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The Parallax View poster

Movies that feel likeThe Parallax View (1974)

An ambitious reporter gets in trouble while investigating a senator's assassination which leads to a vast conspiracy involving a multinational corporation behind every event in the world's headlines.

If you loved The Parallax View, the closest films we have are Marathon Man (1976), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Cutter's Way (1981). All three share The Parallax View'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 The Magician (1958).

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See it on the Mood Map

If The Parallax View hit the spot, these will too

Marathon Man poster
Marathon Man
1976 Β· dir. John Schlesinger
πŸ… 82%β˜… 7.4thriller Β· crime Β· dramaParamount+

The same two preoccupations: conspiracy, and psychological thriller

A graduate student and obsessive runner in New York is drawn into a mysterious plot involving his brother, a member of the secretive Division.

The Manchurian Candidate poster
The Manchurian Candidate
1962 Β· dir. John Frankenheimer
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.9thriller Β· drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: conspiracy

The difference: Takes it somewhere less gritty than The Parallax View does

Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw is lauded as a hero by the rest of his platoon. However, the platoon commander, Captain Bennett Marco, finds himself plagued by strange nightmares and soon races to uncover a terrible plot.

Cutter's Way poster
Cutter's Way
1981 Β· dir. Ivan Passer
πŸ… 92%β˜… 6.8drama Β· mystery Β· thriller

The same mix in both: grit, then stillness

The difference: Trades the unease of The Parallax View for an angle of its own

Alex Cutter is a boozy, belligerent and deeply cynical Vietnam veteran whose encounter with a landmine during the war has left him minus an eye, a leg and an arm. When his drifter playboy friend Richard Bone is falsely accused of murder, Cutter sets out for revenge in his own inimitable style.

The Negotiator poster
The Negotiator
1998 Β· dir. F. Gary Gray
β˜… 7.3action Β· crime Β· drama

Both are built on the same subject: corruption

The difference: Sits closer to action than The Parallax View does

The police try to arrest expert hostage negotiator Danny Roman, who insists he's being framed for his partner's murder in what he believes is an elaborate conspiracy. Thinking there's evidence in the Internal Affairs offices that might clear him, he takes everyone in the office hostage and demands that another well-known negotiator be brought in to handle the situation and secretly investigate the conspiracy.

Blow Out poster
Blow Out
1981 Β· dir. Brian De Palma
πŸ… 88%β˜… 7.4crime Β· mystery Β· thrillerPrime Video

The same preoccupation in both: politics

While recording sound effects for a slasher flick, Jack Terry stumbles upon a real-life horror: a car careening off a bridge and into a river. Jack jumps into the water and fishes out Sally from the car, but the other passenger is already dead β€” a governor intending to run for president. As Jack does some investigating of his tapes, and starts a perilous romance with Sally, he enters a tangled web of conspiracy that might leave him dead.

The French Connection poster
The French Connection
1971 Β· dir. William Friedkin
πŸ… 97%β˜… 7.6action Β· crime Β· thriller

Tense where it counts, paranoid underneath

Tough narcotics detective 'Popeye' Doyle is in hot pursuit of a suave French drug dealer who may be the key to a huge heroin-smuggling operation.

Donnie Brasco poster
Donnie Brasco
1997 Β· dir. Mike Newell
πŸ… 88%β˜… 7.7crime Β· drama Β· thrillerNetflix

Both lean on grit more than on crime

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

An FBI undercover agent infiltrates the mob and identifies more with the mafia life at the expense of his regular one.

The Little Things poster
The Little Things
2021 Β· dir. John Lee Hancock
πŸ… 44%β˜… 6.3drama Β· crime Β· thrillerRent or buy

Contemplative drama in both cases

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

Deputy Sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon joins forces with Sgt. Jim Baxter to search for a serial killer who's terrorizing Los Angeles. As they track the culprit, Baxter is unaware that the investigation is dredging up echoes of Deke's past, uncovering disturbing secrets that could threaten more than his case.

The Lincoln Lawyer poster
The Lincoln Lawyer
2011 Β· dir. Brad Furman
πŸ… 83%β˜… 7.3crime Β· drama Β· thriller

Thriller built on tension, twice over

Mick Haller is a charismatic defense attorney who does business out of his Lincoln Continental sedan. Mick spends most of his time defending petty crooks and other bottom-feeders, so it comes as quite a surprise when he lands the case of a lifetime: defending a Beverly Hills playboy who is accused of attempted murder. However, what Mick initially thinks is an open-and-shut case with a big monetary reward develops into something more sinister.

The Magician poster
The Magician
1958 Β· dir. Ingmar Bergman
πŸ… 100%β˜… 7.5drama

Paranoid drama, and it commits to that

A traveling magician and his troupe arrive in a Swedish town in the 1840s, where their act is scrutinized by local authorities and a skeptical medical official. Their stay leads to a series of confrontations that test the boundaries between performance, belief, and deception.

The Baader Meinhof Complex poster
The Baader Meinhof Complex
2008 Β· dir. Uli Edel
πŸ… 85%β˜… 7.3action Β· crime Β· dramaPrime Video

Crime with a pulse of grit, in both cases

When German police viciously quell a protest against the shah of Iran, popular journalist Ulrike Meinhof rebels against her dishonest marriage, walks away from her children and joins radical anarchist Andreas Baader. Together with Baader's girlfriend, Gudrun Ensslin, they form the violent Red Faction Army, and together perpetrate a slew of terrorist attacks as a way of disrupting the fabric of what they see as an increasingly fascist state.

Chinatown poster
Chinatown
1974 Β· dir. Roman Polanski
πŸ… 98%β˜… 8.1crime Β· mystery Β· thriller

Different title, same corner of the shelf

Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

In the mood for more gritty?

all gritty movies β†’

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