Film

The Counselor

Name: The Counselor
Genre: Thriller, Crime, Drama
Released: 2013
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt

Ridley Scott's baroque crime thriller follows a nameless lawyer seduced into a cocaine deal by greed and his fiancée's lifestyle. It's dread-soaked, talky, and visual in a way that prioritizes texture over clarity. For viewers who prize atmosphere and moral decay over plot momentum—who want to *feel* corruption rather than follow it.

TMDb rating

2.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love crime stories where the talk matters as much as the plot, savoring rich, philosophical dialogue and a moral rot that creeps in slowly rather than action set-pieces.

Skip it if you want a tight, plot-driven thriller, since this one lingers on talk and luxurious surfaces, and its violence arrives abruptly and without much relief.

What it asks of you: Patience for long stretches of stylized, elaborate dialogue, a runtime of about two hours, and a bleak tone you have to sit with, since it rarely lightens.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

No Country for Old Men2007

The Coen Brothers' masterpiece of inexorable criminal momentum. A drug deal gone catastrophic, a hunter and hunted, and the inevitability of consequences. The same bones—only leaner, sharper, less philosophical about the rot.

But Relentlessly bleak, and the ending refuses catharsis or neat resolution. Some find it nihilistic to the point of coldness.

Blow Out1981

Johnny Depp as a charming amateur drawn into cocaine trafficking through seduction and ambition. Depicts the same corrupting logic—how quickly necessity becomes greed, how women and status accelerate the fall.

But Trades philosophical weight for narrative momentum. Less interested in what crime *means* than in the plot's momentum toward disaster.

Drive2011

Refn's hypnotic neon-drenched thriller about a getaway driver drawn into crime. Like *The Counselor*, it prizes mood and visual language over exposition. Gorgeous, strange, deeply felt moral dread.

But Almost glacially slow. If you need plot to keep you watching, the stillness will feel precious or punishing depending on your patience.

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

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Gomorrah2008

Where *The Counselor* explores how an individual sells his soul, *Gomorrah* shows the ecosystem of criminality itself—the system that exists whether any one person says yes or no.

Gareth Evans's documentary-style plunge into Naples' Camorra. A drug supply chain without heroes, glamour, or narrative structure—just the casual, systemised violence of organized crime. Visceral and sociological in equal measure.

But Deliberately unglamorous, hard to follow, and relentless in its pessimism. No relief, no redemption, no clear good guys. The shaky-cam aesthetic will exhaust some viewers.

A Prophet2009

Jacques Audiard's portrait of a young man's moral transformation in prison. Corruption as education, ambition as poison, the careful accumulation of transgression. Visceral in a way that avoids sentimentality.

But French prison film with subtitles and a deliberately unglamorous milieu. The violence is sudden and unsettling rather than exciting.

Killing Zoe1993

Avary's feverish descent into a Parisian heist gone wrong. Junkie aesthetics, moral vertigo, characters drawn to oblivion by their own hunger. Raw and hallucinogenic in its depiction of desire and consequence.

But Deliberately stylised to the point of alienation. The 90s aesthetic hasn't aged evenly, and some find the excess self-indulgent rather than meaningful.

The Drop2014

A quiet Brooklyn bartender drawn into organized crime through circumstance and moral compromise. Tom Hardy's understated performance and Michaël R. Roskam's patient direction create a slow-burn study of how ordinary people become criminals.

But Glacial pacing. The violence is sparse, the plot thin. Rewards contemplation over event, which can feel like inertia.

Branded2012

Sergei Bodrov's visual feast about desire manufactured by capitalism. Like *The Counselor*, obsessed with how we're seduced by surfaces and status. Hallucinogenic and overstuffed with ideas about greed and image.

But Bewilderingly strange and heavy-handed. The visual excess can overwhelm narrative sense. Not a film for viewers who want clarity or restraint.

In the Cut2003

Campion's erotic noir about desire, moral ambiguity, and the seductive pull of danger. A woman drawn toward a man entangled in crime, the way attraction blinds judgment. Sensual and deeply unsettling.

But Sexually explicit in ways that make some uncomfortable. The ending divides audiences sharply, and the pacing is deliberately fragmentary.

Sexy Beast2001

Ben Kingsley's volcanic turn as a criminal who disrupts a retired gangster's paradise. A meditation on violence, transgression, and the inescapability of moral compromise. Wild, unhinged, unpredictable.

But Tonally strange and sometimes veers into the absurd. Kingsley's performance is so extreme it can read as pantomime rather than drama.

The Square2017

Both are scathing about how educated, cultured people rationalize their own corruption. The Counselor whispers it; *The Square* screams it.

Ruben Östlund's savage, precise satire about desire, entitlement, and moral bankruptcy in the art world. A curator drawn into increasingly absurd situations through vanity and greed. Darkly funny and deeply angry about how status corrupts judgment.

But Two and a half hours of cringe and humiliation. The humour is glacial and uncomfortable. If you need characters to root for, you won't find them here.