98
The Shawshank Redemption review
A banker sentenced to life finds a way to stay human inside a system built to strip that away. Darabont's adaptation is patient, unfashionably sincere…
★★★★★ 5.0/5
Crime films, reviewed
The crime film is American cinema's most reliable vehicle for talking about class, work, and the machinery of power. Its central subject is rarely the crime itself but the structure that produces it — the family, the institution, the neighbourhood, the economy. The best examples are organised around labour: who does the work, who takes the risk, and who collects.
What we look for in crime
- The crime as a system rather than an aberration
- Consequences that persist beyond the final scene
- A refusal to glamorise without refusing to understand
- Dialogue that reveals character under pressure
This hub currently collects 9 reviews. Our library is curated rather than comprehensive, and every genre page grows as we publish.
Every crime film we have reviewed
Ordered by our score, highest first.
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98
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97
The Godfather review
Coppola turned a pulp bestseller into an American tragedy about the price of inheritance. Fifty years on, the lighting alone still teaches cinematogra…
★★★★★ 5.0/5
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96
Goodfellas review
Thirty years inside the mob, told at a pace that never lets you catch your breath. Scorsese's most complete film and the one that made every other gan…
★★★★½ 4.9/5
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96
The Dark Knight review
Nolan used a superhero budget to make a Michael Mann-style crime film about the limits of order. Ledger's Joker is the argument, not the decoration.
★★★★★ 5.0/5
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95
Pulp Fiction review
Three stories, shuffled, told with a confidence that independent film had not seen before. The structure is the innovation; the dialogue is the delive…
★★★★½ 4.8/5
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95
The Silence of the Lambs review
A trainee FBI agent must earn the cooperation of an imprisoned cannibal to catch an active killer. The film is about being looked at, and it never let…
★★★★½ 4.9/5
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93
Se7en review
Two detectives chase a killer who stages murders around the seven deadly sins, in a city where it is always raining and never gets dark enough to slee…
★★★★½ 4.8/5
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88
The Departed review
An undercover cop and a mob mole race to unmask each other inside the Massachusetts State Police. Scorsese's most propulsive late film.
★★★★½ 4.6/5
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84
Joker review
A failed comedian in a decaying Gotham slides into violence. Phoenix is extraordinary; the film around him is derivative and uncertain about what it i…
★★★★½ 4.4/5
Crime index
Year, director, runtime and score for every film in this genre.
| Film | Year | Director | Runtime | Score | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Shawshank Redemption | 1994 | Frank Darabont | 142 min | 98 | ★★★★★ |
| The Godfather | 1972 | Francis Ford Coppola | 175 min | 97 | ★★★★★ |
| Goodfellas | 1990 | Martin Scorsese | 145 min | 96 | ★★★★½ |
| The Dark Knight | 2008 | Christopher Nolan | 152 min | 96 | ★★★★★ |
| Pulp Fiction | 1994 | Quentin Tarantino | 154 min | 95 | ★★★★½ |
| The Silence of the Lambs | 1991 | Jonathan Demme | 118 min | 95 | ★★★★½ |
| Se7en | 1995 | David Fincher | 127 min | 93 | ★★★★½ |
| The Departed | 2006 | Martin Scorsese | 151 min | 88 | ★★★★½ |
| Joker | 2019 | Todd Phillips | 122 min | 84 | ★★★★½ |
Frequently asked questions
What distinguishes a crime film from a thriller?
Crime films are organised around the world of criminal enterprise and its internal logic. Thrillers are organised around suspense and the pursuit of resolution. The overlap is substantial.
Why is the mafia such a persistent subject?
Because it is a legible model of capitalism: a hierarchy, a code, an economy of loyalty and violence. It makes abstract systems visible.
Which crime film is the best entry point?
Goodfellas, for its momentum and its refusal to moralise, followed by The Godfather for its structure.
Read around crime
Our ranked lists place these films against each other within a decade or a genre, and explain the ordering.