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Movies that feel like Neighboring Sounds (2012)

If you loved Neighboring Sounds, the closest films we have are The Secret Agent (2025), The Silence (2010) and Easy Money (2010). All three share Neighboring Sounds' tense and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 7 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu and others, checked against today's data.

An independent private security firm arrives at a middle-class neighborhood in Recife, Brazil.

🍅 91% Rotten Tomatoes7.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Kleber Mendonça Filhotensecontemplativegritty

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If Neighboring Sounds hit the spot, these will too

The Secret Agent poster
The Secret Agent
2025 · dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
7.2thriller · drama · crime

Kleber Mendonça Filho working the same nerve twice

Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival but soon realizes that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting.

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The Silence poster
The Silence
2010 · dir. Baran bo Odar
🍅 87%7crime · thriller · drama

The same mix in both: tension, then stillness

13-year-old Sinikka vanishes on a hot summer night. Her bicycle is found in the exact place where a girl was killed 23 years ago. The dramatic present forces those involved in the original case to face their past.

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Easy Money poster
Easy Money
2010 · dir. Daniel Espinosa
🍅 85%6.7drama · thriller · crime

Thriller with a pulse of grit, in both cases

When JW becomes a drug runner in order to maintain his double life, his fate becomes tied to two other men: Jorge, a fugitive on the run from both the Serbian mafia and the police, and mafia enforcer Mrado, who is on the hunt for Jorge.

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Hyena poster
Hyena
2015 · dir. Gerard Johnson
🍅 78%6.2crime · drama · thriller

Tense drama in both cases

Good policing doesn't necessarily mean doing everything by the book. But as the business of crime in London turns to favour the Albanians and Turks, how does a "good" policeman survive?

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The Wild Goose Lake poster
The Wild Goose Lake
2019 · dir. Diao Yinan
🍅 91%6.7crime · drama · thriller

Crime built on stillness, twice over

A gangster ends up making a mistake that causes every gun on both sides of the law to point at him. While on the run, he comes across a mysterious woman who might get him out of trouble or make things worse.

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The Yellow Sea poster
The Yellow Sea
2010 · dir. Na Hong-jin
🍅 88%7.3drama · thriller · crime

Both lean on grit more than on thriller

A Korean man in China takes an assassination job in South Korea to make money and find his missing wife. But when the job is botched, he is forced to go on the run from the police and the gangsters who paid him.

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Holy Spider poster
Holy Spider
2022 · dir. Ali Abbasi
🍅 82%7.3thriller · drama · crime

Tense drama, and it commits to that

A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called "Spider Killer", who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners.

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36th Precinct poster
36th Precinct
2004 · dir. Olivier Marchal
🍅 100%7.1crime · drama · thriller

Both lean on stillness more than on crime

In Paris, two cops are competing for the vacant job of chief of police, in the middle of the search for a gang of violent thieves. The movie is directed by Olivier Marchal, a former police officer who spent 12 years with the French police before creating this story, taken in part from real events of the 1980s.

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Aquarius poster
Aquarius
2016 · dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
🍅 97%7.4drama

Kleber Mendonça Filho directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: None of the tension Neighboring Sounds is built on

Clara, a vibrant former music critic and widow with flowing tresses is the only remaining apartment owner in a beautiful older building targeted for demolition by ruthless luxury high-rise developers. Clara proves to be a force to be reckoned with as she thwarts the builders plans to kick her out of the apartment.

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The Unjust poster
The Unjust
2010 · dir. Ryoo Seung-wan
6.5crime · thriller

From the 2010s, and it lands the same way

An honest cop has to compromise with his principles when he is told to find a scapegoat for a high-profile serial killer case in exchange for a big promotion.

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The Hit poster
The Hit
1984 · dir. Stephen Frears
🍅 89%7drama · thriller · crime

The same drama instincts

The difference: 28 years apart, and the 1980s show

Ten years after ratting on his old mobster friends in exchange for personal immunity, two hit men drive a hardened criminal to Paris for his execution. However, while on the way, whatever can go wrong, does go wrong.

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Red Rock West poster
Red Rock West
1993 · dir. John Dahl
🍅 95%7crime · drama · thriller

Crime of the same temperament

When a promised job for Texan Michael fails to materialize in Wyoming, Mike is mistaken by Wayne to be the hitman he hired to kill his unfaithful wife, Suzanne. Mike takes full advantage of the situation, collects the money, and runs. During his getaway, things go wrong, and soon get worse when he runs into the real hitman, Lyle.

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The best-reviewed films that share Neighboring Sounds’ defining feeling.