Best of Hardboiled Crime - 2025

 Last November, I decided to do something different for a "Noirvember" watch list - instead of indulging in noir classics or filling long vacant holes in my own personal filmography, I decided to catch up on recent crime films and deliver a top ten list. It was one of my favorite things to work on so I've decided to continue the tradition this year. All of the same caveats apply when it comes to definitions; the list of films that could be considered within the crime genre is massive and hardboiled isn't strictly defined in terms of cinema either. Incidentally, 2025 was a great year for higher profile films from accomplished directors that are at least crime adjacent: Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cloud, Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, Park Chan Wook's No Other Choice, and Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind are just a handful of films that will likely end up somewhere on Best of the Year lists. None of these films made the list below as they either didn't meet my deeply subjective criteria about what makes a film hardboiled or I felt like they were another kind of genre film altogether (I'd classify PTA's latest as more of a political thriller than a crime film). What I do have is a list of films were somewhat overlooked, didn't get wide theatrical release (if they got released at all), and I think are very much worth any crime film fan's attention. Much like last year, I could easily delay this list by another few weeks trying to catch every new film that seems worthy of consideration or hunting down the ones that evaporated post-festival, but I'm happy with the list I have. Please feel free to comment or hit me up on bsky or IG with films I may have missed, I'd love to know what people are digging this year in genre cinema.

10. Violent Ends - I love a film with a authentic sense of place and that's one of the great strengths behind John-Michael Powell's Arkansas set rural noir. Ends has a tremendous look and is heavy with autumnal atmosphere which provides the perfect accompaniment to its grim, melancholy tale of Lucas Frost (Billy Magnussen) - an honest man who can't escape the gravity of his family's crime affiliations. Ends features some great performances and the casting is excellent as well. Magnussen is solid but I was really impressed with both Alexandra Shipp as Frost's young fiancée - her role is critical in making the stakes of the film function believably and I think she's genuinely perfect for it. Also enjoyed James Badge Dale as Frost's cousin and the primary antagonist of the film. Dale can be charming but he plays his character (Sid) with such a degree of credible menace that he's a recognizably potent threat from his first moments in the film.  Ends is very much in the tradition of classic revenge films though it does meander a bit into family drama and police procedural tangents - but it won me over with a visceral, unsentimental treatment of violence, its gritty realism, and some terrific performances. Seems like a must-watch for fans of rural noir.

9. Striking Rescue - Another vengeance tale though the setting couldn't be much more different, Rescue is the latest actioner featuring Muay Thai stylist Tony Jaa. As much as Jaa blew me (and everyone else) away in his early films, I feel like I haven't seen anything that truly capitalized on his abundant physical talents in years. Though the plot is thin to the point of transparency and the performances are rough in spots, Rescue brings the goods in terms of fight choreography and stunt work. Loads of hard hitting combat that, while stylized and heightened, still keep things practical. Same goes for the stunt work which had me flashing back to Hong Kong films of the 80s and 90s in the sense that it's very clearly a bunch of stunt performers falling, flying, and generally getting knocked around. The hallway motorbike fight sequence is brilliant in this respect. There are still some goofy CGI enhanced driving sequences or blood effects, but compared to the digital sheen of something like this year's Havoc, Rescue looks and feels far more grounded in reality. For reasons beyond my comprehension, Jaa delivers many of his lines in English and it's clear that he's not going to win any acting awards anytime soon. Still, he has the screen charisma to hold the film together and once he's in motion, it's impossible to keep your eyes off of him. 

