Top 30 Ranked

The Greatest Crime Movies of 2021

Gritty Heists and Suspenseful Modern Noir Thrillers

Discover the best crime cinema with our ranked list featuring high-stakes heists, gritty noir mysteries, and intense psychological thrillers.

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About 2021 Crime Movies

The year 2021 was a strange, transitional period for the film industry, but for the crime genre, it represented a fascinating return to form with a distinctly moody, international flavor. As the world began to emerge from the isolation of the previous year, directors seemed collectively interested in the mechanics of guilt, the weight of the past, and the slow rot of the soul. We did not just get bank heists and car chases. Instead, we were treated to a somber, deliberate brand of storytelling that felt both classical and bracingly modern.

If one film defined the year's ambition, it was Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley. This was a sprawling, neon-soaked descent into the dark heart of American carnival culture and high-society grift. By reviving the noir aesthetic with such visual opulence, del Toro reminded us that crime movies are often at their best when they function as moral fables. Bradley Cooper’s performance as a rising mentalist with a hollow core captured the quintessential noir protagonist: a man who thinks he is the smartest person in the room until the room starts closing in on him.

While Hollywood looked to the past, Ridley Scott gave us a campy, operatic version of true crime with House of Gucci. It was a polarizing experience for many, but its inclusion in the year's lineup showed the genre's elasticity. It proved that crime stories could be just as much about high fashion and operatic family dysfunction as they are about back-alley deals. Lady Gaga’s transformative turn as Patrizia Reggiani anchored a film that felt like a fever dream of greed and betrayal, proving that the public's appetite for the downfall of the ultra-wealthy remained insatiable.

On the more prestige end of the spectrum, Steven Soderbergh delivered No Sudden Move, a film that felt like a masterclass in tension and period detail. Set in 1950s Detroit, it utilized a wide-angle lens to create a distorted, paranoid atmosphere that perfectly complemented its twisty plot about a simple job gone wrong. Soderbergh has always been a stylist, but here he focused on the systemic corruption of the automotive industry, making the crime feel both personal and institutional. It was a reminder that the best crime films often peel back the layers of society to show the rot underneath.

The international scene provided some of the year's most visceral thrills through Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta. While some classified it as a historical drama, it was effectively a religious crime thriller, complete with fraud, forgery, and a high-stakes power struggle within the church. It challenged the boundaries of the genre by showing that the pursuit of power is a criminal act regardless of the setting.

Looking back, 2021 was the year the crime movie stopped trying to be a blockbuster and started trying to be a character study again. Whether it was the quiet, simmering tension of The Card Counter or the explosive family drama of any number of indie releases, the genre felt alive and deeply thoughtful. It was a year where the bad guys did not always get caught, but they almost always had to live with what they had done, which is often a far more terrifying conclusion.

The Complete Rankings

Based on the top picks in drafts on SnakeDrafts

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30
2021 Crime in Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two (2021)
Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two
2021

As Gotham City's young vigilante, the Batman, struggles to pursue a brutal serial killer, district attorney Harvey Dent gets caught in a feud involving the criminal family of the Falcones.

Animation
Mystery
1h 27m
Chris Palmer
Jensen Ackles, Josh Duhamel, Naya Rivera, Billy Burke
29
2021 Crime in The Unforgivable (2021)
The Unforgivable
2021

A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.

Drama
Crime
1h 52m
Nora Fingscheidt
28
2021 Crime in Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One (2021)
Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One
2021

Following a brutal series of murders taking place on Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, Gotham City's young vigilante known as the Batman sets out to pursue the mysterious serial killer alongside police officer James Gordon and district attorney Harvey Dent.

Animation
Mystery
1h 25m
Chris Palmer
Jensen Ackles, Josh Duhamel, Naya Rivera, Billy Burke

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27
2021 Crime in Hard Hit (2021)
Hard Hit
2021

On his way to work, a bank manager receives an anonymous call claiming there's a bomb under his car seat, and if anyone exits the car, it will explode unless he can pay a ransom.

Action
Crime
1h 34m
Kim Chang-ju
Jo Woo-jin, Lee Jae-in, Ji Chang-wook, Jin Kyung
26
2021 Crime in Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord (2021)
Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord
2021

Max S. reveals how he built a drug empire from his childhood bedroom in this story that inspired the series "How to Sell Drugs Online."

Documentary
Crime
1h 36m
Eva Müller
Maximilian Schmidt
25
2021 Crime in Drishyam 2 (2021)
Drishyam 2
2021

7 years after the events of Drishyam, the family lives with the trauma from that fateful night. A gripping tale of an investigation and a family threatened by it. Will Georgekutty be able to protect his family this time?

