The Little Things (2021)

The Little Things is the kind of slow-burn crime thriller that sinks in under your skin, less interested in flashy twists than in the quiet, corrosive weight of obsession. Denzel Washington gives Joe “Deke” Deacon a weary gravity you can feel in every glance, while Rami Malek plays his driven counterpart with a tight, coiled intensity—and Jared Leto brings a needling, unpredictable menace that keeps every scene humming with unease. John Lee Hancock stages Los Angeles like a smudged neon nightmare, all late-night diners and shadowy streets, where the suspense comes from what you suspect rather than what you’re shown. It’s grim, talky, and morally unsettled—so if you want clean answers and a brisk pace, it may not be your ride—but if you like noir-tinged thrillers that linger on character and atmosphere, it’s an absorbing watch.

The Little Things wants to be a moody, old-school serial-killer procedural about obsession, guilt, and the damage a case can do to the people chasing it. The problem is it often feels like a familiar greatest-hits mix of genre clichés, with deliberate pacing that can read as slow rather than tense, and an ending that’s more deliberately unresolved than satisfying. Denzel Washington brings weary gravitas and Jared Leto is enjoyably unsettling, but the film still manages to underuse its stacked cast and lean hard on atmosphere instead of momentum. If you’re expecting a sharp, twisty mystery with a clean payoff, this will likely frustrate you; if you’re okay with a grim character study that leaves you sitting in discomfort, it may land better.