Gripping Murder Mysteries To Puzzle Over
We recommend a modern Western thriller and a Korean serial killer drama to give you your murder mystery fix
Hey, readers. We’re back in your inbox for a couple quick recommendations going into the weekend. Out in theaters today is Death on the Nile, the latest Agatha Christie murder mystery adaptation from director and star Kenneth Branagh. So we took this opportunity to make some murder mystery recommendations that we particularly love. Enjoy, and let us know what you think of these!
Billy recommends…
Wind River
Wind River wraps up writer-director Taylor Sheridan’s Frontier Trilogy. A trio of films (Sicario and Hell or High Water are the other two) that are set in these forgotten landscapes centered around suffering personal trauma and collectively enduring as best they can.
Wind River is set on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. This movie is both a murder mystery and a fish-out-of-water story. Our two leads are played by Jeremy Renner (Cory Lambert) and Elizabeth Olsen (Jane Banner). Lambert is an agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who serves as a guide to the rookie FBI agent, Banner. Lambert knows the land and the people that still live on this land. He was married to a Native American woman and after a family tragedy they got a divorce. His relationships run deep with the community he married into and knows to ask the people on this reservation to help solve the murder.
This plot and storyline created by Sheridan is one of the few movies that is clearly trying to respect the indigenous people that he knew. He is quoted stating that was the goal of this movie. What ensues is a gripping murder mystery that goes to depths you don’t expect when you see the poster.
A hyper-visceral and real experience that has a last 30 minutes that ramps up the intensity greatly. Of the three Frontier Trilogy films this is my least favorite, but that is like saying pepperoni is my 3rd favorite pizza topping. Almost every note is pinpoint precision that affects the audience to the degree the movie wants to. While Sheridan succeeds at respecting the Native Americans he shows in this story, the story is told through the lens of two white leads. Not an unforgivable sin because he makes the leads need the help of the Native American supporting characters, therefore creating newfound respect for Banner’s character and increasing the trust that Lambert has with that community. But with the ever-growing need of giving leading roles to marginalized communities, it is glaring here at times that the perspective isn’t from Native American characters. The Frontier Trilogy is one of the better non-sequential trilogies of the 21st century. Each movie is worth seeing and Wind River is well worth your time. - Streaming on Netflix
Drew recommends…
Memories of Murder
After Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite became a legitimate cultural sensation, some of his lesser known films emerged from the shadows stateside. In 2020, the distributor NEON acquired the rights to his 2003 serial killer mystery Memories of Murder, ensuring that American audiences could have easier access to Bong’s early masterpiece. What many found was that the South Korean filmmaker had created a dark and captivating David Fincher-style investigative thriller, only Bong did it four years before Fincher’s own 2007 classic Zodiac.
Memories of Murder is based on the true story of Korea’s first confirmed serial murders in the late 1980s. Multiple women are found raped and killed in a small town, where the local detective (played by Parasite’s Song Kang-ho) is in over his head. As the authorities track down and interview subjects while more murders take place, it becomes evident that this case will be far from open and shut.
What differentiates Memories of Murder from Fincher’s serial killer examinations like Zodiac and Seven is the offbeat black humor, the moments where Bong gets playful with his film’s tone. This helps cut through some of the oppressive and senseless cruelty and evil that’s at the heart of the story. Throughout, this is a gripping account of the search for an unfathomable monster that ultimately becomes a devastating portrait of our often futile efforts to hold back the darkness. - Streaming on Hulu
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The 2022 Oscar nominations were announced on Tuesday. In case you missed it, we wrote about the 10 biggest snubs here.
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