Thriller
Crime
2h 33m
Jeethu Joseph
Mohanlal, Meena, Murali Gopy, Asha Sarath
24
2021 Crime in Small World (2021)
Small World
2021

After disappearing from a small Polish town, a mother discovers her 4-year old daughter, Ola, has been abducted by the Russian Mafia. In pursuit of her daughter, she is stopped for speeding by a police officer, Robert Goc. His intervention results in the escape of the kidnappers across the Eastern border. Feeling guilt for failing to prevent the abduction, Robert becomes engaged in an international investigation to find the missing girl.

Crime
Action
1h 57m
Patryk Vega
Piotr Adamczyk, Enrique Arce, Aleksey Serebryakov, Julia Wieniawa
23
2021 Crime in Girl in the Basement (2021)
Girl in the Basement
2021

Sara is a teen girl who is looking forward to her 18th birthday to move away from her controlling father Don. But before she could even blow out the candles, Don imprisons her in the basement of their home.

Thriller
Crime
1h 28m
Elisabeth Röhm
Judd Nelson, Stefanie Scott, Joely Fisher, Braxton Bjerken
22
2021 Crime in Gone Mom: The Disappearance of Jennifer Dulos (2021)
Gone Mom: The Disappearance of Jennifer Dulos
2021

The story of Jennifer Dulos, the wealthy Connecticut mother-of-five who mysteriously vanished on May 24, 2019. Jennifer believed that she had found her Prince Charming in Fotis Dulos, but by the time of her disappearance, their 13-year marriage had disintegrated and they were engaged in a bitter divorce and a contentious custody dispute for their five children. When she disappeared without a trace after dropping off her children at school, the police turned the spotlight on Fotis, who claimed that Jennifer had staged her own disappearance a la Gone Girl.

Thriller
Mystery
1h 28m
Gail Harvey
Annabeth Gish, Warren Christie, Laura Harris, Michelle Morgan
21
2021 Crime in Seaspiracy (2021)
Seaspiracy
2021

Passionate about ocean life, a filmmaker sets out to document the harm that humans do to marine species — and uncovers an alarming global conspiracy.

Documentary
Crime
1h 29m
Ali Tabrizi
Ali Tabrizi, Sylvia Earle, Richard O'Barry, Paul de Gelder
20
2021 Crime in Tokyo Revengers (2021)
Tokyo Revengers
2021

An unemployed man learns that his ex-girlfriend was murdered. He suddenly finds himself travelling through time to his middle school years and has chance to change the future and save the girl. He aims to rise to the top of the most brutal delinquent gang.

Action
Drama
2h 0m
Tsutomu Hanabusa
Takumi Kitamura, Ryo Yoshizawa, Yuki Yamada, Yosuke Sugino
19
2021 Crime in The Virtuoso (2021)
The Virtuoso
2021

Danger, deception and murder descend upon a sleepy town when a professional assassin accepts a new assignment from his enigmatic boss.

Thriller
Crime
1h 50m
Nick Stagliano
Anthony Hopkins, Anson Mount, Abbie Cornish, Diora Baird
18
2021 Crime in Breaking News in Yuba County (2021)
Breaking News in Yuba County
2021

An overlooked pencil-pusher catches her husband in bed with another woman, the shock of which causes him to die of a heart attack. So she buries his body and takes advantage of the growing celebrity status that comes from having a missing husband. But she quickly finds herself in over her head, dodging cops and criminals, all while trying to keep the truth from her sister, a local news anchor who’s desperate for a story.

Comedy
Drama
1h 36m
Tate Taylor
Allison Janney, Mila Kunis, Regina Hall, Awkwafina
17
2021 Crime in Operation Hyacinth (2021)
Operation Hyacinth
2021

Not satisfied with the result of a murder investigation in Warsaw's gay community, an officer in 1980s communist Poland resolves to uncover the truth.

Thriller
Crime
1h 46m
Piotr Domalewski
Tomasz Ziętek, Hubert Miłkowski, Adrianna Chlebicka, Tomasz Schuchardt
16
2021 Crime in Crisis (2021)
Crisis
2021

Three stories about the world of opioids collide: a drug trafficker arranges a multi-cartel Fentanyl smuggling operation between Canada and the U.S., an architect recovering from an OxyContin addiction tracks down the truth behind her son's involvement with narcotics, and a university professor battles unexpected revelations about his research employer, a drug company with deep government influence bringing a new "non-addictive" painkiller to market.

Thriller
Crime
1h 58m
Nicholas Jarecki
15

An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dangerous than he is.

