Film

Trouble in Mind

Name: Trouble in Mind
Genre: Crime, Drama, Comedy
Released: 1985
Cast: Kris Kristofferson, Keith Carradine, Lori Singer, Geneviève Bujold, Joe Morton

Social drama

A stylish neo-noir set in a rain-soaked fictional city where an ex-con, a diner owner, and a desperate young couple collide. Visually hypnotic and mordantly funny, with Kristofferson's weariness anchoring a world that feels like a fever dream. For viewers who prize mood and craft over narrative clarity.

TMDb rating

2.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love films that drift through a city's back alleys with a quiet, stubborn romanticism, where crime and comedy sit side by side and the mood matters more than the plot.

Skip it if you want brisk momentum and clear stakes; this one wanders at its own unhurried pace, and its neon-soaked dreaminess can feel more like atmosphere than story.

What it asks of you: Settle in for just under two hours of slow, lingering scenes, with the attention going to faces, rain-slicked streets and small talk rather than to any rush toward a point.

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

If you liked this

Blood Simple1985

The Coen Brothers' debut brings the same fatalistic pulp sensibility: small people trapped in webs of their own making, shot with immaculate control and dark humour. Morally murky and gorgeous.

But The plotting demands close attention and rewards it coldly. If you need to like the people on screen, this will frustrate you.

After Dark, My Sweet1990

Another rain-soaked neo-noir featuring a dazed drifter and a widow, with the same hallucinatory quality and moral ambiguity. Crime told as mood rather than spectacle.

But It's deliberately oblique. Some will find it slow; others will find it pretentious. Both positions have merit.

Angel Heart1987

Geneviève Bujold stars in this stylish descent into darkness and corruption. Nightmare logic, sexual menace, and a protagonist increasingly unmoored from reality.

But The famous scene is shocking in ways that can feel gratuitous. The plot twist divides viewers roughly in half.

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

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Stalker1979

Both use rain, isolation, and an unreachable city as expressions of internal states. Neither trusts dialogue to carry meaning. Both ask what we're really searching for.

Tarkovsky's metaphysical science fiction: pilgrims in a mysterious zone, each seeking something they might not want to find. The same hypnotic visual syntax and fatalistic patience as Trouble in Mind, but operating in pure abstraction.

But 163 minutes of contemplative, near-silent passages. If cinema for you is plot and action, this will feel like punishment.

The Long Good Friday1980

Bob Hoskins as a crime boss watching his world implode in forty-eight hours. Violent, witty, and crackling with energy—a masterclass in sustained tension.

But It's more straightforward crime thriller than Trouble in Mind's dreaminess. The ending is bleak in a way that can feel unearned.

Killer's Kiss1955

Kubrick's early noir: low-budget, high-style, genuinely eerie. A boxer and a dancer in a city that's as much threat as setting. The DNA is there.

But It's a sketch compared to his later work, and the sound mixing is thin. Very much a film-school production.

Thief1981

Michael Mann's debut: a jewel thief wanting out of the game before fate decides otherwise. Neon, synth, and the aesthetic DNA of Trouble in Mind everywhere.

But The emotional core is deliberately buried. Some find it cold; the film considers that a feature, not a bug.

In a Lonely Place1950

Humphrey Bogart as a volatile screenwriter suspected of murder. The definitive film about how charm and rage live in the same body. Bogart has never been darker.

But It's a psychological study, not a mystery. The resolution will disappoint if you want the crime solved satisfyingly.

The Grifters1990

Scorsese-adjacent crime tale: con artists with no one to trust, least of all family. Stylish, funny, and poisonous. Annette Bening is luminous and terrifying.

But Everyone is selfish and the worldview is cynical without redemption. If you need a moral center, this won't provide one.

Body Heat1981

A lawyer seduced into murder by a beautiful woman in the Florida heat. Erotic, twisty, and visually lush. The template for the sexy thriller done right.

But The '80s style has aged in ways that undercut the seduction. The plot hinges on the protagonist being spectacularly stupid.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Both build worlds that operate on dream logic. Both use genre furniture (noir, theater) as a structure to ask: what is real? Both exhaust and exhilarate.

Kaufman's baroque maze: a theater director blurs life and art until the distinction collapses entirely. Visually unstable, funny, and genuinely disorienting in exactly the way Trouble in Mind is.

But It's deliberately opaque and demands surrender rather than solution. Rewatchable only if you like being lost.

Pickup on South Street1953

Both compress a corrupt city into a handful of locations. Both find tragedy and comedy in the same frame. Both believe in the romance of failure.

Fuller's hard-boiled masterpiece: a pickpocket, a woman, and Cold War paranoia in Manhattan. Lean, urgent, and made for peanuts on real streets. The spiritual grandfather of Trouble in Mind's visual economy.

But It's in black and white and moves at 1953 speed. Some passages feel like newsreel; the pacing will test patience.