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Netflix is hitting the ground running in 2025, especially for lovers of police dramas and crime thrillers. While watching shows and movies that are dubbed over or require closed captions can be a turn-off for some English-speaking viewers, Netflix has inspired more subtitle-friendly audiences thanks to its many great international series. The following examples are proof that anyone who is still avoiding subbed or dubbed shows might be missing out on some of the best stories of the year.

A nice change of pace from the typical American police procedural, The Åre Murders successfully tackles the Nordic noir genre; Public Disorder acts as a commentary on current sociopolitical tension in Italy; and the French film Squad 36 is a respectable addition to the cops-and-car-chases plots that audiences are oh-so fond of. All three of these projects bring something fresh to well-worn narratives.

The Åre Murders Netflix

The Åre Murders is a...

After watching the first season of Netflix’s Public Disorder, a series that focuses on the systematic abuse of power by authoritative forces, one might immediately be reminded of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, which gained prominence back in 2020, and consider that the narrative is inspired by the real-life horrors that strengthened the said movement. However, the series is actually an adaptation of journalist Carlo Bonini’s novel, Acab: All Cops Are Bastards, published back in 2009, which chronicles the rampant instances of unrestricted violence meted out by Italian riot cops. The TV series, taking place a decade and a half since the publishing of the novel, shows how things really haven’t changed despite all the regulations imposed upon the authorities, as the ones who are assigned to serve justice will inevitably exercise their power upon the ones who lack it—until a complete restructuring of the existing rotting system is done.

Netflix’s social drama, Public Disorder, revolves around the universal issue of unrestrained police violence emboldened by a failing authoritative and judicial system. The series brings a unit of riot cops into narrative focus, whose personal and professional lives get affected by the decisions they make, or are forced to make, being a part of the decrepit institution. The six-episode series is character-driven, and the roster of riot cops comprises an interesting set of characters. What makes Public Disorder unique in terms of characterization is that the series brings contrasting perspectives into focus, drawing the line between opposing sides of morality—only to have the characters switch their ideals under changing circumstances. While there is a sympathetic gaze that is noticeable when the miseries of personal lives of the involved characters come into focus, the series never tries to justify the barbaric mindset of the ones who rampantly exploit the power they have been given.

Public Disorder, or Acab: La serie in its original Italian version, is a new thriller drama series on Netflix that takes viewers into the complex and difficult lives of police personnel. Adapted from Carlo Bonini’s 2012 novel titled Acab: All Cops Are Bastards, the series follows the lives of the members of a particular squad in the Mobile Police Unit in Rome, specifically after a difficult night at a protest site leads to some serious consequences. Overall, Public Disorder is a decent watch, although its gradual shift into a drama from a thriller might not be satisfying to many viewers.

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What is the Netflix series about?

In Public Disorder, we follow the members of a particular squad of the Mobile Police Unit of Rome, beginning with a night of intense action. After waiting for long hours inside their police van, ready to respond to any escalating situation, the...

In the Italian crime drama Public Disorder, a team of riot police officers navigates societal turmoil and personal conflicts after a violent demonstration causes irreversible consequences. From director Michele Alhaique, the series stars Marco Giallini, Adriano Giannini, and Valentina Bellè. Based on the 2012 film Acab, Public Disorder was created by Carlo Bonini (Suburræterna) and Filippo Gravino (The First King).

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In the Susa Valley in Turin, Italy, activists who oppose the construction of a new high-speed rail clash with Rome’s riot police, and the demonstration grows violent. The chief of riot police is left gravely injured, leading to the promotion of an officer who’s determined to reform the department. As social tensions rise, so do the interpersonal issues among the squad. Will the riot unit be able to rise up amid mounting turmoil among...

Originally titled Acab: La serie, Public Disorder is a new Italian thriller drama series released globally on Netflix, with a runtime of almost 6 hours, spread over six episodes. The work is an adaptation of Carlo Bonini’s novel, titled “Acab: All Cops Are Bastards,” which had also been made into a film back in 2012. The plot is centered around a specific squad of the Mobile Police Unit in Rome, which gets embroiled in controversy after a night of horrific clashes between the law and protestors, all while the police personnel also have to deal with their own personal struggles. While Public Disorder makes for a decent watch overall, its exact message, or stance with regards to police brutality, arguably remains a bit unclear.

Public Disorder begins on a night of immense tension, as one squad of the Mobile Police Unit in Rome awaits orders regarding a protest site in the...

