The MoFo Top 100 Neo-noir Countdown

AWARDS?


Sin City received a lot of nominations and awards. These are some of the most notable:

• Nine (9) Satellite Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actor (Mickey Rourke)
• Five (5) Saturn Award nominations, including a win for Best Supporting Actor (Rourke)
• Three (3) ALMA Award nominations, including Best Actor (Benicio del Toro)
• Three (3) MTV Movie Award nominations, including a win for Sexiest Performance (Jessica Alba)
• Two (2) Cannes Film Festival nominations, including the Technical Grand Prize (Robert Rodriguez)

__________________

AWARDS?


Memories of Murder received a lot of nominations and awards. These are some of the most notable:

• Nine (9) Grand Bell Award nominations, including a win for Best Film
• Six (6) Cine21 Movie Award nominations, including a win for Best Actor (Song Kang-ho)
• Four (4) Cognac Festival du Film Policier Awards, including the Grand Prix Award
• Two (2) Blue Dragon Award nominations, including a win for Best Cinematography (Hyung Koo Kim)
• One (1) Chlotrudis Award nomination for Best Visual Design

three votes.

seen gone girl at least two or three times and think it's a generally solid time, though i guess i'd put it somewhere in the middle of a prospective fincher ranking.

collateral was my #17. mann's capacity for crafting dense crime epics is impressively compartmentalised within this particular story's 24-hour timeframe and the minimal premise of two guys in a car is carried out so well by cruise and foxx. the shift to digital is also a nice touch.

heat was my #4. kind of the boring choice for the best mann film, but it's more than earned it.

i had not seen angel heart in a while before submitting my ballot, but i rewatched it recently and found it excellent enough that i might have put it on there.

zodiac is definitely good, maybe fincher's best but i'd have to get around to revisiting it to confirm.

thief was my #5. i obviously gave the edge to heat, but this is basically tied for it and arguably the most noirish of any of his films with its absolutely singular focus on caan as the titular crook. banging score, too.

the conversation and the man who wasn't there both fall under "seen once and liked". really should revisit them.

sin city used to be a favourite of mine, but as with just about every other rodriguez film i've more or less outgrown it. every once in a while, i think about going back, but whether i ever will is rather unlikely.

memories of murder is the best bong film, which counts for a lot.

__________________
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

26. Sin City - Seen this numerous times, the last time being in a recent neo-noir hall of fame. I wrote that "I find Sin City to be an interesting, direct descendant of classic film noir - with private detectives, cops, femme fatales and conspiracies all mixed together in the back alleys, rainy streets and dark nights these tales usually play out in. I've always really liked it - without being a super fan (I never got around to seeing the sequel or reading the graphic novels.) Something this over the top was always going to appeal to me to some degree, and there's absolutely no debating the visual flair the film has. It's absolutely gorgeous, and it's mix of animation and live-action has a look that was completely original in it's day." It's extremely nice film to just gaze at. Was never going to make my ballot though.

25. Memories of Murder - I don't know if maybe I didn't consider this neo noir, because it's certainly good enough to make my ballot. It didn't though. I keep meaning to get the Criterion edition. It's the first Bong Joon-ho film I ever saw, and I remember being extremely surprised by how funny he made this, despite the subject matter and despite treating the subject matter itself very seriously. I really marveled at that, and at that very time the first stirrings of "need to look more at South Korean filmmaking" started to enter my mind. Interesting to note that the serial killer who inspired this movie was eventually found - turns out he was serving time already for killing his sister-in-law when it was discovered that he was the guy who killed 15 women and girls over an 8 year period from 1986 to 1994. But get this : by the time he was found, the statute of limitations had run out, so he can't be prosecuted for it. (Excuse me if someone has already said all of this.) He's been up for parole since 2015, serving a life sentence - so I think they should just never grant him parole.

Seen : 51/76

__________________

Sin City was my #9. It's a brilliant modern pastiche of noir, cleverly designed to bring the look of the comic book to life.

