The peculiarity of detective cinema is that it is impossible to watch it without becoming totally absorbed, because the puzzles, mysteries and unsolved crimes totally capture the viewers imagination. Detective stories have been likened to give the viewer gambling sensations, just like legit online casino.
If you also like to solve riddles, then here are five great detectives from recent years that you may or may not be familiar with from world cinema.
Knives Out (2019)
Stars: Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans
Director: Rian Johnson
The film is from Rian Johnson, the writer of Looper and Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. In Knives Out he tells a complex and and sometimes confusing story, while at the same time injects plenty of dark humor mixed with surprises, twists and turns not forgetting plenty of action.
The plot of this detective story is a classic and begins with a murder when the renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found with his throat cut. The police classify the case as a suicide, but Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) suddenly appears at the scene of the tragedy. Trailers and behind the scenes videos for Knives Out can be found here.
Motherless Brooklyn (2019)
Stars: Edward Norton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin
Director: Edward Norton
A movie shot in film noir style by Edward Norton. He shot his first directional debut “Keeping the Faith” in 2000 and this is his second picture as director.
The film takes place in New York in 1954, the main character Lionel Essrog suffers from Tourette’s syndrome and works as a private detective. After his friend and mentor is killed Lionel decides to take up the investigation involving corruption and secrets behind the powerful elite in New York City. A making of featurette of Motherless Brooklyn can be watched here.
Journal 64 (2018)
Stars: Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares, Johanne Louise Schmidt
Director: Christoffer Boe
This is the fourth film in a series of adaptations of fascinating and tough detectives, each of them tells its own story, so it’s not necessary to watch the first 3 parts.
All these films are connected by the main characters – partners Karl and Assad. They work in the Copenhagen police department and in this film the detectives take on a new case. Three mummified corpses are found in an apartment, sitting around a table with one empty seat. The detectives have to find who the mummies are and who the fourth seat is meant for.
This is one of the best films of this franchise, it is strong, atmospheric, and constantly keeps the viewer in suspense. More information on Journal 64 can be found here.
Cut Off (2018) aka Abgeschnitten
Stars: Moritz Bleibtreu, Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Lars Eidinger
Director: Christian Alvart
The main character here is Paul, who works as a medical examiner and one day finds a strange note with his daughters phone number in the corpse he is examining. As the story goes on there are more clues to solve in this German thriller based on the book by the highly sucessfull author Sebastian Fitzek. More information on Cut Off can be found here.
The Collini Case (2019)
Stars: Elyas M’Barek, Alexandra Maria Lara, Heiner Lauterbach
Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
The Collini Case is a courtroom legal detective drama based on the German bestseller by one of the most famous authors of modern Germany Ferdinand von Schirach.
The film is set in 2001 when Hans Meyer (Manfred Zapatka), a famous German businessman, dies at the hands of an assassin in the presidential suite of an expensive hotel. A young lawyer Caspar Leinen (Elyas M’Barek) agrees to defend the accused Fabrizio Collini (Franco Nero) even though the victim was Leinen’s mentor growing up. More information on The Collini Case can be found here.
