The Best Crime Movies of the Last Two Decades Ranked, Come See for Yourself

The past two decade, we’ve seen a big bloom in crime movies that focused on the psyche of both the protagonists and the antagonists. Out of so many movies that analyzed criminals such as mafias, serial killers, hired professional assassins and more, we’ve narrowed down the list to the best of the best made in the past 2 decades. So that the next time you want to find something to watch, we’ve got you covered.

1

The Dark Knight

Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger
Christopher Nolan
2008

Batman raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as the Joker.

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9 IMDB
2

City of God

Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Phellipe Haagensen
Fernando Meirelles
2002

Cidade de Deus is a shantytown that started during the 1960s and became one of Rio de Janeiro’s most dangerous places in the beginning of the 1980s. To tell the story of this place, the movie describes the life of various characters, all seen by the point of view of the narrator, Buscapé. Buscapé was raised in a very violent environment. Despite the feeling that all odds were against him, he finds out that life can be seen with other eyes...

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8.6 IMDB
3

The Departed

Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson
Martin Scorsese
2006

To take down South Boston's Irish Mafia, the police send in one of their own to infiltrate the underworld, not realizing the syndicate has done likewise. While an undercover cop curries favor with the mob kingpin, a career criminal rises through the police ranks. But both sides soon discover there's a mole among them.

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8.5 IMDB
4

Joker

Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz
Todd Phillips
2019

During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.

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8.5 IMDB
5

The Act of Killing

Anwar Congo, Herman Koto, Syamsul Arifin
Joshua Oppenheimer
2012

In a place where killers are celebrated as heroes, these filmmakers challenge unrepentant death-squad leaders to dramatize their role in genocide. The result is a surreal, cinematic journey, not only into the memories and imaginations of mass murderers, but also into a frighteningly banal regime of corruption and impunity.

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8.2 IMDB
6

The Wolf of Wall Street

Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie
Martin Scorsese
2013

A New York stockbroker refuses to cooperate in a large securities fraud case involving corruption on Wall Street, corporate banking world and mob infiltration. Based on Jordan Belfort's autobiography.

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8.2 IMDB
7

Werckmeister Harmonies

Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hanna Schygulla
Béla Tarr
2000

This story takes place in a small town on the Hungarian Plain. In a provincial town, which is surrounded with nothing else but frost. It is bitterly cold weather — without snow. Even in this bewildered cold hundreds of people are standing around the circus tent, which is put up in the main square, to see — as the outcome of their wait — the chief attraction, the stuffed carcass of a real whale. The people are coming from everywhere. From the neighboring settlings, even from quite far away parts of the country. They are following this clumsy monster as a dumb, faceless, rag-wearing crowd. This strange state of affairs — the appearance of the foreigners, the extreme frost — disturbs the order of the small town. Ambitious personages of the story feel they can take advantage of this situation. The tension growing to the unbearable is brought to explosion by the figure of the Prince, who is pretending facelessness. Even his mere appearance is enough to break loose destructive emotions...

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8.2 IMDB
8

Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1

Manoj Bajpayee, Richa Chadda, Tigmanshu Dhulia
Anurag Kashyap
2012

Shahid Khan is exiled after impersonating the legendary Sultana Daku in order to rob British trains. Now outcast, Shahid becomes a worker at Ramadhir Singh's colliery, only to spur a revenge battle that passes on to generations. At the turn of the decade, Shahid's son, the philandering Sardar Khan vows to get his father's honor back, becoming the most feared man of Wasseypur.

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8.2 IMDB
9

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell
Martin McDonagh
2017

After seven months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at Bill Willoughby, the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Jason Dixon, an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated.

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8.2 IMDB
10

13th

Jelani Cobb, Angela Davis, Henry Louis Gates
Ava DuVernay
2016

An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.

8.2 IMDB
11

No Country for Old Men

Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
2007

Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead bodies, $2 million and a hoard of heroin in a Texas desert, but methodical killer Anton Chigurh comes looking for it, with local sheriff Ed Tom Bell hot on his trail. The roles of prey and predator blur as the violent pursuit of money and justice collide.

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8.1 IMDB
12

Memories of Murder

Song Kang-ho, Kim Sang-kyung, Kim Roe-ha
Bong Joon-ho
2003

1986 Gyunggi Province. The body of a young woman is found brutally raped and murdered. Two months later, a series of rapes and murders commences under similar circumstances. And in a country that had never known such crimes, the dark whispers about a serial murderer grow louder. A special task force is set up in the area, with two local detectives Park Doo-Man and Jo Young-Goo joined by a detective from Seoul who requested to be assigned to the case.

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8.1 IMDB
13

Catch Me If You Can

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken
Steven Spielberg
2002

A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor. An FBI agent makes it his mission to put him behind bars. But Frank not only eludes capture, he revels in the pursuit.

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8.1 IMDB
14

Spotlight

Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams
Tom McCarthy
2015

The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.

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8.1 IMDB
15

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham
Wes Anderson
2014

The Grand Budapest Hotel tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, the battle for an enormous family fortune and the slow and then sudden upheavals that transformed Europe during the first half of the 20th century.

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8.1 IMDB
16

Room

Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen
Lenny Abrahamson
2015

Jack is a young boy of 5 years old who has lived all his life in one room. He believes everything within it are the only real things in the world. But what will happen when his Ma suddenly tells him that there are other things outside of Room?

