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Widows poster

Movies that feel likeWidows (2018)

A police shootout leaves four thieves dead during an explosive armed robbery attempt in Chicago. Their widows have nothing in common except a debt left behind by their spouses' criminal activities. Hoping to forge a future on their own terms, they join forces to pull off a heist.

If you loved Widows, the closest films we have are Sexy Beast (2001), Jackie Brown (1997) and The Aura (2005). All three share Widows' contemplative and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).

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See it on the Mood Map

If Widows hit the spot, these will too

Sexy Beast poster
Sexy Beast
2001 · dir. Jonathan Glazer
🍅 87%★ 7.3crime · thriller · drama

Common ground in both: heist and money

Ex-safecracker Gal Dove has served his time behind bars and is blissfully retired to a Spanish villa paradise with a wife he adores. The idyll is shattered by the arrival of his nemesis Don Logan, intent on persuading Gal to return to London for one last big job.

Jackie Brown poster
Jackie Brown
1997 · dir. Quentin Tarantino
🍅 88%★ 7.5crime · drama · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: neo-noir

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

Jackie Brown is a flight attendant who gets caught in the middle of smuggling cash into the country for her gunrunner boss. When the cops try to use Jackie to get to her boss, she hatches a plan — with help from a bail bondsman — to keep the money for herself.

The Aura poster
The Aura
2005 · dir. Fabián Bielinsky
🍅 88%★ 7.1drama · thriller

One thread runs through both: betrayal

The difference: Takes it somewhere less gritty than Widows does

A quiet, epileptic taxidermist plans the perfect crime. All he needs is the right opportunity. An accident, perhaps…

SPL: Kill Zone poster
SPL: Kill Zone
2005 · dir. Wilson Yip
🍅 80%★ 6.9action · crime · dramaPrime Video

Both keep coming back to the same thing: neo-noir

The difference: Trades the play of Widows for an angle of its own

Chan, an articulate senior detective nearing the end of his career, is taking care of the daughter of a witness killed by ruthless crime lord Po. Martial arts expert Ma is set to take over as head of the crime unit, replacing Chan who wants an early retirement.

Bound poster
Bound
1996 · dir. Lana Wachowski
🍅 86%★ 7.3drama · thriller · crime

Common ground: heist

Corky, a tough female ex-convict working on an apartment renovation in a Chicago building, meets a couple living next door, Caesar, a paranoid mobster, and Violet, his seductive girlfriend, who is immediately attracted to her.

Odds Against Tomorrow poster
Odds Against Tomorrow
1959 · dir. Robert Wise
🍅 88%★ 7.4crime · drama · thriller

The same mix in both: stillness, then grit

An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare.

One False Move poster
One False Move
1992 · dir. Carl Franklin
🍅 93%★ 7.1crime · drama · thriller

Tense where it counts, atmospheric underneath

Following a series of drug deals and murders, three criminals -- Fantasia, Ray Malcolm and Pluto -- travel from Los Angeles to Houston, finally arriving in a small Arkansas town to go into hiding. Two detectives from the LAPD, who are already on the case, contact the town's sheriff, Dale Dixon, to alert him of the fugitives' presence in the area. Underestimating Dixon, the criminals have no idea what they are about to face.

White Heat poster
White Heat
1949 · dir. Raoul Walsh
🍅 94%★ 8.1crime · drama · thriller

Playful drama, and it commits to that

A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and then leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. After the heist, events take a crazy turn.

The Grifters poster
The Grifters
1990 · dir. Stephen Frears
🍅 92%★ 6.8crime · drama

Contemplative crime in both cases

A small-time conman has his loyalties torn between his estranged mother and his new girlfriend, both of whom are high-stakes grifters with their own angles to play.

Animal Kingdom poster
Animal Kingdom
2010 · dir. David Michôd
🍅 94%★ 7.2crime · drama

Thriller with a pulse of grit, in both cases

Joshua “J” is taken in by his extended family after his mother dies of an overdose. The clan, ruled by J’s scheming grandmother, is heavily involved in criminal activities, and J is soon indoctrinated into their way of life. But J is given a chance to take another path when a cop seeks to help him.

The Night of the Hunter poster
The Night of the Hunter
1955 · dir. Charles Laughton
🍅 93%★ 7.9crime · drama · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: widow

In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.

The Long Good Friday poster
The Long Good Friday
1980 · dir. John Mackenzie
🍅 97%★ 7.5crime · thriller · dramaMax

Both lean on tension more than on drama

In the late 1970s, Cockney crime boss Harold Shand, a gangster trying to become a legitimate property mogul, has big plans to get the American Mafia to bankroll his transformation of a derelict area of London into the possible venue for a future Olympic Games. However, a series of bombings targets his empire on the very weekend the Americans are in town. Shand is convinced there is a traitor in his organization, and sets out to eliminate the rat in typically ruthless fashion.

In the mood for more contemplative?

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The best-reviewed films that share Widows’ defining feeling.