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The Imposter poster

Movies that feel likeThe Imposter (2012)

In 1994, a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later, he is found alive in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.

If you loved The Imposter, the closest films we have are Brick (2006), 12 (2007) and The Third Murder (2017). All three share The Imposter's contemplative and twisty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2014).

🍅 95% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Bart Laytoncontemplativetwistygritty
6 of 12 streaming nowAmazon Prime Video · Film Movement Plus · TCM

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If The Imposter hit the spot, these will too

Brick poster
Brick
2006 · dir. Rian Johnson
🍅 79%★ 7.1drama · mystery · crime

Both are working the same pair: the investigation, disappearance

The difference: Leans harder into drama than The Imposter does

A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

12 poster
12
2007 · dir. Nikita Mikhalkov
🍅 76%★ 7.5crime · drama · mystery

Contemplative and twisty in the same breath

A loose remake of “12 Angry Men”, “12” is set in contemporary Moscow where 12 very different men must unanimously decide the fate of a young Chechen accused of murdering his step-father, a Russian army officer. Consigned to a makeshift jury room in a school gymnasium, one by one each man takes center stage to confront, connect, and confess while the accused awaits a verdict and revisits his heartbreaking journey through war in flashbacks.

The Third Murder poster
The Third Murder
2017 · dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
🍅 87%★ 6.7drama · mystery · crime

Both lean on grit more than on mystery

A lawyer tasked with defending a robbery-and-murder suspect begins developing doubts about what truly happened.

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden poster
The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden
2014 · dir. Dayna Goldfine
🍅 83%★ 6.7documentary · mystery · history

Common ground in both: kidnapping and biography

Darwin meets Hitchcock in this documentary. Directors Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine have created a parable about the search for paradise, set in the brutal yet alluring landscape of the Galapagos Islands, which interweaves an unsolved 1930s murder mystery with stories of present day Galapagos pioneers. A gripping tale of idealistic dreams gone awry, featuring voice-over performances by Cate Blanchett, Diane Kruger, and Gustaf Skarsgard.

The White Ribbon poster
The White Ribbon
2009 · dir. Michael Haneke
🍅 85%★ 7.8drama · mystery

Documentary built on stillness, twice over

An aged tailor recalls his life as the schoolteacher of a small village in Northern Germany that was struck by a series of strange events in the year leading up to WWI.

Mother poster
Mother
2009 · dir. Bong Joon Ho
🍅 96%★ 7.7crime · drama · mystery

Twisty crime, and it commits to that

A mother lives quietly with her son. One day, a girl is brutally killed, and the boy is charged with the murder. Now, it's his mother's mission to prove him innocent.

Changeling poster
Changeling
2008 · dir. Clint Eastwood
🍅 61%★ 7.7crime · drama · mystery

Both are built on the same subject: missing child

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Los Angeles, 1928. When single mother Christine Collins leaves for work, her son vanishes without a trace. Five months later, the police reunite mother and son. But when Christine suspects that the boy returned to her isn't her child, her quest for truth exposes a world of corruption.

After Dark, My Sweet poster
After Dark, My Sweet
1990 · dir. James Foley
🍅 80%★ 6.5crime · drama · mysteryStarz

Mystery with a pulse of grit, in both cases

The difference: Made in the 1990s, in a different era of the craft

Three desperados try to kidnap a wealthy child in hope of turning their lives around.

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

Both keep coming back to the same thing: kidnapping

The difference: Trades the stillness of The Imposter for an angle of its own

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.

Drishyam poster
Drishyam
2015 · dir. Nishikant Kamat
🍅 64%★ 8.2mystery · thriller · drama

Contemplative crime in both cases

When his family stares down the barrel of criminal charges, a commoner channels his street smarts and knowledge of action films to tie the long arm of the law into an investigative Gordian knot.

And Then There Were None poster
And Then There Were None
1945 · dir. René Clair
🍅 100%★ 7.3crime · drama · mysteryPrime Video

Twisty documentary, and it commits to that

Ten strangers are summoned to a remote island and while they are waiting for the mysterious host to appear, a recording levels serious accusations at each of the guests. Soon they start being murdered, one by one. As the survivors try to keep their wits, they reach a disturbing conclusion: one of them must be the killer.

Lantana poster
Lantana
2001 · dir. Ray Lawrence
🍅 90%★ 7.2crime · drama · mystery

Common ground: the investigation

Plagued with grief over the murder of her daughter, Valerie Somers suspects that her husband John is cheating on her. When Valerie disappears, Detective Leon Zat attempts to solve the mystery of her absence. A complex web of love, sex and deceit emerges -- drawing in four related couples whose various partners are distrustful and suspicious about each other's involvement.

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