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Irreversible poster

Movies that feel likeIrreversible (2002)

A woman’s lover and her ex-boyfriend take justice into their own hands after she becomes the victim of a rapist. Because some acts can’t be undone. Because man is an animal. Because the desire for vengeance is a natural impulse. Because most crimes remain unpunished.

If you loved Irreversible, the closest films we have are The Silence (2010), Memories of Murder (2003) and Phone Booth (2003). All three share Irreversible's tense and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Red Rock West (1993).

🍅 60% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Gaspar Noécontemplativetensegritty
6 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If Irreversible hit the spot, these will too

The Silence poster
The Silence
2010 · dir. Baran bo Odar
🍅 87%★ 6.9crime · thriller · drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: rape

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

13-year-old Sinikka vanishes on a hot summer night. Her bicycle is found in the exact place where a girl was killed 23 years ago. The dramatic present forces those involved in the original case to face their past.

Memories of Murder poster
Memories of Murder
2003 · dir. Bong Joon Ho
★ 8.1crime · drama · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: police

A sadistic serial rapist and murderer of young women terrorizes a small province in 1980s South Korea. To prevent further crimes, three increasingly desperate detectives with conflicting methods race against time to unravel the violent mind of the killer in a futile effort to solve the case.

Phone Booth poster
Phone Booth
2003 · dir. Joel Schumacher
🍅 72%★ 7.1thriller · crimePrime Video

Tense and gritty in the same breath

The difference: Takes it somewhere less contemplative than Irreversible does

A slick New York publicist who picks up a ringing receiver in a phone booth is told that if he hangs up, he'll be killed... and the little red light from a laser rifle sight is proof that the caller isn't kidding.

A Time to Kill poster
A Time to Kill
1996 · dir. Joel Schumacher
🍅 66%★ 7.5crime · drama · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: rape

A young lawyer defends a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter, sparking a rebirth of the KKK.

John Q poster
John Q
2002 · dir. Nick Cassavetes
🍅 26%★ 7.1drama · thriller · crimeStarz

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

John Quincy Archibald is a father and husband whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and then finds out he cannot receive a transplant because HMO insurance will not cover it. Therefore, he decides to take a hospital full of patients hostage until the hospital puts his son's name on the donor's list.

The Yellow Sea poster
The Yellow Sea
2010 · dir. Na Hong-jin
🍅 88%★ 7.3drama · thriller · crime

One thread runs through both: police

A Korean man in China takes an assassination job in South Korea to make money and find his missing wife. But when the job is botched, he is forced to go on the run from the police and the gangsters who paid him.

The Experiment poster
The Experiment
2001 · dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel
🍅 72%★ 7.7drama · thriller

Contemplative thriller, and it commits to that

20 volunteers agree to take part in a seemingly well-paid experiment advertised by the university. It is supposed to be about aggressive behavior in an artificial prison situation. A journalist senses a story behind the ad and smuggles himself in among the test subjects. They are randomly divided into prisoners and guards. What seems like a game at the beginning soon turns into bloody seriousness.

Layer Cake poster
Layer Cake
2004 · dir. Matthew Vaughn
🍅 81%★ 7.2drama · thriller · crime

Both lean on tension more than on crime

When a seemingly straight-forward drug deal goes awry, XXXX has to break his die-hard rules and turn up the heat, not only to outwit the old regime and come out on top, but to save his own skin...

Traffic poster
Traffic
2000 · dir. Steven Soderbergh
🍅 93%★ 7.5thriller · drama · crime

Gritty drama in both cases

An exploration of the United States of America's war on drugs from multiple perspectives. For the new head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the war becomes personal when he discovers his well-educated daughter is abusing cocaine within their comfortable suburban home. In Mexico, a flawed, but noble policeman agrees to testify against a powerful general in league with a cartel, and in San Diego, a drug kingpin's sheltered trophy wife must learn her husband's ruthless business after he is arrested, endangering her luxurious lifestyle.

36th Precinct poster
36th Precinct
2004 · dir. Olivier Marchal
🍅 100%★ 7.1crime · drama · thriller

Thriller built on stillness, twice over

In Paris, two cops are competing for the vacant job of chief of police, in the middle of the search for a gang of violent thieves. The movie is directed by Olivier Marchal, a former police officer who spent 12 years with the French police before creating this story, taken in part from real events of the 1980s.

Red Rock West poster
Red Rock West
1993 · dir. John Dahl
🍅 95%★ 7crime · thriller

Different title, same corner of the shelf

When a promised job for Texan Michael fails to materialize in Wyoming, Mike is mistaken by Wayne to be the hitman he hired to kill his unfaithful wife, Suzanne. Mike takes full advantage of the situation, collects the money, and runs. During his getaway, things go wrong, and soon get worse when he runs into the real hitman, Lyle.

Infernal Affairs poster
Infernal Affairs
2002 · dir. Alan Mak Siu-Fai
🍅 94%★ 8drama · thriller · crimeMax

Gritty drama, and it commits to that

Chan Wing Yan, a young police officer, has been sent undercover as a mole in the local mafia. Lau Kin Ming, a young mafia member, infiltrates the police force. Years later, their older counterparts, Chen Wing Yan and Inspector Lau Kin Ming, respectively, race against time to expose the mole within their midst.

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