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Esoteric Crime Films We Love

In real life, crime is often baffling and messy, with no clear motivation or solution. Just as often, actual crime is completely ridiculous, committed by people who have no idea what they’re doing and just stumble into something dangerous. That may not always be comforting, but it’s worthy fodder for crime fiction, just as valid as tidy plots that are wrapped up by the end thanks to the deductions of an astute detective.

If you’re looking for a crime movie that doesn’t offer all the answers, or may not even be particularly concerned with what the answers are, here are 10 weird, funny, fascinating and esoteric films to check out.

The Big Lebowski

The Big Lebowski

As its title implies, the Coen brothers’ cult classic stoner comedy is also an homage to The Big Sleep, and it features a similarly labyrinthine plot that is mostly secondary to the enjoyment of the movie. Jeff Bridges’ Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski is a stand-in for the archetypal private eye, as he gets involved in a convoluted kidnapping scheme targeting a wealthy Los Angeles businessman. The Coens take the audience on an odyssey through LA’s strangest corners, while the Dude just tries not to spill his beverage.

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Brick

Writer-director Rian Johnson went on to become one of the top creative voices in the mystery genre with his Benoit Blanc films Knives Out and Glass Onion and the TV series Poker Face, and it all started here in his debut feature. Johnson cleverly transposes the style and narrative approach of film noir into a high school setting, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a teenager searching for his missing ex-girlfriend. Johnson mixes stylized hard-boiled dialogue with teenage angst in a movie that immediately marked him as a major filmmaker.

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Klute

Donald Sutherland plays the title character of this conspiracy-laced mystery, but the real star is Jane Fonda in one of her best performances as a prostitute who warily aids Sutherland’s private detective John Klute. Fonda’s Bree Daniels is initially suspected in the disappearance of a corporate executive, but she soon becomes Klute’s ally (and lover) as they uncover the real reasons Klute was hired for the case. Bree is a complex, intelligent character who defies typical Hollywood characterization of prostitutes, standing on her own within this moody, low-key crime thriller.

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The Late Show

Art Carney and Lily Tomlin make for a perfect crime-solving odd couple in Robert Benton’s shaggy mystery that begins with a murdered partner and a missing cat. Carney’s private detective Ira Wells is struggling to make ends meet while working to solve his late partner’s murder, so he takes on a seemingly benign case from Tomlin’s gregarious hippie Margo Sperling, who’s lost her cat. Ira and Margo become an unlikely team as they fall deeper into the overlapping threats connecting the two cases, full of colorful characters in the Los Angeles underworld.

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Memento

Director Christopher Nolan’s breakout film puts viewers right alongside Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) as he tries to piece together the details of his life while suffering from a condition that prevents him from forming new memories. Leonard has to rely on the recollections of others and notes that he writes to himself, as he searches for the man who killed his wife. That leaves him vulnerable to manipulation, and Nolan plays with the viewer in the same way, as he tells Leonard’s story in reverse chronological order and reveals the startling and sad truth about his doomed quest for justice.

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Mulholland Drive

David Lynch’s Los Angeles-set surrealist thriller is more like a fever dream than a mystery to solve. Lynch starts with a somewhat traditional set-up, as a disoriented woman (Laura Elena Harring) emerges from a car accident with memory lapses and an unexplained bag full of money. From there, though, both Harring’s enigmatic Rita and aspiring actress Betty Elms (Naomi Watts) enter a hallucinatory world of dual identities, underground speakeasies, and sudden bursts of violence. In the typical Lynch fashion, it doesn’t make sense, but it’s still utterly transfixing.

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The Nice Guys

The real crime here is that this wildly entertaining mystery from director and co-writer Shane Black didn’t launch a franchise for the mismatched private detectives played by Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Black captures the spirit of freewheeling 1970s crime thrillers with his 1977-set story that weaves in corporate sabotage, the adult film industry, and counterculture protest movements, all with Black’s trademark sharp humor. Gosling’s neurotic Holland March teams up with Crowe’s brutish Jackson Healy to find a missing porn star, aided by March’s whip-smart teenage daughter Holly (Angourie Rice), who steals the movie.

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A Simple Favor

Director Paul Feig takes a refreshingly sardonic approach to adapting Darcey Bell’s thriller novel, using the core of Bell’s story for a deadpan comedy that both subverts and embraces the familiar elements of a suburban crime story. Anna Kendrick plays a somewhat lonely mommy vlogger who’s drawn into a potential murder plot when her mysterious, stylish new friend (Blake Lively) goes missing. Feig presents the bizarre twists with dry wit, and Lively gives one of her best performances as the wine-mom version of a femme fatale.

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Wild Things

On the surface, director John McNaughton’s sun-soaked potboiler may seem like a typical sleazy B-movie, but there’s plenty of clever wit in the plotting, dialogue and characterization. It helps that there’s a talented cast to pull it off, led by Denise Richards and Neve Campbell at the height of their 1990s fame. They play a pair of South Florida high schoolers who make assault accusations against their teacher (Matt Dillon). The sheer number of twists becomes absurdly entertaining, and McNaughton delivers a wonderful sarcastic performance from Bill Murray as a shady lawyer.

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Zero Effect

Bill Pullman amusingly plays against type in this offbeat crime comedy as brilliant but eccentric detective Daryl Zero, a recluse who refuses to have contact with his clients and conducts all his field work undercover. Ben Stiller takes on the straight man role as the exasperated assistant who has to tend to Daryl’s unpredictable demands as he investigates his latest case. As Daryl uncovers the secrets of his wealthy client (Ryan O’Neal), he finds himself opening up emotionally to one of his targets, on a darkly funny journey toward self-discovery.

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Josh Bell is a freelance writer and movie/TV critic based in Las Vegas. He’s the former film editor of Las Vegas Weekly and the former TV comedies guide for About.com. He has written about movies, TV, and pop culture for Vulture, IndieWire, CBR, Inverse, Crooked Marquee, and more. With comedian Jason Harris, he co-hosts the podcast Awesome Movie Year.