Spenser Confidential is a 2020 American action comedy film[1] directed by Peter Berg, with a screenplay written by Sean O'Keefe and Brian Helgeland, and based on characters created by Robert B. Parker.

Boston police Sergeant Spenser is jailed after pleading guilty to assaulting Captain John Boylan, who he suspected to be involved in the murder of Gloria Weisnewski, a family friend who protested gentrification.

Hawk catches the license plate number of the car and traces it to Charles "Tracksuit Charlie" Bentwood, a mercenary hired to intimidate Gloria.

Spenser extorts information from an inmate named Squeeb about Wonderland Greyhound Park, learning that it is the site of a future casino that Driscoll and drug gangs wish to invest in.

Spenser and Hawk are declared heroes, the casino project is shut down, Boylan and Bentwood are charged in Weisnewski's murder, and Driscoll is convicted and sent to prison.

A TV news report shows Boston Fire Department Chief Marty Foley being arrested over charges of arson.

[3] During the autumn of 2018, Winston Duke,[4] Post Malone, Alan Arkin, Iliza Shlesinger, Bokeem Woodbine, James DuMont, Marc Maron Michael Gaston, and Colleen Camp joined the cast of the film.

[2] At a meeting in April 2020 discussing first quarter business data, Netflix reported 85 million households watched the film over its first six weeks of release.

The site's critics consensus reads: "While the buddy cops at the center of Spenser Confidential are plenty affable, the comedy never arrives as this half-hearted vehicle goes purely through the motions.

[14] Elisabeth Vincentelli of the New York Times criticized the film's deviation from its source material, observing that there was "almost no resemblance to the Ace Atkins novel Robert B. Parker's Wonderland ... aside from the Boston location, the main characters’ names and something or other about an abandoned dog-racing track.

"[15] Daniel Woburn of the online entertainment news website Screen Rant elaborated further on this disparity, noting many differences in characterization from the series as a whole and calling out the plot, in particular, as deviating heavily from the original novel with the biggest common thread between them being the finale at the race track.