Neo-Noir Hall of Fame

Going to start this up this week

Body Heat -

Of all the neo-noirs, this is the noirest. But seriously, this is one of the most effusive love letters to a genre I've ever seen. That the movie has a femme fatale rivaling the best ones in the genre's original run has a lot to do with it, and now that I know it's a debut, it has to be one of the most impressive ones of all time. With her grace, confidence and that voice, Kathleen Turner makes Matty irresistible and her duplicity cut deep in equal measure. Both are all but enhanced by William Hurt, whose chemistry with her made me feel the heat as much as they do. Speaking of him, I like the ways he makes Ned seem like he's not as smart as he thinks he is and a guy who has given up trying to control his base impulses. The moments where he spots Matty at the concert and "lets himself in" to her house gave me jolts of adrenalin. There's also Danson and Rourke, but I don't want to say too much more about the performances because good acting is not all the movie has going for it. I love that at every moment, you can feel the heat - literally and figuratively - and I’m a big fan of Kasdan's witty dialogue and visual flair. The moments when we see Ned reflected on the car window or when Matty's dress makes her glow in the dark could best be described as cinephile pay dirt.

This movie successfully argues that in a man's world, a femme fatale could get anything she wanted if she’s willing to go that far - if you know what I mean - to get it. It is, however, very important to have a good exit strategy. With its performances, atmosphere you can cut with a knife and for never not being entertaining, this movie is as good a gateway movie as any to the noir and neo-noir genres. In other words, a fan of either need not be led by the…never mind to watch this.

Tightrope

As much as I typically enjoy Clint Eastwood movies, I gotta say I was kinda disappointed in this one. I was starting to like the charisma between the characters in the first half-hour, but they never evolved beyond that in the next 80 minutes. It kinda makes a grand appearance by Clint Eastwood of all people feel redundant. On top of that, damn was the plot slow. Anything interesting that contributed to the case felt sparse and lacking in any real thrills. Sure, there were some pretty well put-together moments, but as a whole it needed thirty minutes cut out and thirty minutes of plotting. For the most part I liked the jazzy music. Apparently, it was done by a man who had been doing "cool jazz" albums since the 50's, and as a fan of Bill Evans and Miles Davis, especially as a fan of the Taxi Driver soundtrack, I can get behind that. But sometimes it felt inappropriate. A fight scene had slower music that sounded exactly like something in a build-up scene in a 70's tv slasher. As a guy who watched a lot of cop shows in my early teens, I was really hoping for a lot more. I really wanted more out of Clint Eastwood, and since I'm on a Cheers binge, I wanted more out of Dan Hedeya, too. I was really excited for his part when I saw his name in the opening credits, as I had just watched the episode where his Cheers character Nick tries to charm Carla into giving up custody of her oldest kid. But this didn't do either actor any justice, no cop pun intended. One more little note: that girl isn't her, but she looks A LOT like Heather O'Rourke.

Wow, a lot of activity all of a sudden! Nice. I just updated the first post.

__________________

I still need to write my review, but I really enjoyed this. I can see your Coen reference in how the film manages to walk that fine line between being quirky and slightly disturbing, It was a good one.

This is one I'm looking forward to revisit, mostly because it's been since its release that I last watched it. I wonder how it would fare now.

I’ll have a review of Sin City soon. Rented Body Heat and Nightcrawler, so I’ll be watching those soon, followed by La Haine and Tightrope.

La Haine

Sop three things about this movie are done masterfully. First, these actors are so convincing that I got scared of them on multiple occasions. Their fights felt so real that it was difficult to want to stand in the same room or even twenty feet as any of them. Secondly, the visual aspects is flawless. This is some of the finest cinematography I've seen from the 90's. And third and finally, the impact hits like a football dogpile. So there's clear cause for the reception this movie gets towards foreign film explorers. However, there are two problems. This movie is a product of a dead French scene known as "cinema du look." This was a movement that featured minimal substance, and unfortunately this shows. See, I don't care what a "movement" says. On second nature I was comparing this to other hood films like Do the Right Thing which had much more substance. The point of this movie is the bitterness of the surroundings, which come on effectively, but so strong that it drowns out any chance of the characters either differing from each other or evolving.

One more thing, I really don't see how this is noir in anyway, shape or form. It's dark and crime related, but it doesn't have that noirish presence or any of the storytelling rules. It's mostly just bitter.