14
2021 Crime in Silk Road (2021)
Silk Road
2021

Philosophical twenty-something Ross Ulbricht creates Silk Road, a dark net website that sells drugs, while DEA agent Rick Bowden goes undercover to bring him down.

Crime
Thriller
1h 56m
Tiller Russell
Jason Clarke, Nick Robinson, Daniel David Stewart, Alexandra Shipp
13
2021 Crime in Body Brokers (2021)
Body Brokers
2021

Utah and his girlfriend Opal, are drug addicts living on the streets in rural Ohio. After getting recruited by body broker Wood and offered treatment in Los Angeles, Wood takes Utah under his wing and introduces him to treatment center mogul Vin. Wood and Vin bring Utah in on their lucrative and illegal dealings, where saving lives comes second to the bottom line.

Thriller
Crime
1h 51m
John Swab
Jack Kilmer, Alice Englert, Frank Grillo, Michael Kenneth Williams
12
2021 Crime in American Night (2021)
American Night
2021

A neo-noir set in the New York City's corrupt contemporary art world where the art dealer John Kaplan and the ruthless head of New York's mafia, Michael Rubino, fight for money, art, power and love.

Action
Thriller
2h 3m
Alessio Della Valle
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Paz Vega, Emile Hirsch, Michael Madsen
11
2021 Crime in Army of Thieves (2021)
Army of Thieves
2021

A mysterious woman recruits bank teller Ludwig Dieter to lead a group of aspiring thieves on a top-secret heist during the early stages of the zombie apocalypse.

Action
Crime
2h 8m
Matthias Schweighöfer
Matthias Schweighöfer, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ruby O. Fee, Stuart Martin
10
2021 Crime in The Woman in the Window (2021)
The Woman in the Window
2021

An agoraphobic woman living alone in New York begins spying on her new neighbors only to witness a disturbing act of violence.

Crime
Mystery
1h 40m
Joe Wright
Why it ranks

Drawing heavily from Hitchcockian DNA, this film leans into a heightened, theatrical surrealism to depict a fractured mind under siege. Its kaleidoscopic visual style creates an unsettling sense of domestic claustrophobia that lingers long after the final twist.

9
2021 Crime in Stillwater (2021)
Stillwater
2021

Bill Baker, an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma, travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, Allison, who is in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter.

Drama
Crime
2h 19m
Tom McCarthy
Matt Damon, Camille Cottin, Abigail Breslin, Lilou Siauvaud
Why it ranks

Tom McCarthy deconstructs the vigilante narrative by focusing on the messy, heartbreaking friction between cultural borders and legal realities. It is a somber and grounded subversion of the typical 'wrongful conviction' thriller.

8
2021 Crime in The Card Counter (2021)
The Card Counter
2021

William Tell just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk, a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel. Tell sees a chance at redemption through his relationship with Cirk. But keeping Cirk on the straight-and-narrow proves impossible, dragging Tell back into the darkness of his past.

Drama
Thriller
1h 51m
Paul Schrader
Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, Willem Dafoe
Why it ranks

Paul Schrader explores the intersection of gambling and guilt in this stark, meticulous character study of a soul seeking penance. Its power comes from a simmering, understated intensity that feels both deeply personal and globally significant.

7
2021 Crime in The Dry (2021)
The Dry
2021

Aaron Falk returns to his drought-stricken hometown to attend a tragic funeral. But his return opens a decades-old wound - the unsolved death of a teenage girl.

Crime
Thriller
1h 57m
Robert Connolly
Eric Bana, Genevieve O'Reilly, Keir O'Donnell, John Polson
Why it ranks

This Australian neo-western uses a parched, claustrophobic landscape to heighten the tension of a long-dormant small-town mystery. It excels through its disciplined pacing and the way it treats the environment as a silent, suffocating witness to past sins.

6
2021 Crime in Cruella (2021)
Cruella
2021

In 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, a young grifter named Estella is determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute. But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.

Comedy
Crime
2h 14m
Craig Gillespie
Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser
Why it ranks

Craig Gillespie reimagines the villain origin story as a high-fashion heist flick fueled by punk-rock energy and anarchic creativity. The film breathes fresh air into the genre by swapping gritty alleyways for the cutthroat world of 1970s couture crime.

5
2021 Crime in I Care a Lot (2021)
I Care a Lot
2021

A court-appointed legal guardian defrauds her older clients and traps them under her care. But her latest mark comes with some unexpected baggage.

Crime
Thriller
1h 59m
J Blakeson
Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza González, Dianne Wiest
Why it ranks

Rosamund Pike commands this razor-sharp satire that transforms predatory legal guardianship into a high-stakes turf war. It is a wickedly cynical look at the American Dream cannibalizing itself through state-sanctioned theft.

