Best Neo-Noir Movies on Criterion Channel

Every neo-noir movie streaming on Criterion Channel in the US right now — 30 films ranked by rating, checked against Criterion Channel’s live catalog.

Updated July 2026 · Availability refreshed from Criterion Channel US

1

Le Trou (1964)

IMDb 8.5 🍅 95% Letterboxd 4.5 2h 12m

Directed by Jacques Becker

✦ MovieMuse AI takeClaustrophobic tension and moral betrayal distill prison noir—the intrusion of a fifth man collapses solidarity into existential dread.

Four prison inmates have been hatching a plan to literally dig out of jail when another prisoner, Claude Gaspard, is moved into their cell. They take a risk and share their plan with the newcomer. Over the course of three days, the prisoners and friends break through the concrete floor using a bed post and begin to make their way through the sewer system – yet their escape is anything but assured.

2

Yojimbo (1961)

IMDb 8.2 🍅 96% Letterboxd 4.3 1h 50m

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

✦ MovieMuse AI takeSamurai-noir fusion: hired gun's code of honor becomes tragic liability against systemic corruption.

A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.

3

Rashomon (1950)

IMDb 8.1 🍅 98% Letterboxd 4.2 1h 28m

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

✦ MovieMuse AI takeUnreliable narration device—four contradictory perspectives on crime—structures neo-noir's epistemological uncertainty.

Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.

4

Three Colors: Red (1994)

IMDb 8.1 🍅 100% Letterboxd 4.3 1h 40m

Directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski

✦ MovieMuse AI takeVoyeuristic surveillance plot and moral entanglement between strangers define modern noir's philosophical core.

Part-time model Valentine unexpectedly befriends a retired judge after she runs over his dog. At first, the grumpy man shows no concern about the dog, and Valentine decides to keep it. But the two form a bond when she returns to his house and catches him listening to his neighbors’ phone calls.

5

Jean de Florette (1986)

IMDb 8.1 🍅 93% Letterboxd 4.1 2h 2m

Directed by Claude Berri

✦ MovieMuse AI takeRural greed and hydraulic corruption reframe noir's urban cynicism as agrarian cruelty—water becomes the corrupt prize.

In a rural French village, an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, and are dismayed to hear that the man who has inherited it is moving in. They block up the spring and watch as their new neighbour tries to keep his crops watered from wells far afield through the hot summer. Though they see his desperate efforts are breaking his health and his wife and daughter's hearts, they think only of getting the water.

6

Infernal Affairs (2002)

IMDb 8.0 🍅 94% Letterboxd 4.0 1h 41m

Directed by Alan Mak Siu-Fai

✦ MovieMuse AI takeDual mole narrative fractures identity itself: which side are we on? Noir's paranoia becomes literal structural principle.

Chan Wing Yan, a young police officer, has been sent undercover as a mole in the local mafia. Lau Kin Ming, a young mafia member, infiltrates the police force. Years later, their older counterparts, Chen Wing Yan and Inspector Lau Kin Ming, respectively, race against time to expose the mole within their midst.

7

Le Samouraï (1972)

IMDb 8.0 🍅 92% Letterboxd 4.2 1h 45m

Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville

✦ MovieMuse AI takeAustere hitman aesthetic: meticulous professionalism undermined by fate, Melville's cool detachment is genre gospel.

After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.

8

Manon of the Spring (1986)

IMDb 8.0 🍅 81% Letterboxd 4.0 1h 55m

Directed by Claude Berri

✦ MovieMuse AI takeFemale vengeance completes noir's moral architecture; Manon's calculated retribution inherits the genre's fatalistic cycle of ruin.

In this, the sequel to Jean de Florette, Manon has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside. She plots vengeance on the men who greedily conspired to acquire her father's land years earlier.

9

Elevator to the Gallows (1958)

IMDb 7.9 🍅 93% Letterboxd 4.1 1h 32m

Directed by Louis Malle

✦ MovieMuse AI takeMurder's uncontrollable chain reactions expose noir's fatalism: flawless planning destroyed by circumstance.

A self-assured businessman murders his employer, husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

10

Divorce Italian Style (1961)

IMDb 7.9 🍅 100% Letterboxd 4.0 1h 44m

Directed by Pietro Germi

✦ MovieMuse AI takeDarkly comic femme fatale switcheroo: moral bankruptcy wrapped in provincial charm, subverts genre expectations.

Ferdinando Cefalù is desperate to marry his cousin, Angela, but he is married to Rosalia and divorce is illegal in Italy. To get around the law, he tries to trick his wife into having an affair so he can catch her and murder her, as he knows he would be given a light sentence for killing an adulterous woman. He persuades a painter to lure his wife into an affair, but Rosalia proves to be more faithful than he expected.