I picked this one based on these websites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...neo-noir_films
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113247...ef_=tt_stry_kw

If enough people who've seen it don't think it's an actual neo-noir, I'm happy to pick another movie. It's late in the game, but only two of us have watched it so far.

It is actually referenced as noir/neo-noir in several articles:

La haine and after: Arts, Politics, and the Banlieue

La Haine: jusqu’ici tout va bien?

I haven't seen it yet, so I can't argue much, but the flavor seems to be there to a certain degree.

Cool. Good finds. You just don't want to be "that guy" who doesn't follow the rules.

Regardless, it is eligible according to our eligibility rules, which you listed, so you're "following the rules". Just illustrating with the links that seeing the film as "neo-noir" is not something isolated or rare.

Sin City

A comic book adaptation brought to life visually by Robert Rodriguez as an anthology film, SC portrays a city overrun by corruption. All 3 stories, bookended by a short prologue and epilogue of sorts, feature just how corrupt the city is and just how violent. It’s sort of like if NYC and Gotham combined without Spiderman or Batman to preotect its civilians.

That’s not to say there aren’t heroes. Sort of. More like anti heroes caught up in circumstances that necessitated their involvement.

The first story is about a detective (Bruce Willis) freeing a young girl from a kidnapper that turns into a two parter, bridging two other stories.

A second features a mountain of a man (a career resurgence for Mickey Rourke) waking up next to a dead hooker and thrust into a mystery surrounding her death. To me, the best of the stories.

The third features a man (Clive Owen) protecting his ex (Britney Murphy) from her abusive boyfriend (Benicio Del Toro) who has his own surprise.

Each story becomes more complex and is shot in black and white with the occasional splash of color.

Not much to say here, it’s decent, fun to re watch even, but it isn’t anything that stands out as remarkable to me.

Hooray! Wyldesyde's on the board.

I'm halfway through Tightrope myself, but I don't think I'll be able to finish it tonight. It'll be tomorrow. I also need to write something on Shallow Grave, which I saw a couple of weeks ago. I'm way behind on my reviews.

Let's cut straight to it - Jake Gyllenhaal plays a great sociopath in Nightcrawler : a person who consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others, as the dictionary definition goes. That kind of character fits in very neatly with tabloid journalism - the media phenomenon which seems itself a metaphor for sociopathy. What's great in this film is that Gyllenhaal's character, Louis Bloom, takes his role as a stringer one step further and starts influencing the stories he's capturing for news station KWLA 6. At first it's shifting photographs to blend in with bullet holes, then it's moving bodies - finally, he's orchestrating shootouts with police and desperados. That's going a step beyond being an unfazed spectator - which is where being a complete sociopath usually leads. His methods are a comment on sensationalist shock tabloid reporting itself, and that along with the fact that this is a near-flawless film makes it a modern classic.

Bloom starts out a thief and crook, always on the lookout for what pays - and when he accidentally stumbles on some nightcrawlers filming footage of a burning car wreck he discovers something he never knew about, which in turn equates to cash. A few good shots of an accident, good coverage of a crime scene and an interview make up a decent night's wages. Bloom's character is that of a determined learner - and he's relentless in his goal of becoming an efficient and talented photojournalist. He develops a professional relationship with news director Nina Romina (Rene Russo) and hires a navigator and assistant - Rick (Riz Ahmed) - whom he pays a paltry $35 per night. When the competition, Joe Loder (Bill Paxton) muscles in, Bloom deals with him in a cold and calculating way. His unethical methods eventually draw the attention of a couple of police detectives - but Bloom pushes on regardless into the blackest of black nights, a master of manipulation and very dangerous man to cross.

Man, I love Gyllenhaal in this - his performance creeps me out every time I see it. Those dead eyes, a key to an expression that never once exhibits warmth, understanding or empathy. He's like a cold, calculating snake who stiffens when he hears criticism - and although he never strikes you can feel the icy rage under the surface. Louis Bloom has no qualms at all with murder, and his go-to method of seduction is blackmail - perfect for the character. Gyllenhaal was nominated for many awards - including a BAFTA and Golden Globe. It's certainly surprising that he wasn't nominated for an Oscar. The only Oscar nomination the film garnered was for Best Original Screenplay - Dan Gilroy's cutting jab at tabloid journalism deserved at least that. 2014 was a massive year for films though, with the field including Boyhood, Foxcatcher, The Grand Budapest Hotel and the eventual winner Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) - five better movies I'd be hard-pressed to find in any category for any year.

