The MoFo Top 100 Neo-noir Countdown

TRAILERS



L.A. Confidential - Three policemen, each with their own motives, obsessions, and methods, find themselves involved in a web of corruption after an unsolved murder results in the death of one of their partners.




A nice video essay on the film noir legacy of the film.

Huge fan of L.A. Confidential. One of those formative 90s films for me. Pretty much every performance is pitch-perfect, every action setpiece is neatly directed, every twist is perfectly executed. I know that it is probably widely known now, but to this day, I still think that big twist towards the last act has got to be one of the most exquisitely wicked reveals on a film. Caught me *completely* off guard. Anyway, at the time I saw it, I wasn't that familiar with noir, but now that I am, I just appreciate it more. I might have some very slight issues with the very ending/epilogue, but not enough to make a dent on it. If I made a Top 20 of favorite films of all-time, it will probably be in it. I had it at #1.


SEEN: 71/98
MY BALLOT: 22/25

We award you the Medal of MoFoNor!



You two just have to decide who gets the world, and who gets the ex-hooker and the trip to Arizona.

List facts!



L.A. Confidential's 99% RT score is tied for the second highest, along with one of the next two picks.

Also, the 33-point gap between L.A. Confidential and Taxi Driver will be the third highest from the countdown.

L.A. Confidential was #8 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1990s.

L.A. Confidential is fantastic and I had it at number 12 on my ballot.

Seen: 85/98

The majority of Neo-Noirs over the decades and into today lean on the tropes, style, and themes but update them to a more modern setting. Others take the path of keeping the ‘40s and ‘50s backdrop and making period pieces with updated aesthetics, details, language, and violence that would never have been allowed even in the cheapest Poverty Row production, but still with those pretty old cars and hats. When done poorly or anchored to a weak story, that period stuff can either overwhelm the drama or be done too cheaply to really come off. But when it is done well you get Chinatown and L.A. Confidential.

L.A. Confidential had a lot to live up to. Pared down from James Ellroy’s dense, sprawling novel, we follow three cops – Guy Pearce’s by-the-book political animal Edmund Exley, Russell Crowe’s obedient thug Bud White, and Kevin Spacey’s fame-hungry Jack Vincennes who will do nearly anything for a buck – who wind up entangled together in a dark, complicated plot involving drugs, murder, prostitutes, and corrupt authorities hiding in plain sight in the rotten crevices of sunny ‘50s Los Angeles. There are some touchstones from the city’s history, like real-life gangsters Mickey Cohen and Johnny Stompanato who was infamously involved with movie star Lana Turner, but mostly it is a pastiche of various types of scandals and conspiracy theories to give a sense of the levels of criminality of the era.



Curtis Hanson & Brian Helgeland managed to narrow the focus enough to keep a throughline that is engaging and character-driven but also keep plenty of the feeling that absolutely everything is corrupt. We do get a bit of a happy ending, but only after they embrace the hopelessness of somehow righting all the wrongs in the world. That kind of heroism may be unrealistic and naive, but using the system against itself you may be able to carve out a few victories (at least one, at the abandoned Victory Motel).

I had L.A. Confidential twentieth on my ballot. That leaves my last two for tomorrow.

HOLDEN'S BALLOT
2. The Long Goodbye (#5)
4. Night Moves (#40)
5. High & Low (#19)
6. Nightcrawler (#21)
7. The Grifters (#45)
8. One False Move (#73)
9. Blast of Silence (#48)
10. After Dark, My Sweet (DNP)
11. Blow Out (#17)
12. To Live & Die in L.A. (#43)
13. The Naked Kiss (#51)
14. Angel Heart (#31)
15. Shallow Grave (#95)
16. The Yakuza (DNP)
17. Dead Again (#90)
18. The Silent Partner (DNP)
19. The Limey (DNP)
20. L.A. Confidential (#3)
21. Drive (#14)
22. The Hot Spot (#85)
23. Charley Varrick (DNP)
24. Blue Ruin (#82)
25. Johnny Handsome (DNP)

This has got to be one of my favorite shots ever. Not only because of the framing, blocking, etc. but also because of the implications that are foreshadowed in one of the first scenes of the film; the three questions that Dudley asks Exley. It's such a neatly written throughline that cuts right through the character of Exley and into the whole thesis of the film which Holden mentioned above, that absolutely everything is corrupt.

