make the journey interesting.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Actor: Angela Zhou, Hugo Diego Garcia, Lauren Patten, Rahul Kohli, Violett Beane
Before, then, and now — these are the three points in time that twisty TV heist thriller Culprits zips between. That remixed chronology (the convergent point of which is an audacious £100 million robbery) is both a strength and a stumbling block for the series. While it helps liven things up, it also takes some getting used to, which means the first episode requires more effort than expected as we work to get our bearings. By the time we’re on Culprits’ wavelength, though, the other attractions of the show reveal themselves: an intrigue-infused plot, charismatic characters, and adrenaline-pumping action.
The one constant in this whirlwind is David (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) — or Joe, or Muscle, all names he goes by depending on the timeline. A London-dwelling bodyguard recruited to undertake a mega-heist by shady mastermind Dianne (Gemma Arterton), we actually meet him long after it’s (seemingly) completed. Now living in Washington and sporting a just-passable American accent, he’s a family man who goes by Joe and bears no signs of his criminal past. Piecing together the puzzle of his transformation — and the threats that have somehow followed him across the globe — is Culprits’ greatest pull, one that wouldn’t be possible without its nonlinear storytelling, an initial hurdle that’s worth jumping over.
Genre: Crime, Drama
Actor: Eddie Izzard, Gemma Arterton, Kamel ElBasha, Kevin Vidal, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Ned Dennehy, Niamh Algar, Tara Abboud