The 2020s did not treat crime like a costume the hero puts on for two hours. A London weed empire that everyone wants to buy, a Chicago courtroom that turned protest into theater, a suburban dad who stopped pretending he was harmless, and an Osage murder case that took three and a half hours to tell all showed up in the same decade. From The Gentlemen and Nobody to The Batman, Anatomy of a Fall, and Killers of the Flower Moon, 2020s crime movies kept asking the same question: who gets to decide what the crime was, and who gets to walk away from it?
This list gathers thirteen essential crime movies from the 2020s — heists, revenge jobs, courtroom fights, cop-noir comic books, and one assassin who treats a missed shot like a scheduling error. Every pick uses TMDB-backed metadata and a short guide to why it belongs on a 2020s crime watchlist.
1. The Gentlemen
- Movie Title: The Gentlemen
- Release Date: January 1, 2020
- Main Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Michelle Dockery
- Director: Guy Ritchie
- TMDB Score: 7.7/10
Why We Included The Gentlemen on This List
Guy Ritchie’s film is the 2020s crime movie that opened the decade by treating a marijuana empire like a country house everyone wants to inherit. Matthew McConaughey’s Mickey Pearson, Charlie Hunnam’s fixer who never stops talking, and Michelle Dockery’s partner who is not there to look decorative turn London’s underworld into a bidding war with manners. It belongs here because so many 2020s crime stories are about cashing out, and this one makes the sale itself the plot. On a 2020s watchlist it is the movie that proved a British gangster comedy could still feel expensive if the people in the room were actually good at their jobs.
Quick The Gentlemen Summary
American expat Mickey Pearson has built a highly profitable marijuana empire in London. When word gets out that he’s looking to cash out of the business forever it triggers plots, schemes, bribery and blackmail in an attempt to steal his domain out from under him. The jokes are fast. The violence is not a punchline. The only question is who gets to write the ending of a business that was never legal to begin with.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Gentlemen
Ritchie came back to British crime after a stretch of bigger studio work, and the film plays like a reminder of the lane he still owns: overlapping schemes, class jokes, and men who talk as if the deal is already done. McConaughey plays Pearson as a man who wants a clean exit more than another war. The movie later spun into a Netflix series that kept the world and changed the lead, which is why the 2020 original still feels like the first chapter of a brand. It is the 2020s crime opener people still recommend when someone asks for a heist movie that is really about a sale.
2. The Trial of the Chicago 7
- Movie Title: The Trial of the Chicago 7
- Release Date: September 25, 2020
- Main Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Rylance
- Director: Aaron Sorkin
- TMDB Score: 7.7/10
Why We Included The Trial of the Chicago 7 on This List
Aaron Sorkin’s film is the 2020s crime movie that looked at a courtroom and refused to pretend the charge was the whole story. Eddie Redmayne’s Tom Hayden, Sacha Baron Cohen’s Abbie Hoffman, and Mark Rylance’s defense attorney turn the 1969 Chicago Seven trial into a fight over who is allowed to speak and who is being punished for showing up. It belongs here because crime lists that only do bank jobs miss the decade’s other obsession: the state deciding a protest is a conspiracy. On a 2020s watchlist it is the movie that made a transcript feel like a thriller without turning the defendants into mascots.
Quick The Trial of the Chicago 7 Summary
What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent clash with the police. What followed was one of the most notorious trials in history. Sorkin keeps the camera in the room long enough for the jokes, the contempt citations, and the actual legal argument to sit next to each other. The crime, depending on who you ask, is either crossing a line in Chicago or charging people for the line the police drew.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Trial of the Chicago 7
Sorkin wrote and directed the film for Netflix after years of circling the material, and the ensemble is built for people who talk in complete paragraphs. It earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Baron Cohen plays Hoffman as a man who understands that the trial is already a show, which is why the movie can be funny without going soft on the charges. It is the 2020 courtroom film people still point to when they want crime cinema that is about power instead of loot.
