Chewers' 100 Best Neo-Noirs of All Time - Page 3

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Spider 

Christ, you try to contribute...

 

I kid, but I'm seriously puzzled by the dislike for Sin City. I was under the impression it was fairly well-liked here.

I really like Marv's story and parts of That Yellow Bastard, but The Big Fat Kill is just fucking awful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin Blank 

Been meaning to watch Running Scared for years. Is it as bugfuck-in-a-good-way as I've been led to believe?

Oh my, yes. You have to see the part where Vera Farmiga confronts the pedophile child killers

82. Breathless (1983) d. Jim McBride

I love this movie for the manic Richard Gere performance, and the audacity of McBride for trying to one up Jean- Luc Godard's movie loving (Noir influenced) New Wave classic.

Here's a great AV Club write up:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/breathless,59916/ 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cameron Hughes 

I really like Marv's story and parts of That Yellow Bastard, but The Big Fat Kill is just fucking awful.

Ah, I see. Arguably, though, shouldn't it still count as a Neo-Noir given its tone, style, and dialogue?

Sin City's completely Neo-Noir, it's just not BEST neo-noir.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Spider 

 

Ah, I see. Arguably, though, shouldn't it still count as a Neo-Noir given its tone, style, and dialogue?

I'm not arguing what it is, just the quality.

83)

My favorite Ramis movie with a great script by Richard Russo adapted well from Scott Phillips's excellent novel. Cusack, a mob lawyer, Thornton, a crooked businessman, have stolen 2 million of the local mob's money. Paranoid, violent, and often really funny with a perfectly pitch black sense of humor and great  seedy winter Christmas-time atmosphere

84.

1981                         dir. Jean-Jacques Beineix

New Wave meets Noir in this film about an opera fan who accidentally records evidence that could expose a corrupt policeman's involvement with the mob. Pursued by gangsters through the streets of Paris, he finds refuge with an eccentric bohemian couple & together, they hatch a plot to turn the policeman & gangsters against each other.

The film is probably best known for it's incredible soundtrack, which is a mix of opera, plaintive piano pieces, & ambient music.

85)

Perfect Blue hss a mystery setting, murder cases, the main character is being hunted and there's no apparent suspect, keeping the story on the edge. It also deals with amnesia, flashbacks, uncertainties on the truth of one's memories.  It's not set in the US, or the prohibition period either, but in today's Japan and with pop idols. A great anime from Satoshi Kon.

86.  'Something Wild'.

Think about it.  Think about how it takes a wild turn once Liotta enters the picture.  Think about how the third act goes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas Booth 

86.  'Something Wild'.

 

Think about it.  Think about how it takes a wild turn once Liotta enters the picture.  Think about how the third act goes.

This is an interesting and good pick.

I've edited my pick of number 73, changing it from Inland Empire to Mulholland Drive, which was what I meant to put in the first place. IE could still fit here, but MD is far more noir-ish, especially visually.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Z.Vasquez 

I've edited my pick of number 73, changing it from Inland Empire to Mulholland Drive, which was what I meant to put in the first place. IE could still fit here, but MD is far more noir-ish, especially visually.

It's too bad we can't do TV series, because Twin Peaks is a great neo-noir. Same with Shawn Ryan's Terriers.

87. The Big Easy (1987) d. Jim McBride

A sexy as Hell Noir thriller starring Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin, who have absolutely combustable chemistry. Corruption of N.O. police force is such a great backdrop for an 80's Noir, and McBride deftly delivers brilliant character work with genre thrills. One of my favorite films of the decade.

88)

Lumet's last film is a major triumph and an amazing film to end a career on. It's about two brothers, Ethan Hawke and Phillip Seymour Hoffman who decide to rob their parents jewelry store, figuring that no one will get hurt. Hoffman is terrific and terrifying in this, his evil is so banal.

