Satires and Whodunnit Movies for the Lighthearted Thriller Lover
I love good thriller movies, but I don’t always need their circumstances to be extremely dire. Sometimes I want a lighthearted whodunnit, or a satirical mystery movie. For the times when your soul is already feeling too dark to stare into the abyss, here’s a list of seven thriller mystery movies to check out.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Rian Johnson)
I’d say this movie is sort of the gold standard for a lighthearted thriller: it’s suspenseful, but my heartrate never goes through the roof like I’m going to have a panic attack. During May of 2020 (you know what that means), billionaire tech guru Miles Bron hosts a murder mystery game at his private island mansion… and it’s a murder mystery all the way down, from a cryptic invitation to an actual death during the party. Watch Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) crack the case before the audience does—these films always keep me guessing… which is, I guess, the point.
See How They Run (Tom George)
In this beautifully stylized comedy mystery film, Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap celebrates its 100th performance in 1953 London. At the party, the American director (Adrian Brody) is killed backstage, and no one knows the culprit. Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) investigates the murder, but the person doing the real investigating is the rookie detective, Stalker (Saoirse Ronan). What unfolds is labyrinth of blackmail, infidelity, and murder… all light of heart, of course.
Wicked Little Letters (Thea Sharrock)
Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley (both!) star in this thriller. We’re in postwar Britain (swoon!) when uptight spinster Edith Swann (Olivia Colman) receives nasty, pornographic letters on a regular basis, and her family persuades her to press charges. And the only culprit in sight is the single mom new in town from Ireland, Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley), the one who hangs out in the bar and swears with wild abandon. But Rose swears she’s not guilty, and she enlists a ragtag group to help exonerate her—and I do mean ragtag: she pulls in everyone from Woman Police Officer Moss to the local salt-of-the-earth pig farmer. What makes it even better is that this light-weight comic drama is based loosely on factual events.
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Drive-Away Dolls (Ethan Coen)
Lesbian noir in the vein of the Coen brothers? Let’s go! When Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) needs to get to Tallahassee to visit her aunt, her wild friend Jamie (Margaret Qualley) says they should get a drive-away car. If you didn’t know (I didn’t!), a drive-away is how they used to transport cars among the states in the nineties, just hiring a random person to drive long haul one way. Naturally, the girls need to make a few detours, and before long, they realize they’re transporting a couple suitcases full of contraband… but it’s not the contraband you’d think! (This one is a refreshing delight—highly recommend! And it’s a star-studded cast including Beanie Feldstein, Pedro Pascal, and Matt Damon… all their characters throw in crisp, fun relief.)
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A Haunting in Venice (Kenneth Branagh)
If you’re reading this post, you’re probably already an Agatha Christie fan, but even if you’re not, you can watch this whodunnit just for the stunning visuals! It’s a truly gorgeous adaptation of her novel Hallowe’en Party, in which one of the guests is murdered. It’s post-WWII in a Venician palazzo, and Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) reluctantly attends a séance to investigate the death at the behest of his writer friend, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey)… and the situation gets more and more supernatural as it escalates.
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Vengeance (B.J. Novak)
Written with the trademark wry humor B.J. Novak is known for, his character Ben, a journalist from New York, travels to West Texas for the funeral of a girl in his phone. He remembers her, but only barely. Apparently, her family thought their relationship was pretty serious, so he heads west from obligation, and when he gets there, he finds a homicide case waiting to be solved.
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Poker Face
All right, this one is a series, but I couldn’t not include it! It’s a procedural that follows casino worker Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) who can always call bullshit when someone is lying. Every episode, she stumbles upon a different murder, and her spidey senses help her sleuth out the murderer every time. (Bonus: all the first season’s episodes have been released, so you can binge at your will!)
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Dream Scenario (Kristoffer Borgli)
This dark comedy thriller has an odd premise: Paul Matthews, a family man/tenured professor/sad sack suddenly shows up in people’s dreams. Specifically, he shows up in strangers’ dreams. At first, he’s just there. But people start recognizing him in life, and his life starts to get complicated… especially when his dream persona starts turning those dreams into nightmares. His overnight, unearned celebrity takes a quick turn for the worst. This mystery is a truly fascinating one.
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