8. Tornado - More vengeance! More violence! Tornado is a wild conceit of a film from writer/director John Maclean (Slow West). Regardless of your opinion, Tornado will still be the best Scottish samurai revenge Western released in theaters this year. The premise is the stuff pulp genre dreams are made of and Maclean realizes it beautifully on film. Even though Tornado features a brief 90 minute runtime, I feel like I could luxuriate in its texture for days. It's marvelously shot and aesthetically meticulous. The detailed appearance of Tim Roth and his troop of outlaw irregulars and our brief glimpses into the world of traveling carnival folk had my brain reeling with possibilities of their characters and personal histories. Maclean employs some visual nods to Westerns (largely of the Italian variety) and Samurai films of the 60s and contrasts them magnificently against the misty bleakness of Scotland. Though it holds much promise on paper, Tornado never quite delivers in either deeply compelling characters or overblown genre insanity - more of either would certainly have nudged this one further up the list. Still, there's a lot to love here and it's a film I'm glad (and somewhat shocked) made it to production.

7. Honey Don't! - I have already written a full length review of the second film in Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke's lesbian B-movie trilogy, but I'll try and summarize my thoughts here. Don't received a somewhat indifferent response from viewers who I believe are looking for the next Coen Brothers' film and that's not what you're getting from Coen and Cooke. Still, they are working in a milieu I love and while they aren't necessarily nailing the mark every time, this is still very much in my wheelhouse. Don't is a classic detective story, Qualley is great as Honey O'Donahue, her chemistry with Aubrey Plaza is fantastic, and Cooke and Coen manage to thread enough sex, violence, and strangeness together for a truly entertaining 88 minutes. Having given it a recent rewatch, I think I can even better enjoy it now that my expectations are correctly calibrated. While I don't think it's quite as good as some of my favorite oddball, hangout 70s detective movies, Honey Don't! still shares some of that off-kilter, shaggy energy.

6. Night Call - Last year I wasn't able to put anything from France on my list, so I was very happy to have seen and enjoyed Michiel Blanchart's "one crazy night" crime thriller. France seems like a film market that can still support modestly budgeted genre films that don't lean too heavily on special effect action sequences and Night Call is a fantastic example of just that. The film is centered on Jonathan Feltre as Mady - a locksmith who takes a late night job he's unsure of which leads him to an insane night across Paris with consequences worsening at every turn. Blanchart manages to put together a real ripper of a film infused with nighttime urban adrenaline and a series of reveals that pull you further in. The propulsive narrative does falter a bit towards the last act and I wish it could maintain that energy more consistently, but the finale does land with significant impact. Not quite as blood pressure spiking as something from the Safdie's but still a very smart, stylish thriller. More of this, please.

5. Eenie Meanie - Shawn Simmons' directorial debut feels like a throwback to 70s genre films and in some important ways it is. Critically, this heist thriller with a dose of black comedy includes two absolutely stunning chase sequences that were planned and filmed as practically as possible. I generally do not go in for car porn, but these scenes are visceral and gripping and while I'm sure there are visual effects at work here, there's an element of realism that can't be denied. The other aspect of Meanie that spoke to me was the utilization of real locations across Cleveland and Toledo. Rooting the action in physical space and grounding the story in an authentic place may seem like a low bar, but I'm stunned by how many films fail to clear it. I also though Meanie was genuinely entertaining, funny, sometimes touching, and features a solid cast - Weaving holds the film together as the titular protagonist and there are some terrific supporting roles as well. I had some issues with the overall pacing and arc which I detailed in my full length review, but I still think the strengths outweigh the weaknesses here.

4. Kill the Jockey - I was uncertain whether Luis Ortega's El Jockey/Kill the Jockey was hardboiled enough to make this list. It's more closely aligned with arthouse sensibilities, isn't particularly explicit regarding violence, and leans into the fantastic and surreal more than any other film on the list. Still, this is a movie very much about gangsters, features several murders, and there's even a prison stint - so on the list it goes. Jockey was one of my favorite films I saw during MSPIFF this year and I wrote about it a little then. The premise defies standard storyline conventions but genre archetypes are employed to deliver the tale of Remo Manfredini - a gifted and incurably degenerate jockey who suffers a severe injury and personality crisis after performing disastrously in his last chance race for a mobbed up local business luminary. Lost and confused, Remo wanders the streets of Buenos Aires while adopting a new persona, Delores, and trying to avoid the wrath of the local syndicate. Ortega's visual and sonic language is lavish and propulsive and creates a feel not dissimilar to the Cinema du Look cycle of films. I was definitely reminded of Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva with Jockey's eclectic coterie of oddball characters. Luc Besson's Subway also came to mind as Ortega presents a kind of alternate reality version of Buenos Aires accessible to nighttime explorers much like Besson's nocturnal, subterranean vision of Paris. Jockey gets increasingly abstract as it goes along and I could see the artifice Ortega employs being off-putting for some, but I still think it's an incredibly entertaining film and has an infectious energy that's easy to get caught up in. 