Damn. I was really hoping this wouldn’t show today but can’t complain about #3.

L.A. Confidential is a movie that I think is great every time I watch it, but I’ve never really considered it a favorite. I actually like it a little less than some of the movies I placed below it, but it is undeniably great and is such a quintessential Neo-Noir that I felt it deserved its place on my ballot at #6.




My Ballot:
1. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (#35)
2. You Were Never Really Here (#50)
3. The Man From Nowhere (#87)
4. The Departed (#53)
5. The Big Lebowski (#38)
6. L.A. Confidential (#3)
7. True Romance (#60)
8. Zodiac (#30)
9. Se7en (#6)
10. Won't Show
11. Drive (#14)
12. Shutter Island (#86)
13. The Nice Guys (#39)
14. Inherent Vice (#41)
15. Gone Girl (#34)
16. Pulp Fiction (#37)
17. Killer Joe (#66)
18. Memento (#8)
19. The Long Goodbye (#5)
20. Won't Show
21. Dark City (#24)
22. Nightcrawler (#21)
23. Won't Show
24. Won't Show
25. Won't Show

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L.A Confidential was #4 for me. Excellent film.

L.A. Confidential is also my #3. Here's something I wrote about it a few years ago.

Is it a spoiler to say it has the most shocking moment I've ever seen in a movie? I hope not. Anyway, if there's a more shocking one, I'd like to see it.

How about that one that I've seen and voted for. I had L.A. Confidential (1997) at #16 Big fan of Kevin Spacey back in the day and the rest of the cast was solid too.

I had L.A. Confidential at #12, just cracking the top half of my ballot. This is one of the films that I slid around to various slots as I put my ballot together, with it getting as far up as #6 at one point, but ultimately, after a recent re-watch, I had to ask myself if it was truly better than films like Angel Heart and Miller's Crossing, and I couldn't in good faith put it above them.

Still, what a film! It nails the period pretty much perfectly, and the screenplay is really strong, even if it's a bit of a cop out tonally at the end. Some great sequences throughout, and if I recall, this film was a huge help in sending up the stars of both Russell Crowe and Guy Pierce.



I also really enjoy Danny DeVito's character as he provides an old school voice over while also managing to get himself hopelessly caught up in the machinations of the complex plot. He adds a really fun dimension to the film and is always a pleasure to watch.



Top 3? That's a tad high for my taste, and I especially think Taxi Driver should have held its slot, but the MoFos have spoken!

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L.A. Confidential just doesn't click with me, and I'm not sure why. It's a beautiful film, with great performances. Part of it is I really don't like Russell Crowe's character. Or any of his other performances, really. Not a fan.


In retrospect this should've made it somewhere on my list. Another film that should've elbowed Under the Silver Lake off the chart.

My #17 L.A. Confidential (1997).

Looks like old Harry Lime is going to be the winner. Although we won't know until the finale. I had L.A. Confidential at #11. Great film with a standout cast and an obvious answer to someone who asks what's a prime example of neo-noir.

3. Blue Velvet (1986)
4. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
5. High and Low (1963)
6. Le Samouraï (1967)
7. Blood Simple (1984)
8. Mulholland Drive (2001)
9. The Long Goodbye (1973)
10. Alphaville (1965)
11. L.A. Confidential (1997)
12. Taxi Driver (1976)
13. The Conversation (1974)
14. Zodiac (2007)
15. Memories of Murder (2003)
17. Fireworks (1997)
18. Pale Flower (1964)
19. The Grifters (1990)
20. Inherent Vice (2014)
22. The American Friend (1977)
24. Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
25. Série noire (1979) - One pointer

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