The Departed (2006)

Boston has two moles, one overworked psychiatrist and a vocabulary we absolutely cannot print on a site kids read. Scorsese turns that setup into 151 minutes of two guys sweating through the same phone call from opposite ends. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Billy like a nerve ending in a hoodie, and Matt Damon’s Colin is the smuggest guy who ever got promoted. Jack Nicholson is the problem. He goes so big as Costello that he sometimes seems to be starring in a different, weirder movie. And the plot asks you to believe both moles end up with the same shrink, a coincidence the size of the Charles River. Mark Wahlberg, meanwhile, insults everybody in the building and steals every scene he’s in. The tension never lets go, and 1.58 million IMDb ratings average an 8.5, which sounds right. An 8.6 because it’s a stacked cast in a pressure cooker and the cooker never cools down. $427 says you start suspecting someone in your group chat is a mole.

What works: Every scene is wound tight, DiCaprio and Damon mirror each other perfectly, and Mark Wahlberg’s sergeant turns rudeness into an art form.

What doesn’t: Jack Nicholson goes so big he sometimes breaks the spell, and the shared psychiatrist plot is a coincidence the story leans on way too hard.

Who it’s for: Crime fans who love a game of cat and mouse where both sides are the mouse.