Highest-Rated Movies about 'True Crime'

Goodfellas (1990), Memories of Murder (2003), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), In Cold Blood (1967), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), American Gangster (2007), Badlands (1973) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best True Crime movies.

#16. Monster (2003)

Storyline: The true story of serial killer Aileen Wuornos who was convicted of luring men to their death and eventually executed in 2002. In 1989, she was working as a prostitute and finally makes a friend when she meets and begins a relationship with a young woman, Selby. Determined to straighten out her life, she tries to find legitimate work but with little education and limited social skills, she fails at every turn. She starts working as a hooker hitching rides along the local interstate highway and after robbing a few clients has an encounter with a vicious client whom she kills in self-defense. After that however she just takes to killing clients taking their money and car. Once arrested she claims self-defense but is eventually convicted.

Plot Keywords: prostitute, lesbian, female killer, oral sex, hand job, rape, rape victim ...

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#17. Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Storyline: Based on the true story of Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker, two close friends who share a love of fantasy and literature, who conspire to kill Pauline's mother when she tries to end the girls' intense and obsessive relationship.

Plot Keywords: orgy, sex with a minor, teenage crush, lesbian sex, madness, mother daughter relationship, lesbian subtext ...

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#18. An American Crime (2007)

Storyline: Based on a true story that shocked the nation in 1965, the film recounts one of the most shocking crimes ever committed against a single victim. Sylvia and Jennie Fae Likens, the two daughters of traveling carnival workers are left for an extended stay at the Indianapolis home of single mother Gertrude Baniszewski and her six children. Times are tough, and Gertrude's financial needs cause her to make this arrangement before realizing how the burden will push her unstable nature to a breaking point. What transpires in the next three months is both riveting and horrific.

Plot Keywords: close up of eyes, kidnapping, based on true story, poverty, dead girl, jumping on a bed, locker room ...

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#19. Reversal of Fortune (1990)

Storyline: Alan Dershowitz a brilliant professor of law is hired by wealthy socialite Claus von Bulow to attempt to overturn his two convictions for attempted murder of his extremely wealthy wife. Based on a true story the film concentrates not on the trial like other legal thrillers, but on the preparatory work that Dershowitz and his students put in as they attempt to disprove the prosecution's case and achieve the Reversal of Fortune of the title.

Plot Keywords: trial, based on book, based on true story, courtroom drama, true crime, insulin, attempted murder ...

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#20. Let Him Have It (1991)

Storyline: In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster movies. Chris and Derek's friendship leads to their involvement in the case which would forever shake the United Kingdom's belief in capital punishment.—Scott Renshaw <as.idc@forsythe.stanford.edu>

Plot Keywords: death penalty, false teeth, family relationships, father daughter relationship, father son relationship, fire, friend ...

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#21. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

Storyline: Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) made her living in the 1970s and '80s profiling the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Estee Lauder and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. When Lee is no longer able to get published because she has fallen out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception, abetted by her loyal friend Jack (Richard E. Grant). An adaptation of the memoir "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" relays the true story of the best-selling celebrity biographer (and friend to cats).

Plot Keywords: publisher, friend, accomplice, pet, pet cat, triple f rated, f rated ...

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#22. Bad Education (2019)

Storyline: A Long Island school superintendent and his assistant are credited with bringing the district unprecedented prestige. Frank is a master of positive messaging, whether before an audience of community leaders or in an office with a concerned student or parent. That changes when a student reporter uncovers an embezzlement scheme of epic proportions, prompting Frank to devise an elaborate cover-up.

Plot Keywords: gay man, gay character, gay, investigative journalism, embezzlement, infidelity, gay interest ...

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#23. American Made (2017)

Storyline: Barry Seal was just an ordinary pilot who worked for TWA before he was recruited by the CIA in 1978. His work in South America eventually caught the eye of the Medellín Cartel, associated with Pablo Escobar, who needed a man with his skill set. Barry became a drug trafficker, gun smuggler and money launderer. Soon acquiring the title, 'The gringo that always delivers'.

Plot Keywords: based on real person, airplane pilot, year 1978, colombia, cia, death of protagonist, what happened to epilogue ...

