Film

Anon

Name: Anon
Genre: Science Fiction, Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Released: 2018
Cast: Clive Owen, Amanda Seyfried, Colm Feore, Mark O'Brien, Sonya Walger

A noir detective thriller set in a surveillance-saturated future where memories are public record and crime is supposedly extinct. Clive Owen hunts a ghost—a woman who shouldn't exist—through a world of total visibility. It's a taut, twisty 100 minutes that treats privacy as a weapon and asks what happens when the system breaks. For anyone who loved the paranoia of *Minority Report* but wanted something leaner.

TMDb rating

3.0

If you liked this

Minority Report2002

Tom Cruise in a future crime-prevention unit, investigating a murder that hasn't happened yet. Spielberg's best late-period thriller: propulsive, clever, visually stunning, and genuinely asks uncomfortable questions about free will and power.

But Over two hours long and occasionally gets tangled in its own plot machinery. The emotional payoff is subtler than the action suggests.

Gattaca1997

A masterpiece about identity and systems in a genetically-ordered future. Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman navigate a society that has decided who matters. Quiet, tense, and heartbreaking in ways that stick with you for years.

But The pacing is deliberate—almost glacial. If you need constant momentum, it will feel slow.

The Girl in the Spider's Web2018

Claire Foy as a hacker taking on a vast conspiracy in a shadow-filled, rain-soaked world. Stylish, propulsive, with a protagonist who moves through the system like water. Foy commands every scene she's in.

But It's based on late sequels to Stieg Larsson's work rather than the stronger earlier books. Some may find the plot mechanics more important than character depth.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Anon

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Looper2012

Both are heist-adjacent mysteries about someone committing the perfect crime by disappearing. Both ask how you prove something happened when all the evidence is gone.

Rian Johnson made a time-travel noir where hit men kill targets sent back from the future. It's a puzzle box that never feels like one: the plot mechanics serve character and theme perfectly. JGL and Bruce Willis as two versions of the same man.

But The premise takes explaining, and the movie does it while moving—some viewers find that disorienting.

Blade Runner 20492017

A meditation on what makes someone real, dressed in a slow-burn sci-fi thriller. Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins created something that looks like nothing else. Ryan Gosling barely speaks, and it works perfectly.

But It's nearly three hours of mood and atmosphere over plot momentum. You have to want to sit in a room and feel something rather than be told a story.

Chinatown1974

The blueprint for noir thrillers. Jack Nicholson as a detective unraveling a conspiracy in 1930s LA. Every scene is economical; every line of dialogue counts. The ending is unforgettable.

But It moves at a 1970s pace, which means slowness. If you come for the plot, you might miss why it matters—the real story is about the limits of investigation itself.

Prisoners2013

Denis Villeneuve again, this time with Jake Gyllenhaal as a detective hunting a child's abductor. It's relentless, brutal, and asks what you'd do if the system fails you. Two and a half hours that feel earned.

But It's genuinely dark and morally murky. There's no comfort here, and it lingers in ways that feel like a weight on your chest.

In the Mood for Love2000

Wong Kar-wai on the surveillance of desire: two neighbors in 1960s Hong Kong discovering their spouses are having an affair. It's romance and mystery and longing, shot through cigarette smoke and neon. Hypnotic.

But It's more interested in feeling than plot. If you need narrative momentum or clear answers, you will feel frustrated.

Oldboy2003

Park Chan-wook's thriller about a man imprisoned for fifteen years, released to find the person who did it. Genre as high art: visually ingenious, wildly entertaining, and genuinely shocking. You won't forget it.

But It gets violent and brutal, with a twist that some find exploitative. It's also in Korean, and the pacing is odd by Hollywood standards.

The Conversation1974

Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert drawn into a conspiracy. Coppola made this between *Godfather* films. It's paranoid, atmospheric, and prophetic about privacy in ways that feel more urgent now than in the '70s.

But It's understated and slow. The film trusts you to understand its dread without spelling it out, which some people find withholding rather than atmospheric.

Stalker1979

Both are about hunting an elusive target through a system designed to prevent that hunt. Both treat invisibility—literal and social—as the deepest form of power.

Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece: a guide leading two men through a mysterious zone toward a room that grants wishes. Hypnotic, philosophical, and genuinely unsettling. In another language, a completely different register, but the DNA is identical.

But It's 160 minutes of mood and philosophical inquiry. No action, minimal plot. If you need narrative momentum or can't sit with ambiguity and silence, it will test your patience severely.

The Killing2011

Both are detective stories where the system itself is part of the problem—where following the rules gets you nowhere. Both find terror in the ordinary and grief in the methodical.

Sarah Lund in Copenhagen, hunting a serial killer through rain and bureaucracy. Danish crime television that's utterly grounded and procedural but also crushing emotionally. Subtitled, but immediately absorbing.

But It's a full season commitment (20 episodes), and the pacing is glacial by American standards. Each episode feels like a day, and there are many days. Also, the ending divides people sharply.