Team Cinemaholic
Wind River is written and directed by Taylor Sheridan and stars Jeremy Renner (Cory Lambert) as a hunter in a Native American reservation known as Wind River. One cold morning when he’s out trying to do his job he comes across the dead body of a young Native American woman barefoot and frozen miles away from any civilization and when Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olson) who plays an FBI agent comes to town to try to solve this mystery she uses Cory’s help to track how this girl could have possibly gotten that far in this wilderness. Gil Birmingham plays the Father of the young girl and gives a crushing performance filled with pain, grief, and anger. Wind River is not necessarily a Murder Mystery but it is lot more than that. It’s a story of a town, a community, and its people. It’s about a man coming to terms with his past and accepting it no matter how painful it is.
Wind River is emotionally powerful, mesmerizing to watch and features one of the most thrilling and raw shootout sequence that I’ve ever seen. Taylor Sheridan dialog is brutal and has Jeremy Renner and Gil Birmingham, a couple of outstanding actors working at the top of their game. Here’s the list of movies similar to Wind River that are our recommendations. You can watch several of these movies like Wind River on Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime.
10. Insomnia (2002)
Fresh from the Success of Memento Christopher Nolan immediately steps out of his comfort zone to make a thrilling Murder Mystery starring Al Pacino(Will Dormer) and Martin Donovan(Hap) playing two Los Angeles detectives who are sent to a small town in Alaska to investigate a gruesome murder of a young girl. Hilary Swank plays a young local detective and Robin Williams plays a writer who is somehow involved in the murder of this girl. With 22 hours of Sunlight a day, Al Pacino struggles to stay focused without getting much sleep and the film continues to get more thrilling. Insomnia is a must watch for all movie lovers not only is this film mesmerizing to watch but also showcases Chris Nolan’s wide range as a Director.
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9. No Country for Old Men (2007)
“What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?” This is among the most popular dialog in pop culture today all thanks to the 2007 epic crime drama No Country For Old Men written and directed by Ethan and Joel Coen. Somewhere in Texas when Josh Brolin (Llewelyn Moss) stumbles upon a drug deal gone, he comes across a bag full of money. Javier Bardem(Anton Chigurh) plays the guy who wants this bag and will just about kill anyone who gets in his way and the entire movies sets up as a chase between Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem in which Javier always seems to be one step ahead of Brolin. Tommy Lee Jones plays a local police officer who is trying to investigate this crime scene. At its core, this movie is brutal, raw , violent and features thrilling action. The movie received 8 Oscar nomination and 4 wins with Javier Bardem winning the well deserved Oscar for his excellent performance.
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8. Mystic River (2003)
This movie is about three friends Jimmy (Sean Penn) an ex-conman, Dave (Tim Robbins) and Sean (Kevin Bacon) who is a homicide detective and is based on a novel of the same name. When Jimmy’s young girl Katie is found beaten and dead, Sean and his partner Whitey(Laurence Fishburne) is assigned the task of solving her murder and the story revolves around how Dave becomes a suspect in this murder and his own haunting past. With brilliant direction from Clint Eastwood, this movie keeps you on the edge for the whole of its running length and received 6 Oscar nominations with Sean Penn and Tim Robbins winning the award for best leading and supporting actor respectively.
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7. Prisoners (2013)
When two Young girls Anna and Joy go missing their parents decide to take the matter into their own hands. Anna’s parent Keller and Grace Dover are played by the fantastic Hugh Jackman and Maria Bello while Joy’s parents are portrayed by Terrence Howard and Viola Davis. The only lead, in this case, is a white RV which was parked in front of their house right before the girls got abducted and when Paul Dano playing a mentally challenged man named Alex Jones is found driving this RV Detective Loki(Jake Gyllenhaal) is called up to the scene to investigate this case. Along with a powerful performance from Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, in particular, this movie also features some of the best direction and camera works. It is filled with many intense scenes with heart-stopping suspense and revolves around a simple question “How far are you willing to go for the sake of your family”.
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6. The Pledge (2001)
Jerry Black(Jack Nicholson) is a retiring police officer and having his retirement party which gets interrupted by a shocking news of a brutal murder of a young girl. Upon discovering the body Jerry is the one who breaks the news to the girl’s parent who are left in anguish upon hearing the news. The mother of the girl asks for his solemn pledge that he himself will investigate the case. This makes Jack Nicholson determined that he’ll not rest until the murderer is found and act as a driving force of this movie and hence justifying the title. Along with some powerful dialog, this may be one of the best Jack Nicholson performances as a screen actor.
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5. Sicario (2015)
When an honest FBI agent played by Emily Blunt is appointed by to Government to provide assistance against the Drug war happening in the area around the border of US and Mexico she is exposed to some harsh realities and how sometimes certain rules are Bend or Broken to do what’s right. Matt(Josh Brolin) is her supervisor for this mission and Benicio Del Toro plays a very suspicious character who is capable of some brutal acts of violence. Denis Villeneuve aided by a flawless script from Taylor Sheridan creates a modern-day suspense masterpiece in which you often find yourself out of breath. This is a director working on the top of his game knows exactly what he is doing.
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4. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
When a Journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) and tattooed, pierced and damaged computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) are appointed by a millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plumber) to investigate the disappearance of his niece which happened almost 40 years ago, they come across some pretty shocking facts and discover other evidence which links back to the disappearance of the girl. David Fincher is able to captivate his audiences perfectly in this remake of a 2009 Swedish film.
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3. Three Billboards Outside Edding, Missouri (2017)
Fed up with no arrest made in the rape and murder case of her daughter, Mildred (Frances McDormand) rents 3 billboards just outside her town and paints them with controversial remarks made at William Willoughby (Woody Harelson) the town’s chief of police. What follows this, is a battle between Mildred and Law Enforcement with deputy officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell) getting involved in the whole conflict. This movie is filled with some dark humor, brutal dialogs and many unexpected twist and turns. In the end, this movies is about making peace with your past instead of dwelling on it. The Movie received 7 Oscar nominations with 2 wins.
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2. Hell or High Water (2016)
When Tanner Howard (Ben Foster) is released from the jail he along with his brother Toby Howard (Chris Pine) who is about to lose his ranch to Texas Midlands Bank, decides to rob the agencies of the Texas Midlands Bank to raise money to pay the loan back. Marcus Hamilton (Jeff bridges) plays a Ranger who is near his retirement he along with his partner Alberto Parker(Gil Birmingham) tries to catch the thieves by predicting their next moves. Taylor Sheridan with his flawless script and amazing dialog knocks this ball right out of the park. The chemistry between the lead characters is sublime and makes the story even more compelling.
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1. Seven (1995)
Making his second appearance on this list is a man none other than the legendary director David Fincher himself. Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and Mills (Brad Pitt) are homicide detectives investigating a serial killer who believes that he is doing nothing wrong but he is rather punishing these people based on the Seven Deadly sins. The punishment which they deserve. The Movie gets more suspenseful with every passing second and reaches its peak at the climax when the serial killer John Doe(Kevin Spacey) decides to surrender. What follows it, is probably the most tense climax ever seen in cinematic history.
Seven is just amazing, the dialog is on point and the location feels like a character in itself. Kevin Spacey as John Doe gives a short but probably his most iconic performance.
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