Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like A Perfect World:
Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde feels more and more definitive as the years pass from when it was released. Warren Beatty ushers in a new generation of movies that are aggressively violent and angry, expelling the moral compass as a bylaw of the film industry. Faye Dunaway co-stars in this 1967 mega-hit.
Read our full review of Bonnie and Clyde
No Country for Old Men
Revisiting No Country for Old Men on its 4K Criterion Collection release reminded me why this film stands among the greats—not just of 2007, not just of the 21st century, but of all time. It’s Joel and Ethan Coen at their most precise and uncompromising, blending their dualistic approach to filmmaking: the sharp nihilism of their darker works with the understated, situational humor that defines their lighter outings. It’s a masterpiece of tension, craft, and existential dread, all wrapped in a narrative as sparse and unrelenting as the Texas landscape it inhabits.
Read our full review of No Country for Old Men
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Directed by Andrew Dominik, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a film that defies categorization. At once a Western, a character study, a crime drama, and a meditation on the nature of fame and legend, it is a film that offers something for every viewer, yet never loses its focus or its power.
Read our full review of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Juror #2
Warner Bros. initially sidelined Clint Eastwood‘s courtroom drama Juror #2. Despite critical acclaim for the 94-year-old director’s latest work, the studio only pursued an awards campaign after the film gained praise. The movie had a limited theatrical release by Warner Bros., a decision that was widely criticized. After watching Juror #2, I share the frustration of those who missed the chance to experience this procedural drama on the big screen.
Read our full review of Juror #2
A Fistful of Dollars
Even compared to modern western movies with extensive budgets, A Fistful of Dollars feels highly influential in terms of style and design. While Sergio Leone finds the pitch perfect tone for his storytelling ideas, Clint Eastwood turns in one of his best performances. A landmark spaghetti western from 1964.
Read our full review of A Fistful of Dollars
The Old Way
The Old Way rarely goes above genre conventions and expectations. As many of Nicolas Cage‘s recent movies go, it seems The Old Way was made only to satisfy his request to play the role of a weathered cowboy.
Read our full review of The Old Way
Raising Arizona
Following up the moody, low-budget neo-noir Blood Simple with the manic energy of Raising Arizona feels like one of the most jarring—but fascinating—turnarounds in any director’s early career. Joel and Ethan Coen showed with their debut that they could do calculated suspense and procedural dread. With Raising Arizona, released in 1987, they proved they could also do madcap absurdity with just as much confidence. It’s a wildly different film in tone and structure, but it showcases the Coens’ command of style and their range as filmmakers.
Read our full review of Raising Arizona
The Last Stop in Yuma County
Francis Galluppi’s The Last Stop in Yuma County probably won’t reinvent the wheel, but hopefully it’s a sign that we’ve found a new director that’ll do his best to keep slick, low-budget genre exercises alive. These down-the-middle genre movies (excluding horror) are hard to come by nowadays.
Read our full review of The Last Stop in Yuma County
Emily the Criminal
Emily the Criminal is a tense star vehicle for one of the industry’s biggest risers, the committed and ambitious Aubrey Plaza. The movie lives and dies by her performance, and she’s able to carry the weight of this thriller a majority of the time.
Read our full review of Emily the Criminal
Eileen
Eileen is a movie about blurred and dangerous relationships, many of them fraught, and a few of them deadly. I didn’t find it nearly as rewarding as I see many others have on the internet, but there are a few stylistic and dramatic choices that make it worthwhile. Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway co-star.
Read our full review of Eileen
READ MORE: A Perfect World (1993)