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8.1 IMDB
17

Shoplifters

Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, Mayu Matsuoka
Hirokazu Kore-eda
2018

After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them.

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8 IMDB
18

Tower

Violett Beane, Chris Doubek, Blair Jackson
Keith Maitland
2016

Combining archival footage with rotoscopic animation, Tower reveals the action-packed untold stories of the witnesses, heroes and survivors of America’s first mass school shooting, when the worst in one man brought out the best in so many others.

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8 IMDB
19

The Irishman

Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci
Martin Scorsese
2019

Pennsylvania, 1956. Frank Sheeran, a war veteran of Irish origin who works as a truck driver, accidentally meets mobster Russell Bufalino. Once Frank becomes his trusted man, Bufalino sends him to Chicago with the task of helping Jimmy Hoffa, a powerful union leader related to organized crime, with whom Frank will maintain a close friendship for nearly twenty years.

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7.9 IMDB
20

A Prophet

Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif
Jacques Audiard
2009

Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group.

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7.9 IMDB
21

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer
David Fincher
2011

This English-language adaptation of the Swedish novel by Stieg Larsson follows a disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, as he investigates the disappearance of a weary patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.

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7.8 IMDB
22

Ocean's Eleven

George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon
Steven Soderbergh
2001

Less than 24 hours into his parole, charismatic thief Danny Ocean is already rolling out his next plan: In one night, Danny's hand-picked crew of specialists will attempt to steal more than $150 million from three Las Vegas casinos. But to score the cash, Danny risks his chances of reconciling with ex-wife, Tess.

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7.8 IMDB
23

Zodiac

Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr.
David Fincher
2007

The true story of the investigation of the "Zodiac Killer", a serial killer who terrified the San Francisco Bay Area, taunting police with his ciphers and letters. The case becomes an obsession for three men as their lives and careers are built and destroyed by the endless trail of clues.

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7.7 IMDB
24

Capturing the Friedmans

Arnold Friedman, Elaine Friedman, Jesse Friedman
Andrew Jarecki
2003

An Oscar nominated documentary about a middle-class American family who is torn apart when the father Arnold and son Jesse are accused of sexually abusing numerous children. Director Jarecki interviews people from different sides of this tragic story and raises the question of whether they were rightfully tried when they claim they were innocent and there was never any evidence against them.

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7.7 IMDB
25

Hell or High Water

Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, Ben Foster
David Mackenzie
2016

A divorced dad and his ex-con brother resort to a desperate scheme in order to save their family's farm in West Texas.

7.6 IMDB
26

Carlos / Le prix du Chacal

Alexander Scheer, Nora von Waldstätten, Edgar Ramírez
Olivier Assayas
2010

Carlos is a French-German television and cinema biographical film from 2010, about the life of the 1970s international terrorist Carlos the Jackal, from his first series of attacks in 1973 until his arrest in 1994. It premiered as a three-part TV mini-series on French pay channel Canal+, with the three parts airing on 19 May, May 26 and June 2, 2010. On the same day it premiered on Canal+, the full 5½ hour version was also shown out of competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Produced by Daniel Leconte of French production company Film En Stock and Jens Meuer of German production company Egoli Tossell Film, in association with Canal+ and French Arte, it was directed by Olivier Assayas from a screenplay by Leconte, Assayas and Dan Franck, and stars Édgar Ramírez as Carlos. The film exists both as a three-part mini-series and a feature film of various lengths between 338 and 319 minutes, but also in several abridged versions, from 187 minutes down to 166 minutes. Classified as a theatrical film as well as a TV film/TV mini-series, Carlos has been awarded both theatrical awards and TV awards; among them the 2010 Golden Globe award for the 'Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television', the 2010 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director, the National Society of Film Critics 2010 award for Best Director, the New York Film Critics Circle 2010 award for Best Foreign Language Film, the 2010 European Film Award for Best Editor, the 2010 Critics Award for Best Film at the São Paulo International Film Festival, and Édgar Ramírez won the 2010 César Award for Most Promising Actor.

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7.6 IMDB
27

The Town

Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner
Ben Affleck
2010

Doug MacRay is a longtime thief, who, smarter than the rest of his crew, is looking for his chance to exit the game. When a bank job leads to the group kidnapping an attractive branch manager, he takes on the role of monitoring her – but their burgeoning relationship threatens to unveil the identities of Doug and his crew to the FBI Agent who is on their case.

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7.5 IMDB
28

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Jared Harris
Guy Ritchie
2011

There is a new criminal mastermind at large (Professor Moriarty) and not only is he Holmes’ intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil and lack of conscience may give him an advantage over the detective.

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7.5 IMDB
29

Now You See Me

Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson
Louis Leterrier
2013

An FBI agent and an Interpol detective track a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances and reward their audiences with the money.

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7.3 IMDB
30

Capote

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Jr.
Bennett Miller
2005

A biopic of the writer, Truman Capote and his assignment for The New Yorker to write the non-fiction book, 'In Cold Blood'.

7.3 IMDB
31

American Hustle

Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper
David O. Russell
2013

A conman and his seductive partner are forced to work for a wild FBI agent, who pushes them into a world of Jersey power-brokers and the Mafia.

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7.2 IMDB