The night setting is obviously perfect for the story, and influenced by the night photography of Weegee (Arthur Fellig), whose New York shots often included the grisly aftermath of violence or tragedy, sometimes particularly bad automobile accidents - you could call him one of the original nightcrawlers, as he'd sell his shots to tabloid newspapers. Cinematographer Robert Elswit used wide-angle lenses and a large depth of field to make what we see in the film look like a wildlife documentary, accentuating the wildness of night-time Los Angeles. There's a vibrancy to it, and a lot of speed and motion - a feeling of animalistic 'survival of the fittest' amongst what we see. Capitalism at it's most pure - a Darwin-like hierarchy both in terms of life and death and in relation to competing for the finite resource of wealth and reward. The darkness doesn't feel like chilly dread, but instead is a backdrop to neon violence, predators, and the many pitfalls of life - a place to think fast and watch out.

To add to the general feel of the film, James Newton Howard wisely went the way of mood-enhancing electronica synth music - not his usual province as far as film scores go, but it works perfectly in Nightcrawler. What else really? Considering the fact the visual elements are so wedded to speed and the concrete and neon jungle of L.A., no other kind of accompaniment would do. Fascinating is what Howard did, as he explained, to "put us in Lou Bloom's mind" - for example, in the scene where Bloom moves a body to create a better shot and we're all instinctively reacting with horror and revulsion, the score instead shifts to a triumphant sounding climax - reflecting how excited the character is to experience what is to him a breakthrough and step forward in his evolutionary progress on the ladder of media success. It tells us more about him. So one of the added ambitions the score had was to try and give the audience a sense of what Bloom is going through internally during certain moments - another praiseworthy aspect of the film.

Beyond how well all of it's technical elements perform and are combined, I love Nightcrawler for being the dark, gritty, cognizant, intelligent and meaningful motion picture it is. The fact that it has artistic credibility and also an entertaining story to tell is evidenced by the fact that the distributors advertised the film in two different ways to both arthouse and mainstream audiences. It's one of those films that works both ways, and works well performance-wise, story-wise, visually and sound-wise. It's story is one that's compelling as well as shocking and sensational. It's all well and truly anchored and led up front by Jake Gyllenhaal's utter brilliance in giving us a truly disturbing glance at what someone with antisocial personality disorder looks like. Able to function well at what he does, but not someone you'd ever want to be close to. For poor Nina, it means pressure to slink down into the depths with him, tied to his success - and lack of scruples.

It's really good to see Nightcrawler hold up so well a decade after it's release. It was a standout during one of the 21st Century's better years for producing great films - but I wondered how well it would do over time. Turns out it's still as important, and if anything plays better now - a neo-noir master-work that has that special veneer of perfection about it. I think it was a little too dark to usher in more Oscar nominations, and was hurt by turning up during a particularly strong year, though I'm still surprised Gyllenhaal wasn't nominated. It does particularly well in shining a light on how this kind of gutter journalism tends to focus our attention away from what is actually important and instead fixes our gaze on the sensational and tawdry - to the detriment of everyone. As far as antiheroes go, Louis Bloom is up there with Tom Ripley, and his success in the film's narrative is the movie's crowning indictment on modern media today. I also think he's one of the freakiest, most unnerving characters I've ever seen - managing to go that far without breaking a sweat, yelling or doing anything really crazy. He breezes through the night unnoticed, and as such is a hidden danger - a quiet, insidious poison rewarded by a broken system.

__________________

[note: I hadn't meant to backup Phoenix74's review. I just happened to have written it at this time.]

Nightcrawler (2014)

This is a mesmerizing film, more of a psychological thriller rather than a neo-noir, although its focus on denizens of the night give it a certain noir darkness.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom who is introduced as a petty criminal who happens upon a car crash which is being photographed by a stringer-- a free lance photogrpher who takes live pictures of accidents or other hot news items, and sells them to news outlets.

Soon acquiring a police radio, Lou often beats the police to the scene of a crime or accident, thereby getting sensational pictures and videos. He adds an associate, Rick (Riz Ahmed), and also starts to develop an intimate relationship with the news director (Renee Russo) of the TV station he sells his vidoes to. Unfortunately Lou tends to alter the accident or crime scenes in order to make his photography more sensational, which works to increase his sales and income. Along with that Lou becomes more sociopathic, and loses any sense of morality.

