5 Best Crime Movies Of 2026 (So Far)

We're not quite done with the year in film yet, but we know that there are some major movies just around the corner that'll shake up our best movies of the year list. In the crime genre, Robert Pattinson's acclaimed portrayal of Chris Hansen in "Primetime" is set to be one of the year's most talked about once it arrives at a theater near you, and we've heard nothing but good things about the John Turturro vehicle "The Only Living Pickpocket in New York." These movies will likely dominate the crime movie conversation as 2026 draws to a close, which is why we're already looking back at the best in the genre to be released so far this year, which we're hoping don't fall back under the radar.

To narrow down our selection, we chose from movies that were either given a wide release in theaters or are easily accessible at home via streaming or VOD. This lets us choose a broad mix of movies and shines a light on a couple of underrated gems, as well as giving us an opportunity to celebrate some of the more rightly acclaimed films of the year. If this has you hungry for more crime movies, then check out our exhaustive list of the 59 best of all time once you've finished reading this — we're not running short on banger titles to recommend.

The directorial debut of Georgia Bernstein is by far the most divisive film on this list based on critical consensus, but as lovers of steamy 1990s thrillers, we couldn't help but fall under its strange spell. Do be warned that its surreal atmosphere is a feature, not a bug, and that this isn't a conventional neo-noir.

Set in a wealthy retirement community, new nurse Eleni (Cemre Paksoy) is assigned to look after dementia patient Douglas (Bruce McKenzie) — only, upon arriving in his room, discovers that he's not just spry, but running a scam with his current nurse Mona (Eleonore Hendricks). She calls lonely old folks pretending to be a granddaughter in distress, asking for money, of which he shares a cut. Eleni is brought into the scheme and gets a little too involved, beginning to engage in it as a form of sexual roleplay with the older man she's looking after.

There are brief scenes of a criminal investigation surrounding the characters, but Bernstein is far more interested in the unconventional power dynamics at play, and how they wind up breaking relationships and fatally altering the course of their scheme. If you can get onto its wavelength, you'll find it intoxicating, even when it has extended surreal sequences. Every nurse attends a party at Douglas' apartment at one point, which only breaks the narrative if you're taking it at face value. This is a strange, rewarding movie; one that features all the danger and taboo-shattering kink of the very best, and most controversial, sexually-charged thrillers of years gone by.

No Los Angeles-set crime thriller can escape the shadow of Michael Mann's "Heat," but that doesn't mean they can't be almost as entertaining. This A-list tale of a jewel thief (Chris Hemsworth) and a grizzled detective investigating his string of heists (Mark Ruffalo) follows the formula of that genre-defining action classic to a tee, although it does have more to offer than mere homage to one of the all-time greats. The exploration of wounded masculinity in "Heat" is expanded upon here to include a greater look at the women in this world, including a rich plot for Halle Berry's middle-aged insurance broker Sharon Combs. She's forced into Mike's scheme due to being shunted out of her day job, losing a promotion to a younger co-worker despite her experience.

The Los Angeles of "Heat" was filled with various underworld archetypes, made larger than life in a string of iconic performances, but "Crime 101" is closer to everyday reality. The economic frustrations its characters face are a lot easier for an audience to grapple with, without transforming them into too overt a social commentary. They're crucial to the stakes, and writer/director Bart Layton (adapting a 2020 novella by Don Winslow) understands they'll help an audience put themselves in the shoes of his characters flirting with the wrong side of the law. Berry is our personal standout in the ensemble — it's been a while since she's had a showcase like this — but there are no weak links. It's as effective as a sobering character study as it is a propulsive thriller.

One of the year's most unexpected crossover sensations, making more than $6 million at the domestic box office, this grueling martial arts export from Hong Kong doesn't break any new ground when it comes to plot. "The Furious" is one of several movies this year in which a lone vigilante aims to rescue dozens of children from the clutches of a human trafficking enterprise. For example, the 2026 Jason Statham vehicle, "Mutiny," follows the same path to less successful results.

In a polarized world, there are no movie villains who everybody can agree to root against quite like child traffickers. The unassuming hero saving them is Wang Wei (Xie Miao), a mute tradesman whose young daughter Rainy (Yang Enyou) is kidnapped in broad daylight, and he soon meets journalist Navin (Joe Taslim), whose wife was investigating the criminal enterprise before disappearing.

There are no surprises in how it all plays out, but that won't matter when you're sitting through some of the most stunningly choreographed fight scenes in recent memory, with even Rainy playing a crucial role in beating up her kidnappers. Director Kenji Tanigaki, formerly an action choreographer on ambitious action pictures like "Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In," understands how to stage a sequence so all of his actors get a chance to shine. He continues to ratchet up the stakes even after a siege of enemy headquarters that feels like the finale. It's a movie which begins over-the-top and keeps climbing even further up, making it all the more glorious for the excess. An essential watch for action fanatics.

Another under-the-radar crime drama that we'd advise any cinephile to catch up with before making a best of the year list, "Carolina Caroline" is the modern "Bonnie and Clyde" you never realized you needed. Set in rural Texas, Samara Weaving plays Caroline, a gas station attendant still living with her father, whose life takes a turn towards the criminal shortly after meeting con artist Oliver (Kyle Gallner). He tries to pull a scam on her elderly boss, but Caroline sees through it and wants to learn the tricks of the trade. Her life is lacking adventure, and in the hope of meeting her estranged mother in South Carolina, agrees to a road trip with Oliver where she can practice her skills to raise money for the journey — although it's not long until she's desperate to learn the art of bank robbing.

An infectious romantic crime movie with a spunky screenplay close in spirit to Tarantino's script for "True Romance," director Adam Carter Rehmeier's movie manages to build tension and friction without compromising on the sizzling chemistry of his two leads. He previously worked with Gallner on the underrated black comedy "Dinner in America," an even less conventional Americana romance between two misfits, and perfectly casts him here as an irresistible bad boy whose charms prove difficult to resist. "Carolina Caroline" feels timeless upon arrival. In any other era, this would have been championed as one of the year's best, rather than falling through the cracks. If you think they don't make the gritty New Hollywood movies like they used to, this one's for you.

It's wild that Sir Ian McKellen has never won an Oscar, and it's infuriating knowing that he won't win one for the finest, most memorable performance of his late career period. In Steven Soderbergh's "The Christophers," McKellen plays the curmudgeonly retired painter Julian Sklar, who stepped away from creating to become the art world's version of Simon Cowell for reality TV, and now seems to make all his money through video messages for fans.

His two ungrateful kids — Jessica Gunning and James Corden, in a rare case of being used well — think he's sitting on their nest egg by refusing to finish an infamous series of paintings called The Christophers, and they hire a former college classmate, Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), to be his assistant, with the ulterior motive of forging his blueprints to auction them off. The scheme doesn't go as planned, and everybody involved winds up double-crossing each other several times over.

Written by "Bill & Ted" and "Men in Black" screenwriter Ed Solomon, "The Christophers" is more interested about the dynamics and relationships between the two tortured artist leads than providing an in-depth look at the art world. The movie is all the better for it, and sits comfortably alongside the "Ocean's" franchise in Soderbergh's filmography as a devilishly entertaining heist comedy, even though this one is set inside a house far less glamorous than your average Las Vegas casino. Beneath all this, it also offers food for thought on the creative process and its collaborative nature in a way that should resonate even if you haven't picked up a paintbrush in your life. Like the best works of art, it engages the head and the heart.