3. Promising Young Woman
- Movie Title: Promising Young Woman
- Release Date: December 13, 2020
- Main Cast: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie
- Director: Emerald Fennell
- TMDB Score: 7.4/10
Why We Included Promising Young Woman on This List
Emerald Fennell’s film is the 2020s crime movie that treated revenge like a night out that keeps getting longer. Carey Mulligan’s Cassie, Bo Burnham’s charming classmate who wants a second chance, and Alison Brie’s old friend who would rather not reopen the file turn a candy-colored world into a ledger of people who thought they got away with it. It belongs here because the decade is full of thrillers about women who stop being polite, and this one is actually about the crime that started the politeness. On a 2020s watchlist it is the movie that made a revenge plot look like a rom-com until it did not.
Quick Promising Young Woman Summary
A young woman, traumatized by a tragic event in her past, seeks out vengeance against those who crossed her path. Cassie still lives at home, still works a coffee-shop shift, and still has a plan that looks like a coincidence until it is not. The men she meets think they are the story. The movie is about what happens when they are only the next name on a list.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Promising Young Woman
Promising Young Woman was Fennell’s first feature as a director, and it became one of the rare debuts to land in the Academy’s Best Picture race. Fennell won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay; Mulligan was nominated for Best Actress. The film’s pastel wardrobe and pop-needle-drop surface are the point, not a costume change before the “real” movie starts. It is the 2020 crime story people still argue about, which is usually a sign it did the job.
4. Judas and the Black Messiah
- Movie Title: Judas and the Black Messiah
- Release Date: February 12, 2021
- Main Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons
- Director: Shaka King
- TMDB Score: 7.3/10
Why We Included Judas and the Black Messiah on This List
Shaka King’s film is the 2020s crime movie that treated an FBI informant file like a tragedy with two leads. Daniel Kaluuya’s Fred Hampton, LaKeith Stanfield’s Bill O’Neal, and Jesse Plemons’s handler turn Chicago in the late 1960s into a story about infiltration that never pretends the paperwork was neutral. It belongs here because crime cinema in this decade kept circling institutions, and this one names the institution. On a 2020s watchlist it is the movie that made a COINTELPRO assignment feel like a heist in which the prize is a person’s life.
Quick Judas and the Black Messiah Summary
Bill O’Neal infiltrates the Black Panthers on the orders of FBI Agent Mitchell and J. Edgar Hoover. As Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton ascends—falling for a fellow revolutionary en route—a battle wages for O’Neal’s soul. The film keeps both men in the frame long enough for the title to stop sounding like a flourish. One of them is building a movement. The other is being paid to help take it apart.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Judas and the Black Messiah
Kaluuya won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Hampton, a performance that treats speeches as work instead of montage. The film was nominated for Best Picture. Stanfield plays O’Neal as a man who is useful, scared, and never quite in control of the deal he made, which is why the informant plot does not feel like a twist. It is the 2021 crime film that belongs on this list because the crime is the surveillance, not the speech.
5. Nobody
- Movie Title: Nobody
- Release Date: March 18, 2021
- Main Cast: Bob Odenkirk, Aleksey Serebryakov, Connie Nielsen
- Director: Ilya Naishuller
- TMDB Score: 7.9/10
Why We Included Nobody on This List
Ilya Naishuller’s film is the 2020s crime movie that looked at a quiet suburban dad and asked what he used to do before the minivan. Bob Odenkirk’s Hutch Mansell, Aleksey Serebryakov’s Russian boss who does not care about a bus pass, and Connie Nielsen’s wife who has seen this version of him before turn a home invasion into the first page of a much older file. It belongs here because the decade loves “ordinary man snaps” stories, and this one actually has a résumé. On a 2020s watchlist it is the movie that made a midlife crisis look like a professional relapse.
Quick Nobody Summary
Hutch Mansell, a suburban dad, overlooked husband, nothing neighbor — a “nobody.” When two thieves break into his home one night, Hutch’s unknown long-simmering rage is ignited and propels him on a brutal path that will uncover dark secrets he fought to leave behind. The bus fight is the advertisement. The rest of the movie is about the people who notice that advertisement and come looking for the man who made it.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Nobody
The script comes from Derek Kolstad, who wrote John Wick, which is why Nobody can feel like a cousin even when the gold coins are gone. Odenkirk, known to most viewers for sitting in rooms and talking, trained for the fights instead of pretending the camera could do the work. Naishuller keeps the violence ugly enough that the joke of a “nobody” never turns into a superhero origin. It is the 2021 crime movie people still recommend when they want Wick energy without another Continental lobby.
