50 Movies Like Arlington Road (1999) You Need to Watch Next
Updated August 2026
View Arlington Road details →If you loved Arlington Road (1999) by Mark Pellington, here are 50 movies that share its content DNA. iRankMovies measures real similarity using cosine similarity across eight weighted dimensions — genre (50%), tone (12%), pace (10%), structure (8%), era (7%), theme (6%), audience (4%) and narrative perspective (3%) — not just the rating. The closest matches according to our analysis are L.A. Confidential, Chinatown, Blue Velvet. Every title is ranked by how closely it matches and backed by the iRank Score, a composite of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb across 12,000+ analysed titles.
The Best Movies Similar to Arlington Road
Selected for their real similarity in content, these are the movies that share the most with Arlington Road in terms of theme, narrative tone, and cinematic style. Every recommendation goes beyond genre — we evaluate the type of conflict, pacing, dramatic context, and the experience they create for viewers.
L.A. Confidential
1997 · Curtis Hanson
Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner.
In common: Crime · Mystery · Thriller
Chinatown
1974 · Roman Polanski
Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes
In common: Crime · Mystery · Thriller
Blue Velvet
1986 · David Lynch
The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped
In common: Crime · Mystery · Thriller
Bad Times at the El Royale
2018 · Drew Goddard
Lake Tahoe, 1969. Seven strangers, each one with a secret to bury, meet at El Royale, a decadent motel with a dark past. In the course of a fateful night, everyone will have one last shot at redemptio
In common: Crime · Mystery · Thriller
Prisoners
2013 · Denis Villeneuve
Keller Dover is facing every parent’s worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Drive
2011 · Nicolas Winding Refn
Driver is a skilled Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for criminals. Though he projects an icy exterior, lately he's been warming up to a pretty neighbor named Irene and her young
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Primal Fear
1996 · Gregory Hoblit
Defense attorney Martin Vail takes on jobs for money and prestige rather than any sense of the greater good. His latest case involves an altar boy, accused of brutally murdering the archbishop of Chic
In common: Crime · Drama · Mystery
Uncut Gems
2019 · Benny Safdie
A charismatic New York City jeweler always on the lookout for the next big score makes a series of high-stakes bets that could lead to the windfall of a lifetime. Howard must perform a precarious high
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Wind River
2017 · Taylor Sheridan
An FBI agent teams with the town's veteran game tracker to investigate a murder that occurred on a Native American reservation.
In common: Crime · Drama · Mystery
Le Trou
1960 · Jacques Becker
Four prison inmates have been hatching a plan to literally dig out of jail when another prisoner, Claude Gaspard, is moved into their cell. They take a risk and share their plan with the newcomer. Ove
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Mystic River
2003 · Clint Eastwood
The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.
In common: Crime · Drama · Mystery
A Walk Among the Tombstones
2014 · Scott Frank
Private investigator Matthew Scudder is hired by a drug kingpin to find out who kidnapped and murdered his wife.
In common: Crime · Drama · Mystery
Insomnia
2002 · Christopher Nolan
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Serenity
2019 · Steven Knight
The quiet life of Baker Dill, a fishing boat captain who lives on the isolated Plymouth Island, where he spends his days obsessed with capturing an elusive tuna while fighting his personal demons, is
In common: Drama · Mystery · Thriller
It Was Just an Accident
2025 · Jafar Panahi
An unassuming mechanic is reminded of his time in an Iranian prison when he encounters a man he suspects to be his sadistic jailhouse captor.
In common: Crime · Drama · Mystery
Nightmare Alley
2021 · Guillermo del Toro
An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dangerous than he is.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Reptile
2023 · Grant Singer
Following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, a hardened detective attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems, and by doing so dismantles the illusions in his own
In common: Crime · Drama · Mystery
The Bone Collector
1999 · Phillip Noyce
Lincoln Rhyme was the department's top homicide detective and leading expert in criminal forensics until an injury left him paralyzed, depressed, and incapable of working. But when a gruesome murder i
In common: Crime · Drama · Mystery
Edge of Darkness
2010 · Martin Campbell
As a seasoned homicide detective, Thomas Craven has seen the bleakest side of humanity. But nothing prepares him for the toughest investigation of his life: the search for his only daughter Emma's kil
In common: Crime · Drama · Mystery
Under the Silver Lake
2018 · David Robert Mitchell
Young and disenchanted Sam meets a mysterious and beautiful woman who's swimming in his building's pool one night. When she suddenly vanishes the next morning, Sam embarks on a surreal quest across Lo
In common: Crime · Drama · Mystery
Mulholland Drive
2001 · David Lynch
Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman's identity, filmm
In common: Drama · Mystery · Thriller
Se7en
1995 · David Fincher
Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one
In common: Crime · Mystery · Thriller
Memories of Murder
2003 · Bong Joon Ho
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
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
High and Low
1963 · Akira Kurosawa
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Collateral
2004 · Michael Mann
Cab driver Max picks up a man who offers him $600 to drive him around. But the promise of easy money sours when Max realizes his fare is an assassin.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Mississippi Burning
1988 · Alan Parker
Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and white. The younger
In common: Crime · Drama · Mystery
Fallen
1998 · Gregory Hoblit
Homicide detective John Hobbes witnesses the execution of serial killer Edgar Reese. Soon after the execution the killings start again, and they are very similar to Reese's style.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Cop Land
1997 · James Mangold
Freddy Heflin is the sheriff of a place everyone calls “Cop Land” — a small and seemingly peaceful town populated by the big city police officers he’s long admired. Yet something ugly is taking place
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Cure
1997 · Kiyoshi Kurosawa
A frustrated detective deals with the case of several gruesome murders committed by people who have no recollection of what they've done.
