The 17 Best Crime Movies on Netflix Right Now

Good crime movies are undeniably alluring. Now on Netflix, these are highly recommended movies about people who live on the fringes.

Check this: There's plenty of edgy, gripping entertainment on Netflix right now. We've rounded up the best crime movies currently streaming on Netflix. There’s no denying the appeal of well-crafted pictures within this genre: audiences can be immersed in and entertained by the stories of characters living on the fringes–you know, safely, through the illusion of cinema.

These are the best crime movies you can watch on Netflix right now. This list is updated regularly, as titles come and go on the streaming service.

Best Crime Movies on Netflix Right Now

1. The Good Nurse (2022)

An intimate and brilliantly acted crime film, The Good Nurse stars Oscar winners Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain in the chilling true story of Charlie Cullen, a serial killer who murdered patients while working as a nurse. The Good Nurse premiered in fall 2022 to positive critical notices.

2. Shutter Island (2010)

Martin Scorsese directs Leonardo DiCaprio in a neo-noir about a U.S. Marshal investigating an isolated psychiatric facility after a patient disappears. The third-act twist isn’t surprising, but handsome craft and terrific performances (the supporting cast includes Michelle Williams, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow) make Shutter Island entertaining and worthwhile. Based on Dennis Lehane‘s novel.

3. The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

The formidable talents of Christian Bale, Gillian Anderson, Harry Melling and Toby Jones star in Scott Cooper's atmospheric adaptation of the 2003 novel about a 19th-century private eye investigating murders at a military academy—where Edgar Allan Poe happens to be a cadet. The Pale Blue Eye premiered on Netflix over holiday season 2022 to high viewership and overall critical response.

4. The Irishman (2019)

Martin Scorsese‘s long-gestating crime epic, centered on and Jimmy Hoffa, is an extraordinary achievement in rich, slow-burn character development. It’s on Netflix, but the best way to see it is one sitting, on the biggest screen possible. Front-and-center are titanic turns by Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and (stepping out of retirement for a moment) Joe Pesci. Also front-and-center are the picture’s much-discussed de-aging visual effects. At times they’re pretty seamless. Also, they’re often distracting, even off-putting. Make no mistake: we’re still in the Uncanny Valley.

5. The Unforgivable (2021)

Sandra Bullock's latest makes the Bird Box star one of only two actors to have two films in Netflix's all-time top 10 movies (matched by Ryan Reynolds of Red Notice and 6 Underground). In mega-hit The Unforgivable, Bullock plays a woman trying to re-enter society after serving time for a violent crime.

6. Molly's Game (2017)

Jessica Chastain and writer/director Aaron Sorkin teamed up for an adaptation of Molly Bloom's bestselling memoir Molly's Game: From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker. Bloom was an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested by the FBI.

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7. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

Rian Johnson's follow-up to box-office leviathan Knives Out can't quite match the airtight thriller storytelling that was one of that masterpiece's most striking attributes, but it's arguably even more entertaining. An ensemble cast headlined by a returning Daniel Craig are uniformly excellent, though Janelle Monáe is really the star here, and she delivers the best performance of an already remarkable acting career.

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8. Berlin Syndrome (2017)

So abundant we might as well make them their own genre, movies about kidnapped females generally go one of two ways: It’s either all about the suspense, figuring out how and if she will get out—or there’s the nastier route, when some movies focus on a woman’s torture and humiliation, turning it into spectacle.

Though Australian director Cate Shortland‘s adaptation of Melanie Joosten‘s novel about a tourist imprisoned by a handsome teacher after a passionate one-night-stand is a thriller (quite heart-pounding at times), and much of the woman’s mistreatment is extremely hard to watch, this highly absorbing psychological drama stands out because it’s all about the characters and what’s going on in their heads. It also differs from other films of its ilk in that this nightmare begins with genuine erotic tension and heat, a mutual attraction.

Aussie-born Teresa Palmer of Hacksaw Ridge fame delivers a ripper of a performance as a victim suffering in stages not unlike the stages of grieving. German Max Riemelt (Sense8) keeps up every step of the way as her chilling and multifaceted captor, but this is Palmer’s film, and it gave the dynamite actress long-relegated to playing love-interest side characters a serious calling card in Hollywood.

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9. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)

One of the greatest television shows in history recently got a worthy coda, when three-time Emmy winner Aaron Paul returned as interminably suffering drug kingpin Jesse Pinkman in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. The highly anticipated follow-up to Vince Gilligan‘s crime saga Breaking Bad is a Netflix original.

On one hand, there's undeniably fan service at play here. Also, this is fan service from masters of the medium. It's hard to imagine any Breaking Bad fans not being satisfied with this suspenseful, raw, even darkly hilarious follow-up. Paul is, of course, a million shades of riveting.

10. Nocturnal Animals (2016)

As brutal as it is sad—and it’s both—Tom Ford‘s second feature twists the blade in the corpse of a toxic, failed relationship. Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Golden Globe winner for his work here) and Michael Shannon, who was nominated for an Oscar for his role, are uniformly sensational in dark, sumptuously realized parallel storylines—about half of the film is a fictional book within the narrative. Gobsmacking visually and disturbing thematically, Nocturnal Animals is something like a masterpiece.

11. The Gentlemen (2019)

After the notable critical and box-office failure of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, director Guy Ritchie bounced back with two hits in the same year: Disney's Aladdin remake, and The Gentlemen, a return-to-form action comedy about schemings and double-crossings surrounding a weed empire. The ensemble includes Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Jeremy Strong, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant.

12. Army of the Dead (2021)

Hot on the heels of a long-in-gestation triumph with Zack Snyder‘s Justice League this spring, the fan-favorite director returns (without studio meddling) with a successor to his first (and arguably best) feature, the 2004 remake Dawn of the Dead. Dave Bautista stars in the action/zombie/heist hybrid that’s already a ratings hit for the streamer.

13. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

Terrific performances from Zac Efron, Lily Collins and especially Kaya Scodelario bring pathos to Joe Berlinger's hit Netflix original about serial killer Ted Bundy.

14. Army of Thieves (2021)

In the prequel to Army of the Dead, director and star Matthias Schweighöfer is recruited to crack a series of top-security safes in Europe. Army of Thieves is already a substantial hit on Netflix.

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15. The Highwaymen (2019)

John Lee Hancock's true crime thriller has a tantalizing premise indeed: it's the story of the 1930s Bonnie and Clyde manhunt, from the perspective of law enforcement. Kevin Costner co-stars with Woody Harrelson, both as Texas Rangers. The Highwaymen is surely not as gripping as Bonnie & Clyde (scarcely few films are) but it's slick, well-acted period entertainment.

16. Reservoir Dogs (1992)

It's tempting to call Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs the ultimate independent film: it's a heist movie, only due to budgetary concerns, we never actually see the heist, mostly just the aftermath. The film is actually stronger for that. It's all about the process, not the payoff. The process is the payoff.

17. The Guilty (2021)

Shot during lockdown in 11 days, Antoine Fuqua's remake of the acclaimed 2018 thriller of the same name stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a 911 dispatcher faced with a distressing call. Riley Keough, Ethan Hawke, Paul Dano, Peter Sarsgaard and Bill Burr all co-star.

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