"This is Rome. And Rome doesn't retreat." Netflix has launched a first look teaser for an upcoming Italian series called Public Disorder, which is set to debut streaming in January 2025. Not too long of a wait for this one. Sadly they tamed down the title - the official Italian name is A.C.A.B. La serie, or simply just the Acab series. Public Disorder is an upcoming Netflix streaming series about a riot police team in Rome, whose personal and professional lives slowly fall apart because of the hatred burning inside each of them. Among rising tensions, the team members are called to take sides & forced to question the deeper meaning of their work and their own membership of the Department. Definitely sounds like a proper Acab series that will make cops look in the mirror and understand their own anger and hate. Starring Julia Messina, Francesco Buttironi, Aiman Machhour,...

The highly anticipated Italian spin-off of Citadel, titled Citadel: Diana, premiered on Prime Video on October 10, 2024. Expanding the universe of the Russo Brothers’ 2023 spy-thriller Citadel, this new series brings a fresh storyline and a diverse international cast to the forefront. Set in a futuristic 2030 Milan, Citadel: Diana introduces undercover agents played by a dedicated cast, hidden moles, and powerful crime syndicates, all while adding a unique Italian flavor to the global Citadel saga.

Here’s a comprehensive look at the cast and their characters in Citadel: Diana:

Citadel: Diana Main Cast & Characters: Matilda De Angelis as Diana Cavalieri

Born in Bologna, Italy, Matilda De Angelis has gained recognition for roles in films like Rose Island and The Law According to Lidia Poёt. In Citadel: Diana, she plays the titular character Diana, an undercover Citadel agent who must navigate the world of the Manticore organization while trapped behind enemy lines.

I Used To Be Funny Image: Utopia Rape jokes are never funny, except when a survivor gives you permission to laugh. In the rearview of a hard-earned recovery, it is pretty funny that the joke-teller went to bed in a sopping wet towel, commended by their friends because at least...

A high-profile fashion event in Barcelona’s iconic Park Guell turned into a scene of chaos and violence as police clashed with protestors who had gathered to voice their opposition to the use of the public space for a private show.

The Louis Vuitton Cruise 2025 collection launch, attended by a star-studded guest list that included Sophie Turner, Ana de Armas and Emma Stone, was the target of days of protests by locals who accused the organizers of “privatizing” the historic park. As the fashion elite gathered inside, baton-wielding police officers faced off against hundreds of demonstrators outside in a confrontation that quickly escalated.

Footage from the scene showed protestors being beaten by the police while some in the crowd retaliated by throwing projectiles. The protests included a parody fashion show, with demonstrators strutting down a makeshift catwalk in the street, one wearing a black coat emblazoned with the slogan “Acab...

Action thriller Sugar Bandits will star Will Smith, while Sicario: Day Of The Soldado filmmaker Stefano Sollima will direct.

Will Smith is mere weeks away from appearing in Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, the latest chapter in an action-thriller series that has been going for almost 30 years.

Meanwhile, Smith has another action-y movie in the works. Called Sugar Bandits, it’s said to be a “big-budget action-thriller” written by Chuck Hogan, who previously wrote The Strain with Guillermo Del Toro and 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi, directed by Michael Bay.

According to Deadline, which first reported on the project, Sugar Bandits will have Smith play “a former special forces soldier who runs an elite vigilante squad working to wipe out the drug trade in Boston.”

It’ll be directed by Italian filmmaker Stefano Sollima, who has form when it comes to directing violent crime thrillers: his previous work...

“Very beautiful and very challenging.” Those are the first two words that director Stefano Sollima uses to describe his upcoming, four-part Netflix crime series Il Mostro, which has just finished filming. Created by Leonardo Fasoli and Sollima (who also co-produced with Lorenzo Mieli), and produced by The Apartment — a Fremantle company — and AlterEgo Productions, this is a series that has faced titanic challenges. Sollima is no stranger to the crime genre, having directed the so-called Romanzo Criminale (criminal Rome trilogy) — Acab (All Cops Are Bastards), Suburra and Adagio — as well as Soldado the 2018 sequel to Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, and Senza Rimorso (Without Remorse), the 2021 thriller co-written by Taylor Sheridan and based on the book by Tom Clancy. This is all in addition to being the showrunner on the seminal Italian crime series Gomorra and ZeroZeroZero, his ambitious series based on Roberto Saviano’s book about the international drug trade.

