This month’s episode of our regular roundup of the best thrillers to watch on Netflix brings even more bespoke recommendations drawn from the depths of the service’s vast, ever-growing library. Skip the algorithm and let us tell you what to watch this week.
What makes a good March thriller? We are approaching the second half of winter, which means the days are getting darker with infrequent rain, hail and intermittent snowstorms combined with bitter wind chill. At this point in the season, the only recourse is to cover up, smile and endure the freezing temperatures until spring finally rolls around. As such, this month’s thriller roundup highlights some of the best comedy thrillers Netflix has to offer, along with an assortment of other more straightforward choices to enjoy.
Here are some exciting suggestions for your enjoyment in March.
Dealer
Picture: Channel Four Films
Year: 1998
Duration: 1h 34m
Director: Mike Hodges
Discard: Clive Owen, Nick Reding, Nicholas Ball
No one before or after Clive Owen has rivaled the signature blend of cool masculinity and petty, mean wit he brings to so many of his films. It’s especially interesting in the 1998 criminal heist thriller dealer, which is leaving Netflix on March 25. Mike Hodges’ film casts Owen as a would-be novelist who’s running out of ideas and money, so he takes a job at a small casino. Then he watches and judges everyone around him, using them as fodder for his job, until he’s drawn into a heist plan that forces him to decide if he’s a gamer in this world or just a voyeur. It’s an elegant and intense character piece that never particularly goes for the action, but finds all possible flavor in Owen as a performer and in the casinos as a setting. — Tasha Robinson
I don’t feel at home in this world anymore
Picture: Netflix
Year: 2017
Duration: 1h 33m
Director: Macon Blair
Discard: Melanie Lynskey, Elijah Wood, David Yow
In this filthy pot, Nurse Ruth (Melanie Lynskey) and her gun-toting neighbor Tony (Elijah Wood) become amateur sleuths to find a burglar who stole her laptop, antique silverware and perhaps the most invaluable to someone who thinks “everyone the fuck” is on their anxiety medication. Directed by Macon Blair (star of green room And blue ruin), I don’t feel at home in this world anymore is a frozen cocktail of violent Cormac McCarthy turns with Seth Rogen-style punchlines, where there’s room for swearing octogenarians, ninja-star fights, top decks, friendly raccoons, body parts that explode and a cast of characters representing the full spectrum of human idiocy. But despite all the hijinks, Blair still spins a tight thriller with points to make about our place in the world, and while the light at the end of the tunnel may be dim, it’s there. —Matte patches
Play Misty for me
Image: Universal Images
Year: 1971
Duration: 1h 42m
Director: Clint Eastwood
Discard: Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills
Before Million dollar baby, the mystical riverAnd unforgiven, Clint Eastwood made his directorial debut in this disturbing thriller about fan obsession. Eastwood stars as Dave, a disc jockey who picks up a woman at a bar only to find they met no accident: Evelyn (Development stopped(Jessica Walter) is his number one fan. While not one of the great stalker thrillers that would build on his legacy, the combination of Play Misty for meThe brilliant ’70s sheen and lusty danger make this a movie to watch. Walter may be known for her comedic latest twists, but here she is violent and baroque, stopping at nothing to pierce Dave’s heart and become not only his biggest fan, but his only one. —MP
shimmering lake
Picture: Netflix
Year: 2017
Duration: 1h 26m
Director: Oren Uziel
Discard: Benjamin Walker, Rainn Wilson, Stephanie Sigman
shimmering lake is a comedic error-thriller in the vein of the Coen Brothers Fargo with Christopher Nolan’s non-linear editing style Memento. The film stars Rainn Wilson (Office) as Andy, a hapless prosecutor involved in a bank robbery and the subsequent murder of the bank owner – a notable local judge – and Benjamin Walker (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) as Zeke, Andy’s brother and the town sheriff tasked with investigating and apprehending the culprits responsible.
It only gets crazier as the situation itself unfolds in reverse chronological order, starting in the days following the theft and working backwards to unravel the motives and actions of those who are knowingly and unknowingly accomplices to the crime. As a matter of fact, shimmering lake is a fairly standard neo-noir pulp thriller that doesn’t need to be as complicated as its editing style suggests, but the experience of watching – and the revelations offered by the strength of its editing – make it an interesting watch. —Toussaint Egan
The call
Picture: Netflix
Year: 2020
Duration: 1h 52m
Director: Lee Chung Hyun
Discard: Park Shin-hye, Jeon Jong-seo, Kim Sung-ryung
In his play of 1610 Storm, William Shakespeare wrote, “What is past is prologue.” If Shakespeare had lived to the 21st century, he could easily have described Lee Chung-hyun’s supernatural horror thriller starring Park Shin-hye (Miracle in cell number 7) and Jeon Jong Seo (Money Heist: Korea – Common Economic Space).
The call centers on Kim Seo-yeon (Park), a 28-year-old convenience store cashier who travels to her childhood home in the rural suburbs to visit her sick and estranged mother. After his phone is stolen while traveling, Seo-yeon answers the cordless phone at her mother’s house, thinking it’s the thieves asking for ransom, only to realize that she’s talking to Oh Young- sook (Jeon), a troubled young woman held captive. by his mistress mother. It doesn’t take long for them to realize that the call isn’t just coming from inside the house, but (dun dun dun) at 20-year intervals.
As Seo-yeon and Young-sook agree to help each other, transferring information between past and present to improve their respective situations, their motivations and emotions intertwine in a deadly game that threatens the lives of all who surround them. In other words, The call it’s like 2006 The lake house meeting 2021 The black phone. It’s a brilliant, if sometimes unwieldy, thriller that certainly deserves status as one of Netflix’s hidden gems. -YOU
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