89. Dead Man's Shoes

2004                                                                  dir. Shane Meadows

Get Carter in concept, Taxi Driver in execution. This brilliant & stylistically twisted noir thriller features Paddy Considine as a British soldier who returns to his Midlands hometown to seek revenge on the locals who've been abusing his mentally handicapped brother. The film kind of expands & retracts into it's stylistic trappings, playing itself as a docudrama one minute & a hyperreal noir fantasy the next. A great, great film.

90)

A covered up killing. Done by cops. A small town, partially deaf and over-weight, sherrif looks into it. Stallone's best role and movie since Rocky, with a killer cast with the likes of Ray Liotta, De Niro, and Harvey Keitel and others.

91)

If Heat can make the list, this should. Funny as hell, but not afraid to get dark or poignant. A killer cast knocks it out of the park. Jack Nicholson is terrifying in this and Mark Wahlberg has never been better.

92) Red Riding Trilogy

Going by the same logic as above, if The Departed is Neo-Noir, so are these movies. Masterly crafted and they all look better than many major motion pictures. Dark, grimy, and just lovely. 

"This is the North. We do what we want."

93) Collateral

It works for me, maybe it doesn't work for some of you. Making Tom Cruise seem even a touch badass is a hard sell, to me personally, and it's no surprise Michael Mann handles his business.

94) True Romance

Great cast, great flick and I think it fits into the whole, boy meets girl, boy sets out on a pretty ridiculous downward spiral all in the name of love.

If these are already on the list, I apologize.

EDIT: And on the whole Sin City thing. I can't agree more that the Big Fat Kill is horrible but the intro with Josh Hartnett and Mickey Rourke's run in the Hard Goodbye make up for the rest of it, IMO.

95.

1991                          dir. Tony Scott

This is the '90s. You can't just walk up and slap a guy, you have to say something cool first.

Shane Black's Chandler-esque action escapade. It saved Bruce Willis' career post-Hudson Hawk.

96)

97)

Tarantino was already writing and making movies that were very Leonard, so it was a no-brainer that he would adapt a book from the master. It's Tarantino's smallest and most mature movie, with a romance at it's center as people chase and die for  a whole bunch of money. Jackie Brown is a great noir heroine.

98. Against All Odds (1984) d. Taylor Hackford

Talk about adacity - how about a remake of what many consider to be the greatest Noir of all time, OUT OF THE PAST? However, thanks to a never sexier Jeff Bridges (in a comeback role), the always sexy Rachel Ward, and an in sleaze mode James Woods the movie works. It has a great ending, and a theme song that almost redeams Phil Collins.

Speaking of Jeff Bridges:

99) Cutter's Way

A forgotten gem from the early eighties wherein beach bum bridges teams up with his alcoholic, disfigured Nam vet buddy (John Heard) to blackmail a local scion who they suspect of murder. A very flawed movie, but often times powerful, chilling and funny. Heard's never been better. Similarities to The Big Lebowski have been made before, but if you haven't seen this, they make one trippy double feature.

100.

1992                             dir. Robert Altman

Can we talk about something other than Hollywood for a change? We're educated people.

Sunset Boulevard meets The Long Goodbye with a dash of Taxi Driver. The life of studio exec Tim Robbins unravels after he accidentally murders a screenwriter he believed was sending him mysterious, threatening postcards. Here, Altman & screenwriter Michael Tolkin (who directed the fascinating film The Rapture in 1991) revisit the eccentric, seamy underbelly of LA first seen in The Long Goodbye & examines the common socio-apathy of Hollywood culture with a cynical, satirical eye. A dark, funny, brilliant film.

Damn, how about honorable mentions?

101) Hard Eight

1997                                        dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

Phillip Baker Hall is kind of great in this and John C. Reilly (WTF?) isn't too shabby. They don't really have any parallels but for some reason the end kind of makes me think this is Lucky Number Slevin if LNS didn't suck. Okay it's just the whole Sydney and John X factor of who the former is to the latter.  Oh and Gwyneth Paltrow...she's alright I guess.