The MoFo Top 100 Neo-noir Countdown

For me the "maybes" (and again I have maybes on my list) are when you ask yourself: What type of film is ____? If the first response isn't neo-noir then it's a maybe. That's fine, though. A big part of this list is what "maybes" Mofos decided to include in their Neo-Noir List.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Just gonna throw out my prediction for the top 5:

1. Taxi Driver
2. Chinatown
3. Blade Runner
4. L.A. Confidential
5. The Long Goodbye

I hope I'm wrong though. That's definitely not the order I want them to be in.

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And yeah we can keep it positive. Instead of my term "maybes" which rolls off the tongue too well we can just refer to them as noirish.

While we debate about all of this, maybe you want to play a little Seven crossword puzzle...

SE7EN Deadly Sins (1995 Movie) Crossword

There are a couple of questions that I thought were a bit iffy, but have fun with it!

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So we've reached the "did not make it" reveal stage.

We've been there since we entered the Top 10.

I dunno, I've got 3 definite for the Noir, and 3 definite for the Neo Noir. That's 4 total left I'm drawing a blank. I wonder if anyone has revealed a " didn't make it" choice that ACTUALLY made it.

Top Five Prediction

1. Chinatown
2. Blade Runner
3. Taxi Driver
4. The Long Goodbye
5. L.A. Confidential

Three are from the 1970s. Four of them are set in Los Angeles. Four of them are still on my ballot.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

For sure. Unfortunately Neo Noir is too subjective a term. We could have spent eight months confirming or nixing eligibility until we had a list of three or four hundred titles, but truth is even then there would still be the perspective of well-that's-not-Noir-enough-for-ME. I love the decade lists because it eliminates this problem, but all genres are going to be tricky especially when there are movies that are designed as hybrids.

I'm far from an expert on noir, but aren't lots of them already pretty heavy on procedure?

It's nice to realize a movie as weird as Long Goodbye likely makes the top five.

Top 5 Prediction

1. Chinatown
2. Blade Runner
3. Taxi Driver
4. L.A. Confidential
5. The Long Goodbye

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AWARDS?


Seven received several awards and nominations. These are some of the most notable:

• Seven (7) Saturn Award nominations, including a win for Best Writing (Andrew Kevin Walker)
• Four (4) MTV Movie Award nominations, including a win for Best Movie
• Two (2) Empire Awards for Best Film and Best Actor (Morgan Freeman)
• One (1) Academy Award nomination for Best Editing (Richard Francis-Bruce)
• One (1) BAFTA Film Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay (Walker)

I just went with my gut in choosing what I viewed as neo noir and what wasn't. I can't explain why I left off Silence of the Lambs but voted for Se7en, but that's what I did.

1. Killer Joe (#66)
3. Gone Baby Gone (#64)
4. The Player (#47)
5. Se7en (#6)
6. The Usual Suspects (#20)
7. Body Heat (#22)
9. Mona Lisa (#78)
10. High and Low (#19)
11. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (#62)
12. Body Double (#69)
14. Blow Out (#17)
15. The Driver (#79)
16. Blood Simple (#9)
17. Night Moves (#40)
19. Drive (#14)
21. Manhunter (#77)
22. Sin City (#26)
23. Blue Velvet (#13)
24. Bound (#

My predictions for top 5 order (I like that we all are just in agreement as to what the top 5 are):

1. Chinatown
2. L.A. Confidential
3. Taxi Driver
4. Blade Runner
5. The Long Goodbye

Stats: Pit Stop #10

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After hitting our tenth pit stop (95), here's were we are now:

Decade Breakdown

• 1960s = 13
• 1970s = 12
• 1980s = 11
• 1990s = 29
• 2000s = 17
• 2010s = 13
• 2020s = 0

As expected, the 1990s get ready to take this race, although there was a strong showing from the 2000s.


Recurring Directors

• Coen Brothers = 6
• David Fincher = 4
• David Lynch = 4
• Michael Mann = 4
• Christopher Nolan = 3
• Quentin Tarantino = 3
• William Friedkin = 3
• Jean-Pierre Melville = 2
• Brian de Palma = 2
• Bong Joon-ho = 2
• Shane Black = 2
• Martin Scorsese = 2

The Coen brothers continue their dominance with 6 entries total, while Lynch and Fincher join the 4-entries group. Nolan gets his third one, and Melville joins the group with 2.

Ok, gonna start gathering these until the reveal tomorrow. Let's see who hits and who misses

Top 5 prediction:

1. Taxi Driver
2. Chinatown
3. Blade Runner
4. The Long Goodbye
5. L.A. Confidential

7. Le Samouraļ - If I'd have voted for Le Samouraļ then there's a chance that Se7en would have actually come in 7th spot, so sorry for that. Anyway, I've seen this once but feel like I need to see it again for it to have a firm place on my overall rankings - it is a great film, but there was so much more I needed to be steeped in before watching it. Jean-Pierre Melville's films especially. I must say though, in the interim I have become a fan of Alain Delon, and he's great here. This is one that's unique in so many great ways - and as time passes I might see it as more and more unreasonable that I didn't have it on my ballot.

6. Se7en - This one has been a personal favourite for over a quarter of a century - never mind that it's so bleak, and dark, and horrific. Never mind that it has the ending that completely stunned most people who saw it. What I love is that teaming of Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in ceaseless rain, chasing a serial killer who is a madman with a fervent, sharply intelligent but completely unhinged purpose. The murders are grotesque, and the way we relive them (as the detectives puzzle over what happened) makes us recoil, even though it's better than having to see them occur. Most of all though, this finds that tiny spark of light in a final quote - and that's what strikes me the most out of all the times I've seen it. That beautiful final quote. Brilliant film - words can't do it justice. I had it at #5 on my ballot.

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Seen : 70/95
I'd never even heard of : 9/95
Movies that had been on my radar, but I haven't seen yet : 16/95
Films from my list : 16 + 1

#6 - My #5 - Se7en (1995)
#8 - My #4 - Memento (2000)
#12 - My #10 - No Country For Old Men (2007)
#13 - My #7 - Blue Velvet (1986)
#14 - My #15 - Drive (2011)
#15 - My #6 - Miller's Crossing (1990)
#16 - My #2 - Reservoir Dogs (1992)
#17 - My #22 - Blow Out (1981)
#21 - My #13 - Nightcrawler (2014)
#27 - My #24 - The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
#28 - My #1 - The Conversation (1974)
#30 - My #23 - Zodiac (2007)
#42 - My #19 - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
#44 - My #21 - Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
#52 - My #11 - Oldboy (2003)
#81 - My #17 - Brick (2005)
#106 - My #16 - Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

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1. Chinatown
2. Blade Runner
3. L.A. Confidential
4. Taxi Driver
5. The Long Goodbye