6. The Handmaiden (2016)
South Korean director Park Chan-wook kicked off the 21st century by amassing a fervid cult following overseas and establishing himself as a mainstay of the genre and the festival circuit with a formidable run of grisly, hyper-stylized thrillers often lumped together as the so-called Vengeance trilogy.
A proven hand at twist-filled revenge flicks that pull no punches and go straight for the viewer’s jugular, it’s no surprise that the wicked mastermind behind “Oldboy” would have a knack for Sarah Waters’ Victorian-era potboiler and hit a second creative peak by relocating the bestselling novel’s story to 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea.
The result is pure cinematic bliss: an unpredictable, sumptuously shot romantic thriller about a wealthy heiress (Kim Min-hee) becoming entangled with her deceitful young Korean maid (Kim Tae-ri) and a two-bit con artist (Ha Jung-woo) propelled by a Rashomon-like narrative that stays two steps ahead of its audience by re-telling incidents from different perspectives and coming together in a rousing climax.
7. The Player (1992)
The genius and sardonic wit of Robert Altman is on full display in this acidic showbiz satire, a poisoned love-hate letter to cinema that holds a mirror to the cutthroat nature of the movie industry and busts open its inner secrets through the farcical story of a sleazy studio exec (Tim Robbins), your average Hollywood sellout trying to climb the corporate ladder, who also ends up well out of his depth after trying to cover up the murder of a writer whose script he recently rejected.
A renegade agent provocateur who was unfairly blacklisted by Hollywood for almost a decade, Altman likely understood as well as any industry insider the myriad sacrifices and compromises required to get a film green-lit by money-hungry producers in a profit-driven industry. After being completely iced out by every major studio during the 1980s, the maverick director hit the bull’s-eye again and mounted a splashy career comeback with “The Player”, a corrosive indictment of Hollywood’s elite that spares absolutely no one but also can’t help but acknowledge and embrace the magic of cinema, warts and all.
8. Collateral (2004)
Look, we look forward to every upcoming entry in Tom Cruise’s pet property as much as anybody. But as badass and genuinely mind-blowing as it is to see the now-sexagenarian A-lister climb the world’s tallest building, hold his breath for six-plus straight minutes, and defy the natural laws of physics many times over as IMF senior agent Ethan Hunt, watching him play against type in full villain mode in “Collateral” makes you wish one of the most bankable movie stars in recent memory would roll the dice and take on risky roles every once in a while.
In casting the All-American screen icon at the height of his movie-star powers as a cold-blooded, psychopathic hitman with the highest on-screen body count outside the John Wick saga, veteran genre stalwart Michael Mann forever cemented his reputation as one of the best to ever do it and jolted new life into Cruise’s career with a spitfire of a role that reminded us just how versatile of an actor he can be when he actually sets his mind to it.
Jamie Foxx is equally terrific and rightfully secured an Oscar nod as the salt-of-the-earth cab L.A. driver being forced at gunpoint to escort a reckless, silver-haired human dynamo over one frantic night while he carries out several hit jobs for a local drug kingpin with the authorities hot on his tail. Between this and “Miami Vice”, no director was out-thrilling Michael Mann at the dawn of the digital era.
9. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
An R-rated psychological thriller about a cannibalistic homicidal maniac who gets giddy about cooking human liver with some fava beans and a nice bottle of Chianti might not be the sort of film that immediately comes to mind when talking about cinematic comfort food (no pun intended).
But if the true crime wave that has now stretched across all media and taken hold of the nation in recent years tells us anything about the way we collectively consume and interact with the thriller genre, it’s that few types of films can scratch our morbid curiosity as those that try to peek into the mind of deranged serial killers in the mold of Hannibal Lecter — making this adaptation of Thomas Harris’ 1988 novel as re-watchable as any of its period.
Little more than 16 minutes of screen time was all Sir Anthony Hopkins needed to strike fear into our hearts, win the Oscar for Best Actor, and become enshrined forever in cinema lore as the most iconic movie villain since Norman Bates. But just as key to the film’s lasting power, still only the third one ever to walk away with the so-called ‘Big Five’ Academy Awards, is Jodie Foster’s fearless turn as a fresh-faced but resourceful FBI trainee who cross-examines Lecter while on the hunt for another serial-killing psycho perp known as Buffalo Bill.
10. Point Break (1991)
Though certain titles that barely missed the cut technically do fall under the thriller genre’s umbrella, we’ve omitted pop culture touchstones like “The Matrix” on the grounds of over-familiarity. But since we can all agree there’s no such thing as too much Keanu Reeves, let’s celebrate yet another delectable genre offering in his celebrated back catalog: “Point Break”.
That’s right baby, grab your surfboard, don’t forget your rubber Reagan mask, and get ready to ride the wave and go skydiving with Patrick Swayze because we’re talking about Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 heist flick. An essential staple in the dudes-rock movie canon, “Point Break” finds Reeves snapping into focus as former Ohio state quarterback-turned-FBI agent Johnny Utah, who goes undercover with a group of surfing-loving adrenaline junkies who like to indulge their senses by pulling off an occasional bank heist every once in a while. It all goes according to plan at first until it becomes evident that Johnny has gotten a bit too comfortable being part of the gang for his own good, which puts him in an awkward spot when he’s invited to join in on their next big-stakes heist.