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25th Hour poster

Movies that feel like25th Hour (2002)

On the eve of a seven-year prison sentence, a New York drug dealer spends his final day of freedom confronting his past, his relationships, and the choices that led to his downfall in a city still reeling from 9/11.

If you loved 25th Hour, the closest films we have are Donnie Brasco (1997), The Lincoln Lawyer (2011) and Dogtooth (2009). All three share 25th Hour's contemplative and paranoid feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Last Wave (1977).

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If 25th Hour hit the spot, these will too

Donnie Brasco poster
Donnie Brasco
1997 · dir. Mike Newell
🍅 88%★ 7.7crime · drama · thrillerNetflix

New York City shapes both of them

The difference: Trades the warmth of 25th Hour for an angle of its own

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

The Lincoln Lawyer poster
The Lincoln Lawyer
2011 · dir. Brad Furman
🍅 83%★ 7.3crime · drama · thriller

Gritty and contemplative in the same breath

The difference: Takes it somewhere less warm than 25th Hour does

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.

Dogtooth poster
Dogtooth
2009 · dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
🍅 94%★ 7.1drama

One thread runs through both: paranoia

Three teenagers are confined to an isolated country estate that could very well be on another planet. The trio spend their days listening to endless homemade tapes that teach them a whole new vocabulary. Any word that comes from beyond their family abode is instantly assigned a new meaning. Hence 'the sea' refers to a large armchair and 'zombies' are little yellow flowers. Having invented a brother whom they claim to have ostracized for his disobedience, the uber-controlling parents terrorize their offspring into submission.

Bad Education poster
Bad Education
2004 · dir. Pedro Almodóvar
🍅 88%★ 7.4drama · crime

Common ground: friendship

When an old friend brings filmmaker Enrique Goded a semi-autobiographical script chronicling their adolescence, Enrique is forced to relive his youth spent at a Catholic boarding school. Weaving through past and present, the script follows a transvestite performer who reconnects with a grade school sweetheart. Spurred on by this chance encounter, the character reflects on her childhood sexual victimization and the trauma of closeting her sexual orientation.

The Negotiator poster
The Negotiator
1998 · dir. F. Gary Gray
★ 7.3action · crime · drama

Crime with a pulse of paranoia, in both cases

The difference: Sits closer to action than 25th Hour 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.

Lost Highway poster
Lost Highway
1997 · dir. David Lynch
🍅 70%★ 7.6drama · thriller · mystery

Both keep coming back to the same thing: dreams

A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.

Gone Baby Gone poster
Gone Baby Gone
2007 · dir. Ben Affleck
🍅 94%★ 7.6crime · drama · mysteryParamount+

Both lean on grit more than on drama

When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl's aunt, Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons—they're not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live.

Public Enemies poster
Public Enemies
2009 · dir. Michael Mann
🍅 68%★ 6.9crime · history · drama

Contemplative crime in both cases

Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger's charm and audacity endear him to much of America's downtrodden public, but he's also a thorn in the side of J. Edgar Hoover and the fledgling FBI. Desperate to capture the elusive outlaw, Hoover makes Dillinger his first Public Enemy Number One and assigns his top agent, Melvin Purvis, the task of bringing him in dead or alive.

The Little Things poster
The Little Things
2021 · dir. John Lee Hancock
🍅 44%★ 6.3drama · crime · thrillerRent or buy

Paranoid drama, and it commits to that

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.

Trainspotting poster
Trainspotting
1996 · dir. Danny Boyle
🍅 93%★ 8.1drama · crime

Both are working the same pair: drug dealer, nightclub

Heroin addict Mark Renton stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends --Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane, along for the ride. After cleaning up and moving from Edinburgh to London, Mark finds he can't escape the life he left behind as Begbie and Sick Boy come knocking.

Dogville poster
Dogville
2003 · dir. Lars von Trier
🍅 70%★ 8crime · drama · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: american dream

A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town, she learns that their support has a price.

The Last Wave poster
The Last Wave
1977 · dir. Peter Weir
🍅 78%★ 6.9drama · mystery · fantasyMax

The same preoccupation in both: dreams

The difference: Made in the 1970s, in a different era of the craft

A Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal people in a ritualised taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing truths about himself and premonitions.

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The best-reviewed films that share 25th Hour’s defining feeling.