Few streaming services have a deeper library of good to great movies than Max. Unfortunately, Max also has one of the worst interfaces of any streaming service, which means that actually finding those movies can be hard.
Among the genres where Max excels, though, are crime movies. These movies run the gamut from detective stories to tense thrillers. Regardless of what they’re about, many are worth your time. We’ve pulled together three crime dramas worth checking out this month.
We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Inherent Vice (2014)
Adapting a Thomas Pynchon novel may seem like an impossible task, but Paul Thomas Anderson did exactly that with Inherent Vice, and successfully. Telling the story of Doc Sportello, a private detective working in 1970s Los Angeles who finds himself thrust into a conspiracy when his ex-girlfriend disappears, Inherent Vice is intentionally difficult to trace.
There are more twists and reveals here than any sane audience member will know what to do with, but the vibes are immaculate, and Joaquin Phoenix delivers one of the funniest performances of his entire career.
You can watch Inherent Vice on Max.
The Guilty (2018)
It’s not in English, but if you can overlook that, The Guilty is one of the most riveting crime thrillers of the past decade. The movie follows an emergency dispatcher who finds himself searching for a kidnapped woman after she manages to get through to him.
As he races to figure out where she is and how he can help her, he learns more about her and the situation that she’s found herself in. The Guilty is tight, features a terrific lead performance, and knows exactly how to deliver its various revelations so that it’s riveting from beginning to end.
You can watch The Guilty on Max.
Trap (2024)
M. Night Shyamalan’s late-career movies have found him flexing in a zone where he’s more comfortable than just about anyone. Trap has a delightfully off-the-wall premise, a kooky and perfectly calibrated central performance from Josh Hartnett, and enough developments to keep you gripped from beginning to end.
Hartnett plays a serial killer who is taking his daughter to a concert. When he discovers that the concert is an elaborate trap designed to pin him in, he’ll do anything to escape custody. Despite that relatively silly premise, Trap is riveting because of Shyamalan’s firm control over the camera and because Hartnett never winks for a second.
You can watch Trap on Max.