Movies in the Thriller genre

One of the most unfortunate aspects of a courtroom thriller is the tendency to degenerate into preposterous melodrama. It's as if the basic situation of having a person on trial for their life isn't inherently powerful enough. As a result, cheap...

What a croc! Unsolicited advice to filmmakers: When making a monster movie, do not attempt to sell said film as a picture about a serial killer. Second piece of unsolicited advice to filmmakers: When making a monster movie, keep the focus on the...

German filmmaker Tom Tykwer first gained a measure of international recognition in 1997, when his second feature, Winter Sleepers received attention outside of his native Germany. Then came the 1998 Toronto Film Festival and the debut of Run Lola ...

Whodunits are rarely a good playground for Hollywood films. The average mystery, whether a stripped-down Agatha Christie-esque tale or a more complex endeavor, is too demanding for the structural constraints of a motion picture. As a result, when o...

The career aspirations of Mathilda (Natalie Portman) aren't those of the average 12-year old girl. Instead of wanting to be a doctor, fashion model, teacher, lawyer, or nuclear physicist, Mathilda has decided to follow in the footsteps of her best...

Profile belongs to a burgeoning genre of low-budget films that have collectively been dubbed “screenlife” movies. The natural successor to “found footage” productions, these narratives are presented entirely on a faux computer screen, ...

Underwritten yet nevertheless enjoyable on a visceral level, Project Power is the latest Netflix film to use a familiar template: start with an intriguing premise, sign a bankable star (or two), employ an exotic (or at least non-standard) locat...

Promising Young Woman, the auspicious, audacious debut feature of writer/actress-turned-director Emerald Fennell (she played Camilla Parker-Bowles in “The Crown”), defies classification. Is it a dark comedy with thriller overtones? Is it a...

Every once in a while, someone gets the bright idea of making an apocalyptic horror film. The Omen series is probably the best-known example of this sub-genre, but it's not the only one. Now, The Prophecy, with its tale of warring angels and lost...

A Prophet (Un prophète in its home tongue) is director Jacques Audiard's gangster-themed twist on the rags-to-riches story. Although it's a genre staple to present the story of an innocent corrupted by the criminal world and rising to a position ...