In common: Crime · Mystery
Rebecca
1940 · Alfred Hitchcock
Story of a young woman who marries a fascinating widower only to find out that she must live in the shadow of his former wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years earlier. The young wife must
In common: Drama · Mystery
The Player
1992 · Robert Altman
A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but which one?
In common: Crime · Drama
The Usual Suspects
1995 · Bryan Singer
Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners int
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Infernal Affairs
2002 · Alan Mak Siu-Fai
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, C
In common: Crime · Drama
Bound
1996 · Lana Wachowski
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 imm
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Carlito's Way
1993 · Brian De Palma
Free after years in prison, Carlito Brigante intends to give up his criminal ways, but it's not long before the ex-con is sucked back into the New York City underworld.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
New World
2013 · Park Hoon-jung
An undercover cop has his loyalties tested when the boss of the corporate gang he's spent years infiltrating dies.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Widows
2018 · Steve McQueen
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. Ho
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Thief
1981 · Michael Mann
Frank is an expert professional safecracker, specialized in high-profile diamond heists. He plans to use his ill-gotten income to retire from crime and build a nice life for himself complete with a ho
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
The Client
1994 · Joel Schumacher
A street-wise kid, Mark Sway, sees the suicide of Jerome Clifford, a prominent Louisiana lawyer, whose current client is Barry 'The Blade' Muldano, a Mafia hit-man. Before Jerome shoots himself, he te
In common: Crime · Drama · Mystery
Payback
1999 · Brian Helgeland
With friends like these, who needs enemies? That's the question bad guy Porter is left asking after his wife and partner steal his heist money and leave him for dead -- or so they think. Five months a
In common: Crime · Drama
Shutter Island
2010 · Martin Scorsese
World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a
In common: Drama · Mystery · Thriller
Nightcrawler
2014 · Dan Gilroy
When Lou Bloom, desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
The Accountant²
2025 · Gavin O'Connor
When an old acquaintance is murdered, Wolff is compelled to solve the case. Realizing more extreme measures are necessary, Wolff recruits his estranged and highly lethal brother, Brax, to help. In par
In common: Crime · Mystery · Thriller
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2011 · David Fincher
Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist investigates the disappearance of a weary patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander.
In common: Crime · Mystery · Thriller
Cleaner
2007 · Renny Harlin
Single father and former cop Tom Cutler has an unusual occupation: he cleans up death scenes. But when he's called in to sterilize a wealthy suburban residence after a brutal shooting, Cutler is shock
In common: Crime · Mystery · Thriller
Death on the Nile
2022 · Kenneth Branagh
Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot's Egyptian vacation aboard a glamorous river steamer turns into a terrifying search for a murderer when a picture-perfect couple's idyllic honeymoon is tragically cut sho
In common: Crime · Mystery · Thriller
A Haunting in Venice
2023 · Kenneth Branagh
Celebrated sleuth Hercule Poirot, now retired and living in self-imposed exile in Venice, reluctantly attends a Halloween séance at a decaying, haunted palazzo. When one of the guests is murdered, the
In common: Crime · Mystery · Thriller
Forgotten
2017 · Chang Hang-jun
Jin-seok, 21-year-old, moves into a new house with his family. He suffers from a slight schizophrenia but he carries an ordinary life under the warm care of the family. His older brother Yu-seok is a
In common: Crime · Mystery · Thriller
8MM
1999 · Joel Schumacher
A small, seemingly innocuous plastic reel of film leads surveillance specialist Tom Welles down an increasingly dark and frightening path. With the help of the streetwise Max, he relentlessly follows
In common: Crime · Mystery · Thriller
The Silence of the Lambs
1991 · Jonathan Demme
Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Popular Crime series
Breaking Bad
2008 · Michelle MacLaren
Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting
Better Call Saul
2015 · Diane Mercer
Six years before Saul Goodman meets Walter White. We meet him when the man who will become Saul Goodman is known as Jimmy McGill, a small-time lawyer searching for his destiny, and, more immediately,
The Sopranos
1999 · Terence Winter
The story of New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he
Banana Fish
2018 · Nobumasa Sawabe
A teenaged gang leader in New York City faces his abuser and rival gangs alongside a photojournalist from Japan as they investigate a deadly new drug.
The Rookie
2018 · Nathan Fillion
Starting over isn't easy, especially for small-town guy John Nolan who, after a life-altering incident, is pursuing his dream of being an LAPD officer. As the force's oldest rookie, he's met with skep