6. Wrath of Man
- Movie Title: Wrath of Man
- Release Date: April 22, 2021
- Main Cast: Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Rocci Williams
- Director: Guy Ritchie
- TMDB Score: 7.6/10
Why We Included Wrath of Man on This List
Guy Ritchie’s other 2020s crime movie on this list is the one that put the jokes down. Jason Statham’s new cash-truck guard, Holt McCallany’s coworker who cannot read him, and Rocci Williams’s crewmate watch a quiet hire turn into the most precise person in the yard the first time someone tries to rob the truck. It belongs here because heist movies in this decade often want to be clever; this one wants to be cold. On a 2020s watchlist it is the armored-car film that treats a score as a funeral the robbers have not scheduled yet.
Quick Wrath of Man Summary
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. The job is never just the money. The money is how you find the people.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Wrath of Man
The film reworks the 2004 French thriller Cash Truck, and Ritchie uses that skeleton to strip his usual banter down to procedure. Statham plays H as a man who is already past the part of the story where he explains himself. The structure keeps circling the same robbery from different sides, which is why a second viewing feels like checking the books. It is the 2021 crime movie that proved Ritchie could do silence as well as patter, and that Statham did not need a quip to be the scariest person on the truck.
7. The Outfit
- Movie Title: The Outfit
- Release Date: February 25, 2022
- Main Cast: Mark Rylance, Zoey Deutch, Johnny Flynn
- Director: Graham Moore
- TMDB Score: 7.1/10
Why We Included The Outfit on This List
Graham Moore’s film is the 2020s crime movie that never needed a second location. Mark Rylance’s Savile Row cutter, Zoey Deutch’s receptionist who hears everything, and Johnny Flynn’s gangster with a gun in the fitting room turn a Chicago tailor shop into a closed-room thriller about who is allowed to leave with a finished suit. It belongs here because so many crime pictures in this decade are sprawling; this one is a box, a shears, and a man who knows how to wait. On a 2020s watchlist it is the movie that made a drop-off at a clothing store feel like a sit-down.
Quick The Outfit Summary
Leonard is an English tailor who used to craft suits on London’s world-famous Savile Row. After a personal tragedy, he’s ended up in Chicago, operating a small tailor shop in a rough part of town where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them: a family of vicious gangsters. A package, a shooting, and a long night turn the shop into a place where measurements stop being about jackets. The cutter keeps working. That is not the same thing as staying out of it.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Outfit
Moore, who won an Academy Award for writing The Imitation Game, made this his feature directing debut and kept almost the entire film inside the shop. Rylance plays Leonard as a craftsman who understands that gangsters like anyone else who makes them look finished. The movie’s pleasure is watching a quiet man use rooms, doors, and timing the way other crime films use cars. It is the 2022 chamber piece people still recommend when they want a mob movie that does not leave the block.
8. The Batman
- Movie Title: The Batman
- Release Date: March 1, 2022
- Main Cast: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright
- Director: Matt Reeves
- TMDB Score: 7.7/10
Why We Included The Batman on This List
Matt Reeves’s film is the 2020s crime movie that put a comic-book detective back on an actual case. Robert Pattinson’s Batman, Zoë Kravitz’s Selina Kyle, and Jeffrey Wright’s Jim Gordon spend two years into the job still treating Gotham like a city with files, not a skyline that needs saving. It belongs here because the Riddler plot is a serial-killer investigation that happens to involve a man in a cowl, and the corruption it uncovers is the crime, not the costume. On a 2020s watchlist it is the blockbuster that wanted to be a noir first and a superhero movie second.
Quick The Batman Summary
In his second year of fighting crime, Batman uncovers corruption in Gotham City that connects to his own family while facing a serial killer known as the Riddler. The riddles are homework. The real work is following money, photographs, and people who have been in Gotham longer than Bruce Wayne has been wearing the suit. Selina is looking for someone. Gordon is trying to keep a police department from eating itself. The city is not a backdrop. It is the suspect list.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Batman
Reeves and Pattinson leaned into a detective-noir version of the character after a decade of world-ending Batman stories, and audiences showed up for a three-hour case file. The film became one of 2022’s biggest theatrical hits and locked in a sequel. Wright’s Gordon is a partner, not a punchline, which is why the cop-work scenes carry as much weight as the car chases. It is the 2020s crime blockbuster that treated a viral killer and a mayoral race as the same investigation.