50 years after its release, Bob Clark's "Black Christmas" remains one of the most chilling scary stories put to celluloid. The 1974 proto-slasher pits a group of sorority members against "Billy," an almost preternatural stranger who sputters incoherent yet disturbing sentiments at them over phone calls before hunting them down, all the while discreetly stowed away in their attic. Yet, the real horror of the film is as much the entitled men and patriarchy these young women have to deal with as the mysterious individual actively trying to murder them.

"Black Christmas" may have been released decades before "Acab" came back into the vernacular, but it embraces the same idea. The police are enragingly slow to respond to these women and their harassment complaints, with John Saxon's Lieutenant Fuller the rare competent officer who actually listens to them and soon realizes just how much immediate danger they're in. Saxon himself...

Italian genre stylist Stefano Sollima returns to his homeland to complete his thematic “Roman Trilogy” that began with his debut Acab - All Cops Are Bastards ( 2012) and continued in Suburra (2015) with the muscular and kinetic crime drama Adagio. Heavyweights Pierfrancesco Favino (The Traitor) and Tony Servillo (The Great Beauty) lead a robust cast in a timeless tale of corrupt cops and honourable crooks, set against a backdrop of political upheaval and natural disaster. The action follows Manuel (Gianmarco Franchini), a young man who lives with his elderly father, Daytona (Servillo), who is steadily losing his grasp on reality. Manuel is being manipulated by a gang of shady cops to go undercover at a secret hedonistic nightclub and take compromising photographs of...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Night time in Rome. Wildfires rage on the horizon of the vast city. A blackout strikes, and block by block, the urban landscape is plunged suddenly into darkness, illuminated only by traffic and the roaring blaze in the distance. When a city’s infrastructure fails, it feels like the visible, outward sign of dysfunction or rot. What better way to plunge the audience into “Adagio,” Stefano Sollima’s crime drama dealing with cynicism and corruption, and the repercussions of past actions, as they echo through the generations? Premiering in Competition at Venice, this is a solidly assembled yarn about the on-the-ground consequences of a moral breakdown at the heart of the state, about fiddling the books while Rome burns.

The notional protagonist is 16-year old Manuel (newcomer Gianmarco Franchini), in over his head in a world he doesn’t understand. But he’s a protagonist almost entirely moved and motivated...

Italian director Stefano Sollima, who is known in Hollywood for “Sicario: Day of the Soldado,” “Without Remorse” and TV show “Gomorrah,” is back behind camera on a contemporary Rome-set crimer titled “Adagio.”

Shooting started Sept. 5 on “Adagio” which features an ensemble cast of Italian A-listers comprising Pierfrancesco Favino (“Nostalgia”), Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”), Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”) and Adriano Giannini (“The Ties”).

“I am eager and full of enthusiasm about finally returning to depict my city after all these years. Rome has changed, and so have I,” Sollima said in a statement for Variety. He went on to describe “Adagio” as a dark story of revenge and redemption, which will be the last chapter of my Roman criminal trilogy.”

The previous two installments in this trilogy are “A.C.A.B: All Cops Are Bastards,” from 2012, and “Suburra,” from 2015, which was subsequently spun out into a Netflix TV series.

The “Adagio” story...

When I first heard that there was going to be a sequel to Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, I thought that there was no way it could be as good as the original. Well, after watching this first trailer for Sicario 2: Soldado, it looks like the movie is going to be just as badass and at least just as good as the first movie! There are some great moments in this trailer and it is certainly going to tell yet another crazy intense story.

As you'll see, Josh Brolin's CIA Agent Matt Graver is going to unleash Benicio Del Toro's Alejandro Gillick with no rules to follow this time and it looks like he's going to bring hell with him! It looks like he goes full-on Rambo in this movie! The two men find themselves once again in the middle of the escalating war against drugs along...

Denis Villeneuve's cartel thriller Sicario was fantastic, and Lionsgate put a sequel in development almost immediately after the first one hit theaters. The sequel is supposed to center more on Benicio Del Toro's mysterious character, and last we heard, the film's producers claimed Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin were also going to reprise their roles in the new movie. Now it appears that isn't the case, as Deadline reports that while Del Toro and Brolin will return, Blunt's character has been written out of the movie.

The sequel, which has been titled Soldado (while "Sicario" means "Hitman," "Soldado" means "Soldier"), will most likely be directed by Stefano Sollima, who is the front-runner for the job and is apparently close to signing on. I've never heard of him before, but Deadline says:

Sollima is the Italian director who has made a number of memorably gritty crime thrillers but is...

