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The Aura poster

Movies that feel likeThe Aura (2005)

A quiet, epileptic taxidermist plans the perfect crime. All he needs is the right opportunity. An accident, perhaps…

If you loved The Aura, the closest films we have are Sexy Beast (2001), Following (1999) and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). All three share The Aura's contemplative and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Fat City (1972).

🍅 88% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Fabián Bielinskycontemplativetenseplayfulatmospheric
10 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Sundance Now

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If The Aura hit the spot, these will too

Sexy Beast poster
Sexy Beast
2001 · dir. Jonathan Glazer
🍅 87%★ 7.3crime · thriller · drama

Common ground in both: heist and murder

The difference: Leans harder into crime than The Aura does

Ex-safecracker Gal Dove has served his time behind bars and is blissfully retired to a Spanish villa paradise with a wife he adores. The idyll is shattered by the arrival of his nemesis Don Logan, intent on persuading Gal to return to London for one last big job.

Following poster
Following
1999 · dir. Christopher Nolan
🍅 87%★ 7.4drama · thriller

Both are working the same pair: robbery, neo-noir

The difference: Trades the play of The Aura for an angle of its own

Bill, an idle, unemployed aspiring writer, walks the crowded streets of London following randomly chosen strangers, a seemingly innocent entertainment that becomes dangerous when he crosses paths with a mysterious character.

Odds Against Tomorrow poster
Odds Against Tomorrow
1959 · dir. Robert Wise
🍅 88%★ 7.4crime · drama · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: robbery

The difference: 46 years apart, and the 1950s show

An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare.

SPL: Kill Zone poster
SPL: Kill Zone
2005 · dir. Wilson Yip
🍅 80%★ 6.9action · crime · dramaPrime Video

Both are built on the same subject: neo-noir

The difference: Easier on the play than The Aura

Chan, an articulate senior detective nearing the end of his career, is taking care of the daughter of a witness killed by ruthless crime lord Po. Martial arts expert Ma is set to take over as head of the crime unit, replacing Chan who wants an early retirement.

One False Move poster
One False Move
1992 · dir. Carl Franklin
🍅 93%★ 7.1crime · drama · thriller

Both land stillness and tension at once

Following a series of drug deals and murders, three criminals -- Fantasia, Ray Malcolm and Pluto -- travel from Los Angeles to Houston, finally arriving in a small Arkansas town to go into hiding. Two detectives from the LAPD, who are already on the case, contact the town's sheriff, Dale Dixon, to alert him of the fugitives' presence in the area. Underestimating Dixon, the criminals have no idea what they are about to face.

Widows poster
Widows
2018 · dir. Steve McQueen
🍅 91%★ 6.8drama · crime · thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: betrayal

A police shootout leaves four thieves dead during an explosive armed robbery attempt in Chicago. Their widows have nothing in common except a debt left behind by their spouses' criminal activities. Hoping to forge a future on their own terms, they join forces to pull off a heist.

The Absent One poster
The Absent One
2014 · dir. Mikkel Nørgaard
🍅 92%★ 7.1thriller

Atmospheric thriller in both cases

Denmark, 2014. A former police officer asks Carl Mørck, head of Department Q, to find out who brutally killed his young twins in 1994. Although a local inhabitant confessed and was convicted of murder, Carl and his partner Assad soon realize that there is something in the case resolution that is terribly wrong.

Bound poster
Bound
1996 · dir. Lana Wachowski
🍅 86%★ 7.3drama · thriller · crime

One thread runs through both: heist

Corky, a tough female ex-convict working on an apartment renovation in a Chicago building, meets a couple living next door, Caesar, a paranoid mobster, and Violet, his seductive girlfriend, who is immediately attracted to her.

Phoenix poster
Phoenix
2014 · dir. Christian Petzold
🍅 98%★ 7.3drama

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

In the aftermath of WWII, German-Jewish cabaret singer Nelly has to undergo facial reconstructive surgery following her survival from Auschwitz. Without recognising Nelly, her former husband Johnny asks her to help him claim his wife’s inheritance. To see if he's betrayed her, she agrees, becoming her own doppelgänger.

Detour poster
Detour
1945 · dir. Edgar G. Ulmer
🍅 98%★ 7.3drama · thrillerPrime Video

Both lean on tension more than on drama

The life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.

The Long Good Friday poster
The Long Good Friday
1980 · dir. John Mackenzie
🍅 97%★ 7.5crime · thriller · dramaMax

Common ground: casino

In the late 1970s, Cockney crime boss Harold Shand, a gangster trying to become a legitimate property mogul, has big plans to get the American Mafia to bankroll his transformation of a derelict area of London into the possible venue for a future Olympic Games. However, a series of bombings targets his empire on the very weekend the Americans are in town. Shand is convinced there is a traitor in his organization, and sets out to eliminate the rat in typically ruthless fashion.

Fat City poster
Fat City
1972 · dir. John Huston
🍅 100%★ 7.2drama

Thriller built on atmosphere, twice over

The story of two men, a veteran boxer who is down and out, and a young man who is just starting his life and boxing career. Their fighting careers cross paths as their lives and fortunes head in opposite directions.

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