4
2021 Crime in The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
The Many Saints of Newark
2021

Young Anthony Soprano is growing up in one of the most tumultuous eras in Newark, N.J., history, becoming a man just as rival gangsters start to rise up and challenge the all-powerful DiMeo crime family. Caught up in the changing times is the uncle he idolizes, Dickie Moltisanti, whose influence over his nephew will help shape the impressionable teenager into the all-powerful mob boss, Tony Soprano.

Crime
Drama
2h 0m
Alan Taylor
Alessandro Nivola, Leslie Odom Jr., Michael Gandolfini, Ray Liotta
Why it ranks

This stylish prequel pivots away from expectations by focusing on the fractured foundations of a criminal dynasty rather than a simple origin story. It captures the volatile intersection of racial tension and family legacy with a gritty, operatic flair.

3
2021 Crime in No Sudden Move (2021)
No Sudden Move
2021

A group of criminals are brought together under mysterious circumstances and have to work together to uncover what's really going on when their simple job goes completely sideways.

Why it ranks

Steven Soderbergh delivers a masterclass in subverting the mid-century caper through a dense, labyrinthine script and a distinct fish-eye visual palette. Its brilliance lies in how it frames corporate greed as the ultimate, untouchable criminal conspiracy.

2
2021 Crime in Wrath of Man (2021)
Wrath of Man
2021

A cold and mysterious new security guard for a Los Angeles cash truck company surprises his co-workers when he unleashes precision skills during a heist. The crew is left wondering who he is and where he came from. Soon, the marksman's ultimate motive becomes clear as he takes dramatic and irrevocable steps to settle a score.

Thriller
Crime
Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Rocci Williams, Josh Hartnett
Why it ranks

Guy Ritchie strips away his signature whimsical banter for a cold, kinetic displays of precision-engineered violence. This is a visceral revenge odyssey that operates with the relentless, metallic efficiency of a heist gone wrong.

1
2021 Crime in The Little Things (2021)
The Little Things
2021

Deputy Sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon joins forces with Sgt. Jim Baxter to search for a serial killer who's terrorizing Los Angeles. As they track the culprit, Baxter is unaware that the investigation is dredging up echoes of Deke's past, uncovering disturbing secrets that could threaten more than his case.

Drama
Crime
2h 8m
John Lee Hancock
Why it ranks

John Lee Hancock’s neo-noir thrives on a haunting, atmospheric slow-burn that prioritizes psychological disintegration over standard police procedural tropes. It stands out for its refusal to provide easy catharsis, instead trapping the viewer in a gripping cycle of obsession and moral ambiguity.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about this list and SnakeDrafts

The 2021 crime movies in this list often delve into themes of guilt, the weight of past decisions, and moral ambiguity. Films like "The Little Things" and "No Sudden Move" emphasize psychological tension and the complexities of human nature beyond typical crime story tropes.

Several entries blend crime with thriller and drama genres, including "Wrath of Man" and "I Care a Lot." These films combine high-stakes tension with deep character studies, creating gripping narratives that go beyond traditional crime storytelling.

Yes, the list features movies with international influences and unique stylistic approaches, such as "The Dry," an Australian crime thriller that combines mystery with a rural setting, and "Nightmare Alley," which offers a noir-inspired, visually rich interpretation of crime and deception.

Films like "The Card Counter" and "Stillwater" provide a more introspective look at crime, focusing on characters grappling with ethical dilemmas and personal redemption. These movies prioritize emotional depth and psychological nuance over conventional action sequences.

Comedy is tastefully interwoven in films such as "I Care a Lot" and "Cruella," where humor complements crime narratives to offer a satirical or darkly comedic twist. This approach adds freshness by balancing tension with wit and irony.

Yes, "The Many Saints of Newark" serves as a prequel to the iconic series "The Sopranos," exploring the origins of key characters and the socio-political backdrop of crime in Newark. This connection enriches the film's appeal for fans of the franchise.

The 2021 crime movies showcase diverse storytelling styles ranging from gritty noir mysteries to high-stakes heists and psychological thrillers. This variety signals a preference for mood-driven, character-centric plots that explore deeper societal and personal issues.

Indeed, acclaimed directors like Guy Ritchie in "Wrath of Man" and Steven Soderbergh in "No Sudden Move" bring distinct narrative and visual styles to their films, blending slick crime storytelling with atmospheric tension. Guillermo del Toro's "Nightmare Alley" stands out for its visually immersive and stylistic noir approach.
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