Whether you like it or not, a follow-up to Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario is on its way, and Deadline has learned that Italian filmmaker Stefano Sollima is in final talks to direct the sequel, titled Soldado. Sollima has helmed feature films such as Suburra and A.C.A.B., as well as the Sky Italia crime drama series Gomorra, whose second season premiered last month. Sicario scribe Taylor Sheridan is... Read More...

One of my big regrets last year was not seeing Sicario. Everyone I know who saw it basically said, "You must see Sicario!!" and...I never found the time to do that. Now comes word that there's an anticipated follow-up for the film, and I'm even more intrigued.

Lower budget, indie-type films don't typically go the sequel route. They're not big budget tentpole franchises with merchandise and licensing deals, so- more often than not- when a film like Sicario gets a sequel, it's because the filmmakers actually have more to say. Isn't that a refreshing thought?

Deadline is reporting that Soldado has found its director, and that man is Stefano Sollima. The Italian director is best known for directing gritty crime thrillers, and his big credits are the miniseries Gomorra and the film A.C.A.B. (All Cops Are Bastards). He'd be directing a script written by Sicario scribe Taylor Sheridan. His...

Exclusive: Film to market premiere at Toronto.

Paris-based Indie Sales has secured sales on Stefano Sollima’s Rome-set organised crime thriller Suburra.

The film has sold to Benelux (Lumiere), Germany and Austria (Koch Films) and Switzerland (Praesens Films).

Sollima previously directed most of the episodes of hit TV series Gomorrah, which sold to more than 100 territories including the Us, where it was acquired by The Weinstein Company.

Other credits include the 2012 film A.C.A.B., about a squad of riot police in Rome, and TV series Romanzo Criminale.

Indie Sales, which will market premiere the high-octane Suburra at a private screening today (Sept 12), is also reporting strong interest from Australia and the UK.

“Stefano Sollima is an amazing director and the actors are great” said Indie Sales chief Nicolas Eschbach.

The film is based on a novel of the same name by Giancarlo De Cataldo and Carlo Bonini, painting a nebulous web of corruption interlinking politicians, the Vatican...

Just because Pierce Brosnan has signed on to star in a film called I.T. doesn’t mean you can all break out the “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” gags. But the idea of a computer technician causing trouble is at the core of the film, which Stefano Sollima is set to direct.Brosnan is set to play successful book publisher who somehow manages to annoy a young, disgruntled I.T. consultant. Naturally, because his nemesis is tech savvy, he decides to threaten Brosnan’s life, family and income. By, we’re guessing, deleting all his bookmarks. The swine!Dan Kay wrote the script, working from an idea by producer David T. Friendly, and it all sounds a little bit like an updated version of The Net with Brosnan in the Sandra Bullock role (only less skilled). We sort of wish they'd cast Chris O’Dowd or Richard Ayoade as the vengeful compu-type,...

Every office needs its I.T. person. He or she is always there to lend a hand or suggest that you try turning your computer off and then back on again. But if that friendly neighborhood I.T. consultant had a grudge against you? And ruined your career while threatening your family? Well, in that case the only option would be to wreak bloody revenge against him. And that’s just what Pierce Brosnan will be doing in the upcoming I.T. Billed as a revenge thriller by Deadline, Brosnan will play a book publisher forced to contend with a “disgruntled I.T. consultant” hellbent on destroying his life and livelihood. Who knows to what extent an I.T. person can really destroy one’s entire life, but perhaps all it takes is a few missed memos and server shutdowns for Brosnan to desire the type of full-scale vengeance only a revenge thriller can provide. And...

Exclusive: Pierce Brosnan is set to star in I.T., a revenge thriller that Stefano Sollima will direct. Voltage Pictures is financing. Brosnan will play a successful book publisher who finds himself pitted against a young disgruntled I.T. consultant who is tech savvy and uses that to threaten the author’s family and livelihood. Sollima hails from Italy, where he helmed the film A.C.A.B.: All Cops Are Bastards, and the upcoming SkyItalia miniseries Gomorra. I.T. will be produced by David T. Friendly, Craig Flores, Nicolas Chartier and Beau St. Clair, the latter of whom is Brosnan’s producing partner in Irish DreamTime. Dan Kay wrote the script based on an idea by Friendly through his Friendly Films banner. They are now casting the antagonist role, and aiming for a 2014 start date. Voltage, which most recently backed the Joseph Gordon-Levitt-directed Don Jon, is out securing a domestic studio partner and will...