This year marks the 10th anniversary of Ben Affleck’s Boston crime-opus The Town. In honor of its release, we bring you 14 other movies that you should add to your watchlist if you enjoyed this iconic addition to the Irish-American crime-drama. While not all these movies are centered around Bostonians, or even take place there, they all share strong thematic and stylistic ties that can be grouped under the loose umbrella terms of “heist” or “crime movie”. Now, without further ado:
One of Scorsese’s very finest in his astonishing back-catalog, our next entry, The Departed, would make for a perfect double-feature with The Town. Despite the chorus of folks who dispute the Oscars for awarding Scorsese the Best Directing statue as a belated cop-out for past oversights (*ahem* Goodfellas *ahem*), this film is an absolute masterclass in big-budget, star-powered gangster movies.
Speaking of stars, this movie will go down as the final, truly great Jack Nicholson performance, whose turn as Irish Mob boss, Frank Costello, is one of the most memorable in movie history. Costello’s criminal enterprise extends to the Boston police department, as Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), serves as a mole, while Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), an informant for the police, has slowly been making his way up in Costello’s ranks. As Costello becomes convinced there is a mole in his gang, he urges Sullivan to dig him out, as Costigan becomes more and more suspicious that the police have their own double-crossing agent. This dual narrative structure (based upon acclaimed Hong Kong film Internal Affairs) is rightfully considered one of the great feats of screenwriting of the 21st century, but it’s truly the performances across the A-list ensemble—who collectively exude Boston grittiness and snarky-ness with such panache—that cements this film as the ne plus ultra of the Boston crime-drama.