9. Argentina 1985
- Movie Title: Argentina 1985
- Release Date: September 29, 2022
- Main Cast: Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner
- Director: Santiago Mitre
- TMDB Score: 7.8/10
Why We Included Argentina 1985 on This List
Santiago Mitre’s film is the 2020s crime movie that treated a dictatorship’s command as a case that still had to be built in public. Ricardo Darín’s prosecutor Julio Strassera, Peter Lanzani’s younger deputy Luis Moreno Ocampo, and Alejandra Flechner’s partner at home turn the 1985 Trial of the Juntas into a race against intimidation, clock, and a country that is not sure it wants the names said out loud. It belongs here because crime lists that stop at gangs miss the decade’s best legal thrillers about state violence. On a 2020s watchlist it is the movie that made a filing deadline feel like a heist with witnesses.
Quick Argentina 1985 Summary
In the 1980s, a team of lawyers takes on the heads of Argentina’s bloody military dictatorship in a battle against odds and a race against time. The young staffers look underqualified on purpose. The defendants look like they still expect the old rules to hold. The film stays with the work of gathering testimony and surviving the week, because that is the actual plot: getting a trial to happen while the people who ran the country are still in the room.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Argentina 1985
The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and became one of the most widely seen Argentine movies of the decade. Darín plays Strassera as a civil servant who is tired, funny, and not looking for a monument. Mitre keeps the humor in the office because the alternative is a lecture, and the Trial of the Juntas does not need one. It is the 2022 crime film that belongs next to Chicago 7 on this list: different country, same question of whether a courtroom can hold the people who thought they were above it.
10. John Wick: Chapter 4
- Movie Title: John Wick: Chapter 4
- Release Date: March 21, 2023
- Main Cast: Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård
- Director: Chad Stahelski
- TMDB Score: 7.7/10
Why We Included John Wick: Chapter 4 on This List
Chad Stahelski’s film is the 2020s crime movie that turned a hitman’s exit plan into a world tour with rules. Keanu Reeves’s John Wick, Donnie Yen’s Caine, and Bill Skarsgård’s Marquis who thinks the High Table is a family business push the series past another nightclub shootout into a story about what freedom costs when every city has a price on you. It belongs here because the Wick films are crime movies first — contracts, hotels, markers, and a table that behaves like a government. On a 2020s watchlist it is the action film that still cares who issued the order.
Quick John Wick: Chapter 4 Summary
With the price on his head ever increasing, John Wick uncovers a path to defeating The High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes. Osaka, Berlin, and Paris are not postcards. They are jurisdictions. The people who help him have their own debts, which is why a favor in this world is never free and a duel is just another kind of paperwork.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About John Wick: Chapter 4
Chapter 4 became the highest-grossing film in the series and the one that finally gave the mythology as much weight as the gun-fu. Yen’s Caine is a blind assassin and a friend, which is the film’s cleanest trick: the man sent to kill Wick is also the man who understands him. Stahelski stages the staircases, the traffic circle, and the dawn duel like chapters in a contract. It is the 2023 crime blockbuster that treated a hotel concierge and a continental coin as more important than a speech about revenge.
11. Anatomy of a Fall
- Movie Title: Anatomy of a Fall
- Release Date: August 23, 2023
- Main Cast: Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado-Graner
- Director: Justine Triet
- TMDB Score: 7.5/10
Why We Included Anatomy of a Fall on This List
Justine Triet’s film is the 2020s crime movie that refused to tell you whether a fall was a murder and then made that refusal the whole case. Sandra Hüller’s Sandra Voyter, Swann Arlaud’s lawyer who has to defend a marriage as much as a client, and Milo Machado-Graner’s blind son who may be the only witness turn a chalet in the snow into a courtroom about tone of voice, a novel, and a steel drum cover. It belongs here because the decade’s best legal thrillers are not about twist endings; they are about what a trial does to a family. On a 2020s watchlist it is the movie that made a possibly accidental death feel like the most carefully built crime story of the year.
