3 great Max crime dramas you should watch in August 2024

As summer winds its way into fall, you might be looking for something a little less sunny and upbeat to fill your time. Max has one of the richest movie libraries of any streaming service, but knowing where to start on the service can be tricky.

We’ve pulled together three crime dramas on Max that will remind you of the various depravities of human nature, and that represent all the different ways crime stories can be told.  Whether you’re looking for adaptations of hugely popular novels or something a little more off the beaten path, we’ve got you covered with these three titles on Max.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO - Official Trailer - In Theaters 12/21

Combining David Fincher’s sensibilities with one of the most popular novels of the 21st century turns out to be a pretty potent combination. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo tells the story of a journalist hired by a wealthy family to get to the bottom of the decades-old disappearance of one of the family’s children.

Along the way, he finds himself needing the help of a master computer hacker who has a fairly troubled past of her own. It’s the pairing of these two, and the depravity of the mystery that they’re solving, that ultimately makes Dragon Tattoo work. More than a decade later, it still feels just as scintillating and captivating to watch.

You can watch The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on Max.

Funny Games (1997)

Funny Games Trailer

To be frank, Funny Games is the kind of movie you’ll want to watch once and then never again. The movie follows a family that has just arrived at their vacation house and find themselves tortured by houseguests who simply refuse to leave. As things get more and more tense, Funny Games becomes a bit like watching torture yourself.

It’s one of the most riveting movies ever made about psychopaths who delight in the emotional distress of their captors, but it’s also incredibly bleak, and unlikely to be the kind of thing you’ll want to sit through twice. Ultimately, though, that’s part of its appeal.

You can watch Funny Games on Max.

A Most Wanted Man (2014)

A Most Wanted Man Official Trailer #1 (2014) - Philip Seymour Hoffman, Willem Dafoe Thriller HD

Featuring one of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final acting roles, A Most Wanted Man is all the proof you need of his remarkable talent. The film follows Hoffman as a German agent who is attempting to lay a trap for a Muslim scholar who is suspected of financing terrorism.

The movie’s twists and turns will keep you guessing, but ultimately, the whole thing works because of Hoffman’s sheer magnetism at the center of at all. Few actors in history were as comfortable taking up space on camera, and in A Most Wanted Man, Hoffman reminds us of everything he was capable of.

You can watch A Most Wanted Man on Max.