3. Americana - Another debut film, this time from writer/director Tony Tost. Americana is very much in the tradition of indie ensemble noirs with a helping of dark humor. It's easy to see the influence of the Coens or Tarantino on Tost's film, but it distinguishes itself both with its South Dakotan setting and the undercurrent of melancholy that flows through this portrait of rural life. The story is centered around a Native American ghost shirt and the desperate actions various characters will take to obtain the priceless artifact. On one level, the shirt is a McGuffin that could just as easily be the Maltese Falcon or Marsellus Wallace's briefcase, but the provenance of the shirt is significant to this film that is taking a look at the Western both as a mythology and how we understand it in our own cultural story. To a degree, Americana subverts the classic Western conventions. The cowboys in this film are largely bad guys; violent and exploitative. While also multidimensional characters in their own right, both the Natives and the women in the film are essentially its heroes. Or at least the characters we're most willing to relate to. I tried to dig into this a bit more in my full length review of Americana after its brief theatrical run. Whether you're interested in the film as a cultural exploration or not, it still provides a satisfying noir yarn with a terrific cast. Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey, Zahn McClarnon, Sydney Sweeney, and Gavin Maddox Bergman are all excellent. 

2. Everybody Loves Me When I'm Dead - I saw quite a few middling reviews of this economic desperation noir coming out of Thailand, but I was very impressed with it. It has a degree of digital veneer that I've come both to dread and expect from modern genre films, but the premise of Everybody is more concerned with human desires and motives than it is over the top effects. Toh and Petch are both employees of a bank that is openly downsizing its veteran employees in favor of AI management tools. Both facing unique cashflow problems, they conspire to withdraw money from the suspended account of a dead woman only to realize that she stole it from a criminal organization looking to get it back. Some of the plot twists and reveals stretch credulity to the breaking point but Everybody is funny, surprisingly violent, and isn't afraid to get dark in its examination of financial anxieties facing a shrinking middle class. Also, the main antagonist dumps booze from his flask onto people and sets them on fire. What's not to love?

1. She Rides Shotgun - I loved Jordan Harper's original novel and I'm also a fan of director Nick Rowland's earlier film, Calm With Horses, so I was very much anticipating the release of She Rides Shotgun. I'm thrilled to say that the end result is accomplished and deeply satisfying. The film maintains the essential plot of the book - Nate McClusky (Taron Egerton) has recently been released from prison. However, he earned the enmity of a powerful Aryan gang while inside and now has a "green light" for his death as well as the death of his family hanging over him. Nate finds his daughter Polly (Ana Sophia Heger) so that the two can hide, survive, and possibly escape the threat of murderous gang members and those in their sphere of influence. Much of Polly's internal monologue as well as her elaborate relationship with her stuffed bear has been excised from the film, but Ana Sophia Heger still beautifully embodies the intelligent, independent, though highly sensitive Polly in what might be the child performance of the year. Egerton, to his credit, threads the needle between caring, committed parent and paranoid convict capable of ruthless brutality when necessary. I'm an especially big fan of Rob Yang who plays the detective looking to find Nate and Polly and strike a deal to help bring down the gang meth trade. The character was well written in the novel, but Yang brings a level of intellectual remove that adds a fascinating layer of intrigue to the part. Again, this is one I've written a full length review of which I recommend checking out, but I mostly urge you to seek out the film. It sadly didn't get much of a theatrical run but is out in the VOD world and currently very reasonably priced.


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