View Spoilers

WARNING: spoilers below

Despite Lou’s reprehensible methods, in very un-noir like fashion, he not only remains unpunished, but in the end both thrives, flourishes and expands his business.

Despite Lou’s reprehensible methods, in very un-noir like fashion, he not only remains unpunished, but in the end both thrives, flourishes and expands his business.

The audience quickly finds itself becoming voyeuristic, tending to condemn Lou’s practices, but yet fascinated by his results. This is one of the major points of the picture, juxtaposing rank consumerism with the public’s tendency to be attracted to exploitive journalism.

There’s little to criticize in the production. Previously known for his screenwriting, Dan Gilroy (The Bourne Legacy) both wrote and directed the picture, with first rate cinematography by Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood). The score by James Newton Howard (The Dark Night) was well thought out and very effective. The film’s positive critical reception really put Gyllenhaal on the map as a top star.

Body Heat

It starts with a chance meeting. He’s obsessed within moments of meeting her. It turns into an affair and soon leads to murder. The heat from the passion they exude matched only by the heat in Florida.

Ned Racine (played charismatically with a touch of naïveté by William Hurt) soon finds himself in over his head when the affair becomes more complicated. The woman in question is a wife of some rich former attorney who seems to be involved with some unsavory people. The woman is played by Kathleen Turner, in a dramatic turn where she portrays innocence and conniving in equal measure. Richard Cremona is her husband.

The way the plot unfolds, with little details being revealed ever so slightly, is easy to follow. In some Noir, the plot can sometimes become a little convoluted. Here, Kasdan (who wrote and directed) keeps it simple yet precise. We’re never lost in what’s going on, even if some is implied rather than spelled out.

Turner and Hurt are great in this. Their chemistry is evident. But a shout out also goes to Ted Danson, as a prosecutor who likes to dance when ever he finds time. Crenna and Mickey Rourke also hit the right notes with their limited screen time.

But this film is all about Hurt and Turner. And the web each weaves as they try to avoid being ensnared. Hurt is warned about her, but ignores it. It isn’t until it’s too late when he realizes that maybe it wasn’t a chance meeting to begin with If he had been astute, he would have recognized the warning signs were there, from the moment she says:
“You aren’t very bright, are you? I like that in a man…”

Fantastic pick.

Halfway through Nightcrawler. I need to catch up.

When I think of La Haine, I think of the concrete wasteland and how Pierre Aïm's black & white photography turns everything into different shades of cement. Paris looks like one gigantic prison - for the kids who grow up there, nothing much pleases the eye. Everywhere graffiti speaks for the kids who live there in protest. There are damp tunnels, endless tenements and at the moment this film takes place uniformed police around every corner - who wouldn't want to break free? Who wouldn't resent this after a while - when your socioeconomic status means the kids who you hang out with help push drugs, and deal in stolen goods. When every so often you get picked up by the wrong cops, and are brutalized because you've been lumped with punks and hoodlums. For me the black & white of La Haine really emphasizes the concrete desolation of the poorer areas of Paris, where the unemployed and underemployed eke out a living, their kids running wild in a world where there's nothing to do but get into trouble.

The film itself deals with a day in the life of three kids : Vinz (Vincent Cassel), from a Jewish family but not devout, Hubert (Hubert Koundé), who likes boxing and trains in a gym which has just been destroyed in the latest riots, and Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui), a North African Muslim who is the glue who keeps the three together. They are friends in the sense kids generally are when they hang out together each day. During that last riot a cop lost his gun, and it was Vinz who found it. He declares that he's going to get revenge for the latest injustice done to a kid by the cops - Abdel Ichaha (Abdel Ahmed Ghili) was brutalized by the police and is in critical condition. Hubert doesn't want Vinz to throw his life away by killing a cop - and is angry at him for having those intentions. The three of them travel around in an almost aimless fashion, trying to visit Abdel in hospital, and travelling into central Paris causing trouble and having fun. Guns though, have a tendency to cause grief all by themselves - they just need fools to carry them.

