The detective genre has never really been one of cinema’s most prolific, but that only means that whenever a truly exceptional detective movie comes along, mystery film fans inevitably cherish it like it’s the gem it really is. Over the course of the last 16 years, for instance, the world has been treated to several detective films that are bound to be remembered a few decades from now as some of the best of the 21st century.
Some of them are more traditional detective stories, either inspired by or directly satirizing the classic hard-boiled style that defined detective fiction of decades past. Others are radically different kinds of detective tales, ones that prove just how versatile and diverse the genre can be when you’re willing to stretch its definitions a bit. From nail-biting thrillers like Shutter Island to groundbreaking action blockbusters like The Batman, the best detective films that the big screen has seen from 2010 until the present should all be considered essential viewing for anyone who loves hard-boiled protagonists, enthralling mysteries, and jaw-dropping plot twists.
6
‘Shutter Island’ (2010)
There are those who would refer to the great Martin Scorsese as the single best filmmaker currently working in Hollywood, and it would be difficult to disagree with them. At the very least, he’s one of the art form’s most delightfully versatile directors, one who has dipped his toes into virtually all film genres under the sun over the course of his illustrious career. Case in point: the detective thriller genre, which he so marvelously explored in one of his most universally beloved films of the 21st century, Shutter Island. It’s very far from being Scorsese’s best, but even a mid-tier Scorsese movie is still more than great enough to be one of the best detective films of the last 16 years.
Shutter Island, mind-bending and twisty as it is, is no traditional detective tale. Combining Scorsese’s masterful visual, stylistic, and narrative craftsmanship with a deeply affecting Laeta Kalogridis script (based on Dennis Lehane‘s 2003 novel), it’s a study of trauma and guilt that makes at least one or two re-watches pretty much obligatory. All in all, with its phenomenal cast and its shocking third act, it’s one of the best detective movies of the whole 21st century.
5
‘The Nice Guys’ (2016)
Holland and Russell Jackson sit at a bar in The Nice Guys.Image via Warner Bros.
It’s always a great time watching a serious, potentially shocking detective drama; but every now and then, every true fan of thrillers and mystery fiction craves something as brilliantly hilarious as The Nice Guys. Funny though it may be, though, it would be a mistake to label this parody of classic neo-noir cinema and satirization of 1970s Los Angeles as lighthearted. It’s a hysterical comedy bolstered by Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe’s masterfully amusing lead performances, but it’s also a detective tale that isn’t afraid to get dark and violent.
That complex tone only further adds to The Nice Guys being one of the funniest action movies of the 21st century. Its ’70s LA setting is enrapturingly atmospheric, its razor-sharp dialogue and unforgettable set pieces are as exciting as they are humorous, and its characters are all surprisingly compelling for a film so willing to make jokes at its own expense. The best love letters to olden-day genres are the ones that know when to poke fun at the kinds of films they’re paying tribute to, and that’s why The Nice Guys is not only a perfect satirization of the neo-noir detective genre, but also a fantastic hard-boiled detective tale in and of itself.
4
‘The Batman’ (2022)
Gordon and Batman standing next to each other in ‘The Batman’Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
Genre purists may be unwilling to call any superhero movie a true detective film, but if there’s any one comic book character who merits the label, it has to be the one that’s often dubbed the World’s Greatest Detective. And if there’s any one Batman movie that’s so intentionally driven by detective work that it doesn’t really need to stretch the definitions of the genre in order to neatly fit into it, it’s Christopher Reeves‘ The Batman. Indeed, never before had big-screen audiences seen the Dark Knight engage in so much detective activities in a live-action motion picture, and that’s a big part of what makes this one of the best superhero movies of the 21st century.
That’s because as knowledgeable of and loving toward the Batman mythos as The Batman is, it primarily functions as a mystery thriller inspired by detective classics of the caliber of Se7en and Chinatown. Far from just being one of the best crime movies of the last six years, it’s an impeccably directed and written work of art through and through. Its action sequences are memorable, but it’s refreshing to get a comic book movie whose main concern is exploring the raw humanity of its main character. As a superhero action thriller, The Batman is great; but as a detective neo-noir and a character study, it’s nothing short of a masterpiece.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
05
What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
3
‘Prisoners’ (2013)
Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) in the police station in ‘Prisoners.’Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
Before 2013,Canadian auteur Denis Villeneuve had only worked in his native Quebec; but after Prisoners came out, it became clear to audiences that they were witnessing the birth of one of the most exciting new voices in Hollywood. Since then, Villeneuve has done nothing but thrilling work time and time again, yet many would still look back at Prisoners and call it his Hollywood magnum opus. Frankly, it would be a fair assessment, seeing as it’s one of the most perfect thrillers released since 2000.
Where can one even begin singing the praises of a movie that comes so close to true perfection? There’s the cast, led by career-best performances by Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. There’s the impeccable production values, mainly Roger Deakins‘ absolutely stunning cinematography. There’s the deeply atmospheric, morally complex way in which Villeneuve approaches the story’s direction. From top to bottom and from beginning to end, Prisoners is an engrossing mystery thriller whose detective elements are as modern as they are gut-wrenchingly tense.
2
‘Decision to Leave’ (2022)
Image via CJ Entertainment
Park Chan-wook is widely celebrated not only as one of the greatest South Korean filmmakers in history, but often even as one of the greatest Asian directors currently working. One of his latest masterpieces is Decision to Leave, one of the best mystery movies of the last six years. The concept of a detective tale where the protagonist falls for a woman involved with the case he’s investigating is not a revolutionary concept, and that’s intentional. Decision to Leave wears its Hitchcockian influences—Vertigo, namely—on its sleeve with pride, resulting in one of the most exquisitely layered and nuanced mystery romance films the world has seen since… well, Vertigo.
Decision to Leave sees Chan-wook juggle genre elements like an absolute pro. At times, the film feels like more of a traditional procedural. In the next scene, it can transform into a romantic psychological drama. Seconds later, the director can throw sprinkles of irresistible deadpan humor at the audience which seem like they shouldn’t work, but absolutely do. And through it all, Decision to Leave remains an absolutely fascinating film that uses the framing device of a detective tale to explore themes like desire and obsession.
1
‘Knives Out’ (2019)
Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc in ‘Knives Out’Image via Lionsgate
There’s really not much competition. When talking about the best detective movies of not just the last 16 years, but the 21st century as a whole, it’s inevitable for the conversation to at some point reach Rian Johnson‘s Knives Out franchise; and when it comes to this film series, as good as its sequels have been, there’s simply no topping the original. People who love detective mysteries and whodunnits à la Agatha Christie but aren’t looking or any kind of subversive spin on the genre are bound to love the original Knives Out, the closest thing that the 21st century has to a masterful old-school detective whodunnit.
The film functions partly as a love letter to the genre and partly as a nearly-flawless example of it in itself, and the result of such a combination is one of the best crime movies of the 2010s as a whole. What’s even better is just how multi-layered Knives Out is, with its offering plenty of shocking twists and delightful mysteries for fans of old-school detective tales, but also plenty of modern humor and sensibilities for people who expect that kind of thing from a 21st-century whodunnit. In other words, it’s the kind of crowd-pleaser that has something in it for everyone.