11

The Bad Sleep Well (1960)

IMDb 7.9 🍅 100% Letterboxd 4.1 2h 30m

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

✦ MovieMuse AI takeCorporate feudalism replaces street crime—Kurosawa locates noir's paranoia in boardrooms, where rank betrays from above.

In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.

12

The Killer (1989)

IMDb 7.7 🍅 95% Letterboxd 4.2 1h 50m

Directed by John Woo

✦ MovieMuse AI takePhilosophical assassin questions his own vocation; Melville's killer-as-artist embodies neo-noir's reflexive violence.

Mob assassin Jeffrey is no ordinary hired gun; the best in his business, he views his chosen profession as a calling rather than simply a job. So, when beautiful nightclub chanteuse Jennie is blinded in the crossfire of his most recent hit, Jeffrey chooses to retire after one last job to pay for his unintended victim's sight-restoring operation. But when Jeffrey is double-crossed, he reluctantly joins forces with a rogue policeman to make things right.

13

Purple Noon (1960)

IMDb 7.7 🍅 92% Letterboxd 4.0 1h 58m

Directed by René Clément

✦ MovieMuse AI takeRipley's fluid identity and Mediterranean decadence elevate con-artistry into existential imposture—the ultimate noir protagonist.

Tom Ripley is a talented mimic, moocher, forger and all-around criminal improviser; but there's more to Tom Ripley than even he can guess.

14

L'Eclisse (1962)

IMDb 7.7 🍅 87% Letterboxd 4.0 2h 6m

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

✦ MovieMuse AI takeStock exchange abstracts noir's moral decay; Antonioni's Rome bleeds capitalism, where romance dies in economic indifference.

Vittoria is a beautiful literary translator living in Rome. After splitting from her writer boyfriend, Riccardo, Vittoria meets Piero, a lively stockbroker, on the hectic floor of the Roman stock exchange. Though Vittoria and Piero begin a relationship, it is not one without difficulties, and their commitment to one another is tested during an eclipse.

15

Pandora's Box (1929)

IMDb 7.7 🍅 93% Letterboxd 3.9 2h 21m

Directed by G.W. Pabst

✦ MovieMuse AI takeExpressionist prototype: amoral woman's destructive magnetism presages noir's fatal attraction archetype.

The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.

16

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972)

IMDb 7.7 🍅 85% Letterboxd 3.8 1h 24m

Directed by Kenji Misumi

✦ MovieMuse AI takeVendetta as structure, not passion—samurai noir weaponizes loyalty's betrayal across sprawling revenge narrative.

Official Shogunate executioner Ogami Itto has been framed for disloyalty to the Shogunate by the Yagyu clan, against whom he now is waging a one-man war, along with his infant son, Daigoro.

17

Victim (1961)

IMDb 7.7 🍅 100% Letterboxd 4.0 1h 36m

Directed by Basil Dearden

✦ MovieMuse AI takeBlackmail's psychological terrorism: respectable facade collapses, exposing noir's hidden criminal infrastructure.

A web of blackmail and murder attracts the attention of a barrister with a seemingly idyllic life, threatening to derail his career on the path of success.

18

Pale Flower (1964)

IMDb 7.7 🍅 92% Letterboxd 4.0 1h 36m

Directed by Masahiro Shinoda

✦ MovieMuse AI takeYakuza ennui and narcotics-fueled nihilism; Fukasaku's neon wasteland redefines post-war Japanese noir malaise.

A gangster gets released from prison and has to cope with the recent shifts of power between the gangs, while taking care of a thrill-seeking young woman, who got in bad company while gambling.

19

Death of a Cyclist (1955)

IMDb 7.7 🍅 100% Letterboxd 3.9 1h 28m

Directed by Juan Antonio Bardem

✦ MovieMuse AI takeHit-and-run morality: a couple's complicity becomes neo-noir's central crime—not murder, but its concealment.

A couple having an affair strike a bicyclist with their car and do not offer aid out of fear of their relationship being exposed.

20

Lost Highway (1997)

IMDb 7.6 🍅 69% Letterboxd 4.1 2h 14m

Directed by David Lynch

✦ MovieMuse AI takeLynch's fractured identity and surveillance paranoia shatter linear noir into dreamlike impossibility.

A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.

21

Accattone (1961)

IMDb 7.6 🍅 100% Letterboxd 3.9 1h 57m

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini

✦ MovieMuse AI takePasolini's pimp protagonist demolishes noir's antihero myth—poverty itself becomes the unsolvable crime.

A pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiralling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.

22

Lady Snowblood (1973)

IMDb 7.6 🍅 100% Letterboxd 4.1 1h 37m

Directed by Toshiya Fujita

✦ MovieMuse AI takeFemale vengeance figure weaponized by patriarchal violence; aesthetic brutality mirrors her emotional devastation.

Yuki's family is nearly wiped out before she is born due to the machinations of a band of criminals. These criminals kidnap and brutalize her mother but leave her alive. Later her mother ends up in prison with only revenge to keep her alive. She creates an instrument for this revenge by purposefully getting pregnant. Yuki never knows the love of a family but only killing and revenge.

23

Bitter Rice (1949)

IMDb 7.6 🍅 100% Letterboxd 3.9 1h 49m

Directed by Giuseppe De Santis

✦ MovieMuse AI takeFeminine cunning and criminal desperation collide in rice fields; De Santis locates noir's betrayal in rural proletariat.

Francesca and Walter are two-bit criminals in Northern Italy, and, in an effort to avoid the police, Francesca joins a group of women rice workers. She meets the voluptuous peasant rice worker, Silvana, and the soon-to-be-discharged soldier, Marco. Walter follows her to the rice fields, and the four characters become involved in a complex plot involving robbery, love, and murder.

24

The Big Clock (1948)

IMDb 7.6 🍅 100% Letterboxd 3.8 1h 35m

Directed by John Farrow

✦ MovieMuse AI takeMechanical fate: a magazine editor hunted by his own investigative machinery—technology becomes noir's executioner.

George Stroud, a crime magazine's crusading editor, has to postpone a vacation with his wife - again - when a glamorous blonde is murdered and he is assigned by his publishing boss to find the killer. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must try to disrupt his ordinarily brilliant investigative team as they increasingly build evidence that he is the killer.

25

Veronika Voss (1982)

IMDb 7.6 🍅 76% Letterboxd 3.9 1h 45m

Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

✦ MovieMuse AI takeMorphine dependency and exploitation weaponize female vulnerability; Fassbinder's greyscale Munich suffocates fallen stardom.

In Munich 1955, German film star Veronika Voss becomes a drug addict at the mercy of corrupt Dr. Marianne Katz, who keeps her supplied with morphine. After meeting sports writer Robert Krohn, Veronika begins to dream of a return to stardom. As the couple's relationship escalates in intensity, Veronika begins seriously planning her return to the screen -- only to realize how debilitated she has become through her drug habit.

26

Dead Man (1995)

IMDb 7.5 🍅 69% Letterboxd 3.9 2h 2m

Directed by Jim Jarmusch

✦ MovieMuse AI takeExistential Western-noir: death-haunted protagonist meets spiritual guide in psychedelic liminal space.

On the run after committing murder, an accountant encounters a strange Native American man who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.

27

Blood Simple (1985)

IMDb 7.5 🍅 94% Letterboxd 3.9 1h 37m

Directed by Joel Coen

✦ MovieMuse AI takeCoen Brothers' debut weaponizes misunderstanding and paranoia as plot engines, trapping characters in self-constructed noir nightmares.

The owner of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife. A chaotic chain of misunderstandings, lies and mischief ensues after he devises a plot to have them murdered.

28

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)

IMDb 7.5 🍅 84% Letterboxd 4.0 1h 57m

Directed by Jim Jarmusch

✦ MovieMuse AI takeCross-cultural noir: samurai code in American gangland, hitman's code becomes suicidal philosophy.

A Black hitman who models after the samurai of old finds himself targeted for death by the mob.

29

The Player (1992)

IMDb 7.5 🍅 97% Letterboxd 4.0 2h 4m

Directed by Robert Altman

✦ MovieMuse AI takeMeta-noir paranoia: Hollywood's moral emptiness breeds actual murder; the system is the criminal.

A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but which one?

30

Pickpocket (1959)

IMDb 7.5 🍅 93% Letterboxd 3.9 1h 15m

Directed by Robert Bresson

✦ MovieMuse AI takePickpocketing as spiritual yearning; Bresson's minimalism transmutes theft into metaphysical transgression, not crime.

Michel takes up pickpocketing on a lark and is arrested soon after. His mother dies shortly after his release, and despite the objections of his only friend, Jacques, and his mother's neighbor Jeanne, Michel teams up with a couple of petty thieves in order to improve his craft. With a police inspector keeping an eye on him, Michel also tries to get a straight job, but the temptation to steal is hard to resist.