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L.A. Confidential poster

Movies that feel likeL.A. Confidential (1997)

Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner.

If you loved L.A. Confidential, the closest films we have are The Girl in the Fog (2017), Eastern Promises (2007) and Zodiac (2007). All three share L.A. Confidential's gritty and twisty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Marshland (2014).

🍅 99% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Curtis Hansongrittytwistytense
12 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Hulu

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If L.A. Confidential hit the spot, these will too

The Girl in the Fog poster
The Girl in the Fog
2017 · dir. Donato Carrisi
🍅 75%★ 6.8mystery · thriller · crime

The same mix in both: grit, then twists

The difference: Made in the 2010s, in a different era of the craft

A gripping and chilling thriller that brings us to a hazy mountain village where an enigmatic detective is investigating the sudden disappearance of fifteen-year-old girl.

Eastern Promises poster
Eastern Promises
2007 · dir. David Cronenberg
🍅 89%★ 7.6thriller · crime · mysteryPrime Video

Crime with a pulse of tension, in both cases

A Russian teenager living in London dies during childbirth but leaves clues in her diary that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.

Zodiac poster
Zodiac
2007 · dir. David Fincher
🍅 90%★ 7.7crime · mystery · thrillerParamount+

The same preoccupation in both: detective

Police conduct a manhunt for the Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s, taunting police with letters, bloodstained clothing, and ciphers mailed to newspapers.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo poster
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2011 · dir. David Fincher
🍅 86%★ 7.8thriller · crime · mysteryNetflixApple TV+

Gritty mystery in both cases

Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist investigates the disappearance of a weary patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo poster
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2009 · dir. Niels Arden Oplev
🍅 85%★ 7.8drama · thriller · crimePrime Video

Both keep coming back to the same thing: whodunit

The difference: Sits closer to drama than L.A. Confidential does

Swedish thriller based on Stieg Larsson's novel about a male journalist and a young female hacker. In the opening of the movie, Mikael Blomkvist, a middle-aged publisher for the magazine Millennium, loses a libel case brought by corrupt Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. Nevertheless, he is hired by Henrik Vanger in order to solve a cold case, the disappearance of Vanger's niece

Marshland poster
Marshland
2014 · dir. Alberto Rodríguez
🍅 91%★ 7.2crime · mystery · thriller

Thriller built on twists, twice over

The Spanish Deep South, 1980. A series of brutal murders of adolescent girls in a remote and forgotten town bring together two disparate characters – both detectives in the homicide division – to investigate the cases.

The Crimson Rivers poster
The Crimson Rivers
2000 · dir. Mathieu Kassovitz
🍅 68%★ 6.9crime · mystery · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: corpse

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Two French policemen, one investigating a grisly murder at a remote mountain college, the other working on the desecration of a young girl's grave by skinheads, are brought together by the clues from their respective cases. Soon after they start working together, more murders are committed, and the pair begin to discover just what dark secrets are behind the killings.

Se7en poster
Se7en
1995 · dir. David Fincher
🍅 84%★ 8.6crime · mystery · thrillerParamount+

One thread runs through both: detective

Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Somerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer's mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.

The Bone Collector poster
The Bone Collector
1999 · dir. Phillip Noyce
🍅 30%★ 6.7crime · thriller · dramaPrime VideoStarz

Tense crime, and it commits to that

Lincoln Rhyme was the department's top homicide detective and leading expert in criminal forensics until an injury left him paralyzed, depressed, and incapable of working. But when a gruesome murder in Manhattan leaves detectives baffled, they call on Rhyme to help solve the mystery. Amelia Donaghy, a rookie cop whose quick thinking preserved a gruesome murder scene, is enlisted by Rhyme to be his on-the-scene forensics expert. With Amelia reluctantly acting as Rhyme's able-bodied go-between, the pair piece together cryptic clues the killer leaves behind at the scene of the crime, hoping to catch the grisly serial killer.

Death on the Nile poster
Death on the Nile
2022 · dir. Kenneth Branagh
🍅 62%★ 6.3mystery · crime · thrillerHulu

Both lean on grit more than on mystery

Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot's Egyptian vacation aboard a glamorous river steamer turns into a terrifying search for a murderer when a picture-perfect couple's idyllic honeymoon is tragically cut short.

Lucky Number Slevin poster
Lucky Number Slevin
2006 · dir. Paul McGuigan
★ 7.7drama · thriller · crime

Different title, same corner of the shelf

Slevin is mistakenly put in the middle of a personal war between the city’s biggest criminal bosses. Under constant watch, Slevin must try not to get killed by an infamous assassin and come up with an idea of how to get out of his current dilemma.

The Secret in Their Eyes poster
The Secret in Their Eyes
2009 · dir. Juan José Campanella
🍅 89%★ 8.2mystery · thriller · dramaHulu

Both lean on tension more than on mystery

Hoping to put to rest years of unease concerning a past case, retired criminal investigator Benjamín begins writing a novel based on the unsolved mystery of a newlywed’s rape and murder. With the help of a former colleague, judge Irene, he attempts to make sense of the past.

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The best-reviewed films that share L.A. Confidential’s defining feeling.