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Best Crime Movies After A Breakup From The 2020S Perfect For When You Need A Good Cry

These crime films were selected by the Moviepiq editorial team for after a breakup. Popularity and critic scores don't factor in here. Emotional fit does.

The best crime movies after a breakup from the 2020s perfect for when you need a good cry. Includes The Good Nurse, Kill Boksoon, To Catch a Killer and more ...

Post-breakup viewing is its own art form. You don't want to be preached at. You want to be absorbed into something that has nothing to do with your current situation.

The 2020s have already produced films that will be studied for decades - lean, precise, unafraid to take audiences seriously.

The best crime films understand that most criminals aren't monsters. They're people who made a series of choices.

The Good Nurse movie poster
1
2022 · ★★★½☆ 6.9/10

Suspicious that her colleague is responsible for a series of mysterious patient deaths, a nurse risks her own life to uncover the truth.

Kill Boksoon movie poster
2
2023 · ★★★½☆ 6.9/10

At work, she's a renowned assassin. At home, she's a single mom to a teenage daughter. Killing? That's easy. It's parenting that's the hard part.

To Catch a Killer movie poster
3
2023 · ★★★½☆ 6.9/10

Baltimore. New Year's Eve. A talented but troubled police officer is recruited by the FBI's chief investigator to help profile and track down a mass murderer.

Sharper movie poster
4
2023 · ★★★½☆ 6.9/10

A small, wealthy family in New York City gets progressively torn apart by secrets, lies, and the theft that orchestrates all of it.

Let Him Go movie poster
5
2020 · ★★★½☆ 6.8/10

Following the loss of their son, a retired sheriff and his wife leave their Montana ranch to rescue their young grandson from the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas.

What sets great crime cinema apart is consequence. Every action has a cost. These films make you feel that cost.

Shelter movie poster
6
2026 · ★★★½☆ 6.8/10

A man living in self-imposed exile on a remote island rescues a young girl from a violent storm, setting off a chain of events that forces him out of seclusion to protect her from enemies tied to his past.

The Pale Blue Eye movie poster
7
2022 · ★★★½☆ 6.8/10

West Point, New York, 1830. When a cadet at the burgeoning military academy is found hanged with his heart cut out, the top brass summons former New York City constable Augustus Landor to investigate. While attempting to solve this grisly mystery, the reluctant detective engages the help of one of the cadets: a strange but brilliant young fellow by the name of Edgar Allan Poe.

Army of Thieves movie poster
8
2021 · ★★★½☆ 6.8/10

A mysterious woman recruits bank teller Ludwig Dieter to lead a group of aspiring thieves on a top-secret heist during the early stages of the zombie apocalypse.

The Dry movie poster
9
2021 · ★★★½☆ 6.8/10

Aaron Falk returns to his drought-stricken hometown to attend a tragic funeral. But his return opens a decades-old wound - the unsolved death of a teenage girl.

Hit Man movie poster
10
2024 · ★★★½☆ 6.8/10

A mild-mannered professor moonlighting as a fake hit man in police stings ignites a chain reaction of trouble when he falls for a potential client.

A good cry isn't weakness - it's release. These films provide it honestly, without manipulation, without cheap sentiment.

Great crime cinema lingers because it doesn't offer easy resolution. The moral weight sits with you.

From the Blog

READ Movies When You Just Got Dumped
READ Movies When You're Bored & Tired
READ Movies When You Need to Cry But Can't

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