The 5 best thrillers to watch on Netflix this January

Greetings Polygonauts! Welcome to our common roundup of the perfect thrillers to observe on Netflix, whereby the Polygon curation workforce dutifully combs by way of the library of the streaming service to deliver you the good things.

What makes for an awesome January thriller? We’re smack-dab in the course of winter, which implies there’s equal quantities of frost, rain, hail, and chilly winds nipping on the backs of our necks as we attempt to bundle up. We’ve bought apocalyptic android motion fare, exhilarating racing dramas, thrilling heist epics, and riveting homicide mysteries to get your blood pumping throughout this frigid month.

Listed here are some thrilling strategies on your January viewing pleasure.

Den of Thieves

12 months: 2018
Run time: 2h 20m
Director: Christian Gudegast
Forged: Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, O’Shea Jackson Jr.

January’s been an awesome month to be a fan of Gerard Butler motion pictures. The king of the January blockbuster is again together with his most January film but, the extraordinarily enjoyable and exquisitely titled Aircraft. We talked to Butler and his co-star Mike Colter on how the motion was filmed and what makes the film so darn enjoyable.

When you’re within the temper, why not try arguably the perfect film of Butler’s current string of motion outings? The 2018 heist film Den of Thieves has been described by many (together with myself) as “dirtbag Warmth,” and with good motive. Just like the traditional Michael Mann heist film, it’s set in LA, with a significant bank-robbing showdown between cops and robbers. Like Warmth, it has a sprawling solid — whereas not as prestigious because the likes of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, guys like Pablo Schreiber and O’Shea Jackson Jr. give their all. However the star of the present is Butler because the soiled, always drunk detective “Massive Nick” O’Brien.

The directorial debut of former rap music video director Christian Gudegast, the film includes a pounding rating by former Crimson Sizzling Chili Peppers drummer Cliff Martinez, and is edited by frequent Clint Eastwood collaborator Joel Cox. That brings a professionalism and sheen to this enjoyable thrill experience, which helps elevate it to one of the crucial memorable heist thrillers of the post-Ocean’s period. Additionally, it got here out 5 years in the past this week, which implies there really is not any higher time to observe Den of Thieves. —Pete Volk

Emily the Prison

Aubrey Plaza as Emily stands by her car trunk, glaring at a prospective buyer in Emily the Criminal

12 months: 2022
Run time: 1h 37m
Director: John Patton Ford
Forged: Aubrey Plaza, Theo Rossi, Megalyn Echikunwoke

Emily the Prison shouldn’t be a thriller in the best way that some others on this checklist are. The great thing about the thriller style is that it encompasses every thing from taut, brutal capers to horror motion pictures; it’s about individuals surviving the apocalypse, psychological or in any other case. Emily the Prison is on the smaller facet of this, virtually extra pure drama. And but it comprises shades of each kind of thriller narrative right here, the style at each its most distant and particular. As Emily descends into the prison underworld to assist alleviate the crushing burden of pupil loans, it’s without delay a determined energy seize on the finish of the world, a caper always threatening horrific penalties whether or not she succeeds or not. As Emily, Aubrey Plaza manages to search out new shades of her persona, turning jadedness right into a spiky swimsuit of armor. Previously that is likely to be performed for laughs. However with Emily, there’s little hope for pleased endings. All we are able to do is survive. —Zosha Millman

JUNG_E

A woman in futuristic armor hides behind a concrete pillar holding a rifle.

12 months: 2022
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Forged: Kim Hyun-joo, Kang Soo-yeon, Ryu Kyung-soo

We’re making a uncommon exception right here, as we (ed. word: Pete and Toussaint) haven’t seen JUNG_E but (however Polygon’s overview dug it). But it surely’s the brand new sci-fi thriller from the director of Practice to Busan, Psychokinesis, and Hellbound — all of them bangers. That makes it exceptionally simple to get enthusiastic about JUNG_E.

In JUNG_E, an AI researcher hopes to search out an finish to a postapocalyptic conflict by cloning a legendary mercenary right into a robotic. That mercenary? Her mother. Signal us the hell up. —PV

The Pale Blue Eye

Two men sit in a study room (Robert Duvall, Harry Melling) while a man stands with his hand resting on a table (Christian Bale).

12 months: 2022
Run time: 2h 8m
Director: Scott Cooper
Forged: Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson

It’s January — which implies it’s chilly exterior, not less than for the heartland of North America (local weather change-induced seasonal drift however). You don’t want some regular-ass, perennial thriller to observe. Nah, you already know what you want? A stone-cold, cruel-as-the-depths-of-winter-ass thriller. You’re gonna get that with the brand new gothic horror thriller from Antlers director Scott Cooper. Christian Bale stars as Augustus Landor, a retired (i.e., too outdated for this shit) detective who’s employed to analyze a rash of brutal murders on the West Level navy academy in New York. Nobody needs to assist him; that’s, with the only exception of a skittish younger cadet with a poetic disposition by the identify of (DUN DUN DUN) Edgar Allan Poe. Doesn’t that sound cool (pun half-intended)? Hell yeah it does. —Toussaint Egan

From our overview:

The film doesn’t have a lot use for essentially the most meta dimension to the story: the truth that the actual Poe helped invent fashionable detective fiction. (Granted, leaning too onerous on that concept may have been unbearable.) Cooper and Bale appear extra comfy with Landor’s model of melancholy, knowledgeable by the absence of his spouse and daughter, in addition to a number of the odd, sudden pauses Bale takes in a few of his line deliveries. At instances, the film feels prefer it’s having enjoyable regardless of itself. So it’s good, in a means, that Edgar Allan Poe retains turning as much as jolt his personal story again to life. —Jesse Hassenger

Rush

A race car careens along the curve of a race track as an adjacent race car crashes beside it.

12 months: 2013
Run time: 2h 3m
Director: Ron Howard
Forged: Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Brühl, Olivia Wilde

We’re within the temporary interval between Formulation 1 seasons (though Formulation E simply began, motorsport followers), and the fifth season of Netflix’s Drive to Survive docuseries premieres Feb. 24. What higher method to move the time than watching among the best Formulation 1 motion pictures ever made?

Ron Howard (who most just lately directed the underrated true story thriller 13 Lives) actually delivered with Rush, a heart-pounding depiction of the joy of motorsport and likewise a deep character examine in regards to the completely different sorts of personalities that may find yourself as top-tier athletes. Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl are glorious as racing legends James Hunt and Niki Lauda, Hemsworth completely embodying Hunt’s party-animal angle whereas Brühl shines because the reserved, hyper-focused Lauda. It’s among the best sports activities motion pictures ever made, and there’s no higher time to observe it. —PV

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