It's no easy equation. I mean, there are good cops, and there are bad cops. Then there are good kids and bad kids. Do you blame the bad kids when everything goes to hell? Whose fault is it that their lives are ones of misery, crime and waste? You can certainly blame one if he sets your car on fire - but the bigger picture has the blame on those who would keep their feet on the necks of the poor, making sure economic disparity keeps money flowing upwards. In the meantime, some cops start out in an idealistic manner, until a friend gets killed or a kid hurts them - after a while they can turn. In any case, much exists in that grey area where there are no easy answers - and I think you'd find most kids are good. The really bad ones lead from the front - do the burning, and the hurting. In the midst of the fighting and the shouting - the scuffles and the arrests - the burning and the looting - a shot rings out, and down goes one of these kids. One of the ones who weren't all that bad really. Down they go - they fall to the concrete ground dying. The cop whose gun has gone off is sometimes good and sometimes bad. It's the situation that leads to this inevitable result - again and again.

La Haine has us hang out with three kids who are no angels, but are no evil psychopaths either. They're no racists, but they deal drugs and smoke dope. They are where they are in their lives almost literally because they are where they are. They live in the Paris slums. This is simply what it is like - they're products of their community, and they're products of their status. Nobody helps Hubert get somewhere boxing - he's the one who has to help his family financially, not the other way around. They don't know anything at all of what exists outside of their small world of petty crime, selling dope, shoplifting, and roaming the streets looking for something to do. They're just following in the footsteps of all the kids who went before them - and even if they really wanted a job, there's no good prospects from where they stand. They'd have to fight tooth and nail for the lowliest, dirty jobs available - and with easier ways of earning money, kids like these have their paths already marked out. There's nothing for them - and at that age boredom is something not to be tolerated.

The feeling we get from La Haine is a very energetic one - the camera moves in an almost documentary fashion, and we scurry around a lot with the kids. The soundtrack leads with Burnin' and Lootin' by Bob Marley, but it's when DJ Cut Killer gives us an onscreen diegetic mix of Edith Piaf and KRS One that the film really gives you a full-on impression of how it's using rap and reggae to produce an authentic "French dissent" sound to the film. It's a sound that infuses itself into the film and is inseparable from the visual aspect. It's the sound of controlled anger - it's a taunt and a protest aimed at the most visual manifestation of these kids' pain, and that's the police themselves. Most of the graffiti that the action nearly centers itself around alludes to the cops. It's a terrific sound though - the soundtrack driven mixture is at the forefront and really drives the point home. Really a huge part of this film - and helps to draw positives from the youth culture here, such as when our three protagonists stop to watch some talented dancers perform well-rehearsed routines that are genuinely incredible.

I also like the little moments in La Haine that speak to the issues on a large or small scale. The kids visit a guy who's car has been burned to a husk - to them it's nothing, and to us on a large scale, it's just protest. But to the guy who's car has been destroyed, it's their entire life upended, wrecked and ruined because cars are expensive and often the lack of one has a debilitating effect on how a person gets by in the world. These kids are burning cars that belong to average Joes - sometimes people in economic circumstances not that different to them. It's part of the protest that's senseless, because the target is so random. Because of where these kids live, they end up burning the infrastructure around them. Hubert's gym has been completely destroyed in the riots - what was the purpose of that, if the riots themselves were in response to the harm being done to the kids in the area? When the kids strike out - it's often blindly, and never calculated and thus, often it makes little sense.

So, obviously a powerful film - especially with the ending it has, which is the whole point rammed home. It doesn't pontificate - it does what all good movies do, which is it simply shows. We get a sense of who these kids are, and in the main they're simply kids. It has a living pulse, and although the kids are often blind to it, we see the good cops and the bad cops around. We see the fear, and we see the hate. We see that the enemy really is the hate - and like germs, the hate breeds in all corners of the Paris slums. It festers, and it becomes inflamed by every accident - every inevitable accident brought about by the conditions around these kids. It becomes inflamed whenever an act of hatred is given the ultimate outlet, as we see in the film. But as long as there are slums, the hate will still be there. You can't have one without the other. You almost feel that there's need of another revolution - because without one the money will never stop flowing to those who don't need more of it, and it will never go to those who desperately need it. I'm not talking socialism - I'm just talking common decency, and common sense.

Good writeup PHOENIX, and I'm glad you called out the soundtrack. I think that's the third or fourth time I watched it, but the DJ and breakdancing scenes still give me goosebumps.

Damn right! I had to double check the credits to confirm it wasn't her