I think if you kill that many people, the statute of limitations shouldn't apply, or the window for prosecution should at least get longer for each murder committed.

Though with the complete lack of justice, it seems that Bong Joon-ho got the ending right after all.

__________________

Memories of Murder is indeed a masterpiece, ending up at #8 on my list.

I didn't know what to make of Sin City when I first saw it in theaters, but I ended up really liking it when I watched it again recently. Not quite enough to make my ballot, though. Anyway, here's a review:

It was nice to watch this again because if I could sum up my first viewing experience with one word, it would be "overwhelming." With the movie's then-unique visuals, flowery narration, just as flowery dialogue and hard-R violence, there was a lot for my slightly younger brain to process. I liked it, but the many stimuli affected my enjoyment. This time, I knew what to expect and thus was in a better space to enjoy the ride and enjoy it I did.

While everything I mentioned made this viewing more fun, they would all be sound and fury if it weren't for the characterizations, which are the movie's secret weapons (yes, even more than Miho's arsenal). Our heroes in the three stories are more than worth the investment, but it's Del Toro's delightfully sleazy cop Jackie Boy who is the MVP. A guy who not only knows how to have fun with a part, but also whose fun is contagious - see The Usual Suspects - he knows exactly what kind of movie he is in. Also, as his fate encapsulates, the violence is extreme, but it manages to be funny and make you admire its beauty as much as it shocks. Take the execution scene, which proves that for some tough bastards, flipping the switch once is not enough. Again, not enough can be said about the look and feel - besides what maybe Nolan is doing, what else has been this daring since - and its fractured, Tarantino-like narrative is a welcome and meaningful touch.

Rodriguez, Tarantino, Miller and company deserve all the praise for their depiction of a world where doing the right thing will most likely get you killed. However, if you don't die, you'll end up feeling like you have fought a war all by yourself. When I’m in the mood for a rewatch, the movies of the mid-2000's are not ones I typically reach for. I doubt I am not alone in thinking they are relatively lean years. Since this was not only better the second time around, but also from this era, seeing it again was an especially sweet surprise. In other words, it's like being pulled over, but being let off with a mere busted taillight warning.

I had a "wait, wat?" Moment of response to this. (Mentally, I guess I hadn't processed Phoenix's post).


This might be the American perspective talking, but I'm kind of surprised murder has a statute of limitation at all in Korea. It certainly doesn't in the US. Not that I think the US criminal system is any type of role model to the world, but I would have guessed murder would be a crime that wouldn't have a statute of limitation in most of the world.


But I guess it does in Korea (I haven't tried googling "statute of limitations on murder by country" yet).


https://www.indiewire.com/features/g...ht-1234596687/

I was similar. I only saw Sin City because a couple of friends wanted to see it so I saw it too. I have a thing about 'all star casts' in that they're often a bad sign. A bit like the words Starring Samuel L. Jackson when it's a post 2000 film. But I was blown away with how much I enjoyed it. A little less on the subsequent watches (probably because my expectations were so low with that first viewing) but still very entertaining. But for all that, I needed films and Sin City was #13 on my list.

Memories Of Murder was a blind buy and I thought it was fine. OK. A little moody but nothing special... Then a year or so later everyone seemed to be raving about it. I've not seen it again, but maybe I should?

The Conversation I've seen twice but not for decades, but I've never 'got it'. I didn't enjoy it either time.

The Man Who Wasn't There is another of those films I've had for over 20 years and still not seen.

__________________
5-time MoFo Award winner.

A couple more from my ballot.


The movie I have seen more than any other on my ballot is Sin City and I had it at number 6. It's funny, it's violent, the style works for me and the performances are just the right amount of over the top. Marv is one of my favorite film badasses of all time.


Also had Memories of Murder down at number 15. This was a PRHoF rec for me a couple years ago and and absolutely loved it. It grabbed me right from the beginning and never let go.



I had Heat at number 10. It's probably one of my favorite movies to make my ballot but I dinged it a bit for not really being neo-noir, in my opinion. But it's great, it was eligible and so here it is.