Run All Night

Right now you can watch Run All Night in Australia on Netflix — and it earns its twists rather than manufacturing them. It knows exactly what kind of film it is from the opening scene, and never loses that thread. 2,998 people have weighed in on TMDB, and the verdict leans heavily positive. Watch Liam Neeson work — the performance is a masterclass in restraint. There is no real reason to keep putting it off — it is right there on Netflix.

There is a reason Run All Night keeps coming up in conversation. The plotting gives Run All Night its backbone, but it is the characters you come back for. Brooklyn mobster and prolific hit man Jimmy Conlon has seen better days. Longtime best friend of a mob boss, Jimmy is haunted by the sins of his past—as well as a dogged police detective who’s been one step behind Jimmy for 30 years. But when Jimmy’s estranged son becomes a target, Jimmy must make a choice between the crime family he chose and the real family he abandoned long ago. Liam Neeson and Joel Kinnaman lead a cast that gives the tension real weight. It hit screens in 2015. What makes Run All Night hold up is that the resolution matters less than how the characters get there. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages.

Viewers who think they have seen every crime drama tend to find Run All Night proves them wrong. It has built its own audience without needing a direct comparison. A contained runtime means every scene is doing real work. Liam Neeson carries scenes that would sink a lesser production. The resolution feels inevitable rather than arbitrary, which is rarer than it sounds.