Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Miller’s Crossing:
Bound
It’s hard to argue the Wachowskis ever made a movie as defining and revelatory as The Matrix, but to offer a film as succinct as Bound right off the bat is a generational accomplishment, and easily one of the best movies of 1996.
Nightmare Alley
Guillermo del Toro has built a career on finding beauty in darkness, crafting stories that, even in their bleakest moments, hold onto some sense of wonder, nostalgia, or hope. Movies like Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, and his stop-motion Pinocchio remake all explore the perseverance of the human spirit, even in the face of terrible atrocities. That’s what makes Nightmare Alley such a striking outlier in his filmography—it’s a film almost entirely devoid of hope, a cynical neo-noir that suggests people are, at their core, selfish and opportunistic. Instead of offering redemption, Nightmare Alley leaves you with a sick feeling in your stomach, hammering home its central thesis: trust is a liability, and grifters will always find a way to exploit it.
Read our full review of Nightmare Alley
Light Sleeper
Now later in life, there’s clearly a resemblance in the characters of Taxi Driver and Light Sleeper that Paul Schrader identifies with. It could be the need to redefine oneself with age, or examine the decisions made at a younger stage of life. Willem Dafoe stars as a guilt-riddled, lonely man journaling his thoughts away in privacy.
Read our full review of Light Sleeper
Blood Simple
Nearly every time I revisit Blood Simple, I’m struck by how confident and precise Joel and Ethan Coen were right out of the gate. Released in 1984, Blood Simple is the Coen brothers’ debut film and still stands as one of the greatest first features ever made. A neo-noir steeped in paranoia, betrayal, and bloody miscommunication, it’s a film that knows exactly what it wants to be—lean, stylish, and razor-sharp.
Read our full review of Blood Simple
The Alto Knights
For fans of Robert De Niro, it’s worth seeing The Alto Knights simply for the novelty of his dual performance and to appreciate that he’s still working at a high level this late into his career. But for those hoping for something in the vein of The Godfather Part II, Casino, or even American Gangster, this is a far more subdued and forgettable entry in the genre.
Read our full review of The Alto Knights
Cloud
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud (2025) is a taut, unnerving slow-burn thriller that reminds us just how masterfully he captures the quiet dread of modern life. Known for his foundational work in J-horror like Cure and Pulse, Kurosawa has always operated in a unique tonal register—where isolation, societal rot, and moral ambiguity simmer just beneath the surface. With Cloud, he’s returned to that sensibility in striking form, offering something that isn’t quite horror, not quite crime, but unmistakably Kurosawa: eerie, deliberate, and steeped in existential tension.
The Order
The Order may not offer anything particularly new by industry standards, but Justin Kurzel‘s direction keeps the film engaging and intriguing as the story unfolds. It’s well-made and interesting, even though it draws on themes and styles found in many similar movies. While some argue that Hollywood no longer makes films like it used to, The Order feels like it came from a different time.
Read our full review of The Order
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
Wild at Heart
Despite winning the Palme d’Or and starring Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, David Lynch’s Wild at Heart feels like the least acclaimed canonical Lynch film. It’s as if you have to mention it because of the controversy around it receiving the award in 1990, but it hasn’t been reclaimed the same way Lost Highway, Inland Empire, and a few of Lynch’s other movies have.
Read our full review of Wild at Heart
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.