The MoFo Top 100 Neo-noir Countdown

TRAILERS



The Friends of Eddie Coyle - After his last crime has him looking at a long prison sentence for repeat offenses, a low level Boston gangster decides to snitch on his friends to avoid jail time.



The American Friend - An American art forger in Hamburg decides to take part in a murder plot for extra cash and involves a picture framer as a hitman, but the scheme quickly goes sour.

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The Friends of Eddie Coyle is #24 on my list. Here's a short review I wrote a few years ago:

This is an enjoyably gritty '70s crime flick. The "Friends" in the title might as well be in quotations because Eddie, the kind of cool, cynical and wizened Boston gangster Robert Mitchum was born to play, is finking on them in order to avoid a lengthy jail sentence. This absence of loyalty and assurance in the criminal underworld - as well as in the law's efforts to take it down - pervade this movie in this and other ways, whether it's in the dealings of Eddie's associate Jackie Brown, a cautious to a fault gun runner wonderfully played by Steven Keats, or in the machinations of Dave Foley, an ingenious cop slyly played by Richard Jordan. However, as this movie's bank robbery scenes make clear, the jobs are all about loyalty because even the slightest deviation from the plan can result in complete disaster. Speaking of these scenes, while they were filmed with an economy and a style that is a far cry from similar scenes in movies like Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven or Affleck's The Town, they're still so tense that I forgot to breathe. These scenes do more showing than telling, but this is still a very talky movie, and while a lot of the dialogue crackles, it often comes across as long-winded. Even so, it's a flaw that only slightly affected my understanding of what was happening and my enjoyment on the whole. Besides, we should be thankful for how this and other flourishes likely influenced the works of directors such as James Gray and Quentin Tarantino.

I haven't seen The Friends of Eddie Coyle yet, but I have been meaning to for a while now. I have seen The American Friend and didn't really care for it.

Nope!

Seen both, Eddie Coyle I remember enjoying but would most likely enjoy more now that i'm familiar with Mitchum and co. American Friend probably needs a revisit as I don't remember much about it despite Wenders style being one I enjoy.

I haven't seen either, but I do like that design that Yoda and Thief did...very striking!

That's all Yoda. I just said "Nice! Love it" 😂

I like that both films coincidentally have "friend" in the title, though I've seen neither haha. Love the beautifully fitting presentation here as well! Everyone really out did themselves for these two Countdowns!

Seen: 0/2

My List:
25. The Chaser (2008) - DNP 1-pointer

The dark, rainy atmosphere of The Chaser sets the perfect tone for a gloomy revenge thriller featuring an ex-cop, missing prostitutes, and a flawed system that has let a serial killer run free for years. It's a rather brutal film, and not just in its violence either, and was on my list at #25. It didn't make the Countdown, but at least I got to shine some light on it for a brief moment.

I just now noticed that the numbers for List and Points glow and pulsate...that's way cool! @Yoda You out did yourself this time.

He deserves some credit, he threw some ideas out and made some additional suggestions after the first mockup that definitely improved it.

And yeah I'm really happy with the neon effect! It's fun.