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#24. Kill the Irishman (2011)

Storyline: The true story of Danny Greene, an impoverished but charismatic young Irish-American who rises to power as president of the longshoreman's local union and is charged with corruption but evades serious jail time by becoming an FBI informant. With fearless nerve he joins forces with a Mafia gangster to rise to power in Cleveland's underworld, gaining the reputation of a Robin Hood-like figure with nine lives as he escapes countless assassination attempts.

Plot Keywords: extortion, thermometer, eyeglasses, face slap, cadillac, newspaper headline, year 1960 ...

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#25. Out of the Blue (2006)

Storyline: Ordinary people find extraordinary courage in the face of madness. On 13-14 November 1990 that madness came to Aramoana, a small New Zealand seaside village. It came in the form of a lone gunman with a rifle. As he stalked his victims the terrified and confused residents were trapped in the village for 24 hours while a handful of under-resourced and underarmed local policeman risked their lives trying to find him and save the survivors. By dawn 13 people lay dead. This is a docudrama based on a true story.—johnno.r@xtra.co.nz

Plot Keywords: police sergeant, nervousness, tension, heavy breathing, manhunt, apology, breaking a window ...

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#26. American Animals (2018)

Storyline: In this crime drama, four bright and well-off college students in Kentucky plot to steal some rare books from their university's Special Collections Library in a misguided quest for personal glory. Based on the story, the film includes interviews with the foursome who attempted the bizarre heist. Starring Barry Keoghan, Evan Peters, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson and Ann Dowd.

Plot Keywords: heist, travel, theft, 2000s, university, library, disguise ...

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#27. Public Enemies (2009)

Storyline: The difficult 1930s is a time of robbers who knock over banks and other rich targets with alarming frequency. Of them, none is more notorious than John Dillinger, whose gang plies its trade with cunning efficiency against big businesses while leaving ordinary citizens alone. As Dillinger becomes a folk hero, FBI head J. Edger Hoover is determined to stop his ilk by assigning ace agent Melvin Purvis to hunt down Dillinger. As Purvis struggles with the manhunt's realities, Dillinger himself faces an ominous future with the loss of friends, dwindling options and a changing world of organized crime with no room for him.

Plot Keywords: manhunt, great depression, impersonating a police officer, indiana, thrown from a car, tucson arizona, interrogation ...

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#28. Foxcatcher (2014)

Storyline: Based on true events, Foxcatcher tells the dark and fascinating story of the unlikely and ultimately tragic relationship between an eccentric multi-millionaire and two champion wrestlers. When Olympic Gold Medal winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is invited by wealthy heir John Du Pont (Steve Carell) to move on to the Du Pont estate and help form a team to train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics at his new state-of-the-art training facility, Schultz jumps at the opportunity, hoping to focus on his training and finally step out of the poverty stricken situation Olympic caliber athletes like he and his revered brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo). Driven by hidden needs, Du Pont sees backing Schultz's bid for Gold and the chance to "coach" a world-class wrestling team as an opportunity to gain the elusive respect of his peers and, more importantly, his disapproving mother (Vanessa Redgrave). Trapped in Du Pont's majestic but suffocating world, Mark comes to see his benefactor as an ...

Plot Keywords: domination, patriotism, 1980s, upper class, pennsylvania, wrestler, rivalry ...

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#29. The Infiltrator (2016)

Storyline: During the 1980s, U.S. Customs Service special agent Robert Mazur uses his undercover alias "Bob Musella" to become a pivotal player for drug lords cleaning their dirty cash. Later, he infiltrates the world's largest cartel, and helps expose the money-laundering organization of drug lord Pablo Escobar and take down the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which had secretly taken illegal ownership of First American Bank shares in Washington, D.C. He survives the deception and has a long and productive career..

Plot Keywords: undercover agent, money laundering, corruption, drug cartel, based on true story, husband wife relationship, reference to marlon brando ...

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#30. Dillinger (1973)

Storyline: After a shoot-out kills five FBI agents in Kansas City the Bureau target John Dillinger as one of the men to hunt down. Waiting for him to break Federal law they sort out several other mobsters, while Dillinger's bank robbing exploits make him something of a folk hero. Escaping from jail he finds Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson have joined the gang and pretty soon he is Public Enemy Number One. Now the G-men really are after him.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

Plot Keywords: reference to arizona, based on true story, gangster, 1930s, bank robbery, great depression, prostitute ...

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