Greetings, Polygon readers!
February is here, and while the cold weather may be starting to set in, there are plenty of good thrillers on Netflix to watch if you want to cool your blood. We’ve delved back into the depths of the streamer’s catalog to bring you the very best of what Netflix has to offer in thrillers this month, and may I say: these picks are Good.
This month’s selections include a German martial arts thriller about a cage fighter who fights his way to his daughter’s birthday, a neo-noir crime drama starring Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe, and one of the best conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s. Here’s our list of the best thrillers to watch on Netflix this February.
Editor’s Choice: Sixty minutes
Photo: Reiner Bajo/Netflix
Director: Oliver Kienle
Form: Emilio Sakraya, Dennis Mojen, Marie Mouroum
Sometimes you want an economic thriller with a tight premise. That’s what the German Netflix original is Sixty minutes has to offer. In it, a fighter (played by two-time German karate champion Emilio Sakraya) has exactly one hour to get to his ex-wife’s house for his daughter’s birthday party. If he doesn’t make it in time, she will file for sole custody. And the fighter has another problem: he’s about to step into the ring, and there are some shady people with a lot money for the fight.
Sixty minutes executes this premise well, leaning on Sakraya’s skills as a fighter and as an actor for a thrilling ride under 90 minutes. While still falling prey to some tropes of the ‘custody thriller’, Sixty minutes cleverly undermines them by being realistic about the protagonist’s shortcomings as a father. Meanwhile, it cleverly uses modern technology (like cell phones and scooters) to move the story forward, delivering some great fight scenes along the way. If you’re looking for a simple piece of genre cinema that knows exactly what it’s for, check out this film. —Piet Volk
LA Confidential
Image: Warner Home Video
Director: Curtis Hanson
Form: Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey
If, like me, you consider yourself a fan of historical detective thrillers such as Chinatown And Devil in a blue dressCurtis Hanson’s neo-noir crime thriller is an easy sell. Based on the novel of the same name by James Ellroy, the film follows a trio of police officers in 1950s Los Angeles, whose respective investigations converge in a deadly conspiracy between organized crime and the city government.
Guy Pearce stars as Ed Exley, the son of a prominent detective looking to make a name for himself as an institutional reformer, who clashes with Wendell “Bud” White (Russell Crowe), a veteran officer with a personal vendetta and a penchant for… shall we say: less than reputable police tactics. The animosity between the two and their opposing approaches is one of the great driving forces behind the film’s story, culminating in an explosive showdown in the third act that sees the pair struggle against each other through a deceptive trick on part of the antagonist. movie. Top that off with some excellent supporting performances from Danny DeVito as a sleazy tabloid muckraker and Kim Basinger as a cool and calculating call girl, and it’s no wonder LA Confidential considers an enduring classic. —Toussaint Egan
The parallax vision
Image: Paramount Home Entertainment
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Form: Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, William Daniels
The second part of what would later become known as Alan J. Pakula’s thematic ‘paranoia trilogy’, The parallax vision is debatable the defining conspiracy thriller of the era that defined the genre. The film stars Warren Beatty as Lee Carter, an investigative journalist who witnesses the assassination of an aspiring presidential candidate atop the Seattle Space Needle. After a series of other witnesses begin dying due to mysterious circumstances, Lee is accidentally put on the trail of a company he believes is responsible for orchestrating the murder. Pakula’s film is a taut, bracing political thriller, complemented by memorable production design and Gordon Willis’ impeccable cinematography. If you’re looking for a chilling investigative mystery that’s also brilliantly filmed, The parallax vision connects all those dots and then some. -AT