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Joker poster

Movies that feel likeJoker (2019)

During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.

If you loved Joker, the closest films we have are Nightcrawler (2014), Panic Room (2002) and Hannibal (2001). All three share Joker's gritty and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Traitor (2019).

🍅 68% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Todd Phillipsgrittytensecontemplativeunsettling
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Hulu

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If Joker hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)

Nightcrawler poster
Nightcrawler
2014 · dir. Dan Gilroy
🍅 95%★ 7.8crime · drama · thrillerNetflix

A hollow man metastasizing inside a city that rewards sickness

The difference: Cool and controlled — ambition, not breakdown

When Lou Bloom, desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran.

Panic Room poster
Panic Room
2002 · dir. David Fincher
🍅 76%★ 6.8crime · drama · thriller

Fincher-grade tension in confined urban spaces

The difference: A contained thriller — survival, not society

Trapped in their New York brownstone's panic room, a hidden chamber built as a sanctuary in the event of break-ins, newly divorced Meg Altman and her young daughter Sarah play a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with three intruders - Burnham, Raoul and Junior - during a brutal home invasion. But the room itself is the focal point because what the intruders really want is inside it.

Hannibal poster
Hannibal
2001 · dir. Ridley Scott
🍅 39%★ 6.8crime · drama · thrillerPrime VideoHulu

A magnetic monster given center stage

The difference: Gothic opulence — elegance, not squalor

After having successfully eluded the authorities for years, Hannibal peacefully lives in Italy in disguise as an art scholar. Trouble strikes again when he's discovered leaving a deserving few dead in the process. He returns to America to make contact with now disgraced Agent Clarice Starling, who is suffering the wrath of a malicious FBI rival as well as the media.

Shoplifters poster
Shoplifters
2018 · dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
🍅 99%★ 7.9drama · crime · thrillerNetflixPrime Video

People the system forgot, drawn with tenderness instead of contempt

The difference: Gentle and warm — it grieves rather than seethes

In the outskirts of Tokyo, a poor but close-knit group living on the fringes of society survives through shoplifting and odd jobs. When Osamu and his son take in a neglected young girl, their already fragile existence begins to unravel. As the family grows attached to her, buried secrets surface, forcing them to confront the true meaning of love, belonging, and what makes a family.

The Guilty poster
The Guilty
2021 · dir. Antoine Fuqua
🍅 73%★ 6.3drama · thrillerNetflix

One unraveling man carrying the whole film on his cracking psyche

The difference: A single-room remake — confined by design, and thinner for it

A demoted police officer assigned to a call dispatch desk is conflicted when he receives an emergency phone call from a kidnapped woman.

Law Abiding Citizen poster
Law Abiding Citizen
2009 · dir. F. Gary Gray
🍅 26%★ 7.4drama · crime · thrillerNetflix

A wronged man turning grievance into theater

The difference: A pulp thriller — vengeance as spectacle

A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.

The Call poster
The Call
2013 · dir. Brad Anderson
🍅 43%★ 6.7crime · thrillerStarz

A pressure-cooker plunge into one psychopath's orbit

The difference: A straight abduction thriller — genre machinery, no character study

Jordan Turner is an experienced 911 operator but when she makes an error in judgment and a call ends badly, Jordan is rattled and unsure if she can continue. But when teenager Casey Welson is abducted in the back of a man's car and calls 911, Jordan is the one called upon to use all of her experience, insights and quick thinking to help Casey escape, and not just to save her, but to make sure the man is brought to justice.

The Guilty poster
The Guilty
2018 · dir. Gustav Möller
🍅 98%★ 7.5thriller · drama · crimePrime Video

Gritty and tense in the same breath

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

Police officer Asger Holm, demoted to desk work as an alarm dispatcher, answers a call from a panicked woman who claims to have been kidnapped. Confined to the police station and with the phone as his only tool, Asger races against time to get help and find her.

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie poster
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
2019 · dir. Vince Gilligan
🍅 92%★ 7.3crime · drama · thrillerNetflix

A damaged man processing what the world made him

The difference: An escape epilogue — sympathy without menace

In the wake of his dramatic escape from captivity, Jesse Pinkman must come to terms with his past in order to forge some kind of future.

The Traitor poster
The Traitor
2019 · dir. Marco Bellocchio
🍅 86%★ 7.1drama · crime · thrillerRent or buy

Both lean on stillness more than on crime

The difference: Easier on the unease than Joker

Palermo, Sicily, 1980. Mafia member Tommaso Buscetta decides to move to Brazil with his family fleeing the constant war between the different clans of the criminal organization. But when, after living several misfortunes, he is forced to return to Italy, he makes a bold decision that will change his life and the destiny of Cosa Nostra forever.

American Psycho poster
American Psycho
2000 · dir. Mary Harron
🍅 69%★ 7.6thriller · drama · crimePrime VideoHulu

A immaculate surface cracking over something monstrous

The difference: Satirical and icy — laughs at him, not with him

A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.

Good Time poster
Good Time
2017 · dir. Benny Safdie
🍅 91%★ 7.3crime · thriller · dramaRent or buy

Gritty thriller in both cases

After a botched bank robbery lands his younger brother in prison, Connie Nikas embarks on a twisted odyssey through New York City's underworld to get his brother Nick out of jail.

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The best-reviewed films that share Joker’s defining feeling.