Quick Anatomy of a Fall Summary
A woman is suspected of her husband’s murder, and their blind son faces a moral dilemma as the sole witness. The house is isolated. The recording exists. The marriage looks different depending on who is asking the question and in which language. Triet does not hand you a flashback that settles it. She hands you a trial, which is a different kind of story, and then lets the boy decide what he can live with.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Anatomy of a Fall
Anatomy of a Fall won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2023 and later took the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay; it was also nominated for Best Picture. Hüller’s performance became one of the year’s defining pieces of screen acting, in part because the film never asks her to confess with her face. The dog, the music cue, and the bilingual arguments are not decorations; they are evidence. It is the 2023 crime film people still rewatch to see whether they vote the same way the second time.
12. The Killer
- Movie Title: The Killer
- Release Date: October 25, 2023
- Main Cast: Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell
- Director: David Fincher
- TMDB Score: 6.6/10
Why We Included The Killer on This List
David Fincher’s film is the 2020s crime movie that treated a professional hit like a logistics problem that went personal the second it missed. Michael Fassbender’s nameless assassin, Tilda Swinton’s expert who understands the job too well, and Charles Parnell’s handler turn storage lockers, rental cars, and a Paris window into a procedure manual that starts to crack. It belongs here because assassin movies in this decade often want mythology; this one wants a process, and then it watches the process fail. On a 2020s watchlist it is the coldest Netflix crime film that still feels like a Fincher picture: clean, funny in a deadpan way, and uninterested in making you like the man doing the work.
Quick The Killer Summary
After a fateful miss, an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal. He has rules, a playlist, and a voiceover that sounds like a man trying to stay employed by his own code. The miss in Paris is the first crack. The rest of the movie is him traveling to close accounts he told himself he would never have to open, while the people who hired him decide whether he is still an asset.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Killer
Fincher adapted the French graphic novel by Alexis “Matz” Nolent and Luc Jacamon, and the movie keeps the comic’s taste for process: wait, watch, leave no mess. Fassbender does most of the film behind glasses and a monotone, which is the joke and the threat. It landed on Netflix in 2023 as one of the rare assassin movies more interested in Amazon boxes and heart rate than in origin-story monologues. It is the 2020s crime film that belongs here even with a cooler TMDB score, because “best of the decade” is not the same list as “highest rated.”
13. Killers of the Flower Moon
- Movie Title: Killers of the Flower Moon
- Release Date: October 18, 2023
- Main Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- TMDB Score: 7.4/10
Why We Included Killers of the Flower Moon on This List
Martin Scorsese’s film is the 2020s crime movie that looked at a string of murders in Osage County and refused to treat them as a puzzle the FBI invented. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhardt, Robert De Niro’s William Hale, and Lily Gladstone’s Mollie Kyle turn the Reign of Terror into a marriage, a guardianship racket, and a family business that called itself help. It belongs here because it is the decade’s largest true-crime film and the one that keeps the victims in the frame instead of handing the story to the men with badges. On a 2020s watchlist it is the closer: three hours and change of people smiling while they steal a life, then a country, then the narrative.
Quick Killers of the Flower Moon Summary
When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one—until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery. The mystery is not mysterious for long. Hale is already in the house. Ernest is already in the marriage. Mollie is already sick, and the movie is about how many people around her can call that a coincidence. The agents arrive late, which is historically honest and dramatically the point.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Killers of the Flower Moon
The film adapts David Grann’s nonfiction book and became one of Scorsese’s most awarded late-career pictures, with a Best Picture nomination and a historic Best Actress nomination for Gladstone. Apple and Paramount put a three-and-a-half-hour crime epic in theaters and trusted people to sit with it. DiCaprio and De Niro, longtime Scorsese collaborators, play men who are not masterminds so much as useful and cruel. It is the 2023 crime film this list has to end on, because after it, a stylish heist feels like a different sport.
If this decade’s crime slate has you looking backward, start with our lists of the best crime movies of the 2010s, the 2000s, the 1990s, the 1980s, and the 1970s — then come back when the 2020s finish writing the next chapter. The heists are not done. Neither are the trials.
