The MoFo Top 100 Neo-noir Countdown

Yes, it was pretty much absent from streaming services for several years, but I see it is now available on Max. Plus, there are always alternate... ways

Anyway, I'm also going back to 1995 cause I remember picking it up at the video store several times but never renting it out for some reason. It's weird cause it seems like the kind of thing I would enjoy.

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This is probably my favorite pair that has ever shown up on any countdown. Killer Joe is my favorite film out of the last 20 or so years. Strange Days is also a big favorite of mine but I didn't consider it for this genre.


1. Killer Joe (#66)
9. Mona Lisa (#78)
12. Body Double (#69)
15. The Driver (#79)
21. Manhunter (#77)

1/1 again today on the seen meter. Briefly considered Strange Days, but didn't think it had enough Neo cred to make the cut. Need to see Killer Joe!

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AWARDS?


Killer Joe received the following nominations and awards:

• Five (5) Saturn Award nominations, including a win for Best Actor (Matthew McConaughey) and Bes Independent Film
• Three (3) Golden Trailer Award nominations, including Trashiest Trailer and Most Original Poster
• Two (2) Venice Film Festival nominations, including winning the Golden Mouse (William Friedkin)
• Two (2) Chlotrudis Award nominations, including Best Ensemble and Best Screenplay (Tracy Letts)
• One (1) Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead (McConaughey)
• One (1) Munich Film Festival ARRI Award nomination for Best International Film

AWARDS?


Strange Days received the following nominations and awards:

• Five (5) Saturn Award nominations, including a win for Best Actress (Angela Bassett) and Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow)
• One (1) Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography (Matthew F. Leonetti)

2 for 2! I remember liking both Killer Joe and Strange Days. I thought McConaughey and Angela Bassett (respectively) were the standout performances. Neither made my ballot.

19 of 36 seen.

Fatal Attraction - While there's an overlap between erotic thrillers and neo-noir, I wouldn't consider part of the overlap. But that might just be my current mental template. It is interesting looking back on this and seeing it worked with audiences, but Show Girls didn't, since they were both so over the top. Admittedly, I still don't know how I feel about Show Girls, and it might simply be the fact the former was an erotic thriller and the latter was a melodrama.

Body Double - I'd have to double check my ballot, but actually I don't think I considered any erotic thrillers. I know someone IRL who really loves this movie (and that era of De Palma), though I think they love Hitchcock even more. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Granted, I've also spent the last 12 years trying to adjust to Vertigo.

Mystic River - One of those movies I heard the title of over the years, but if you pressed me to guess what it was about, I would draw a blank. I thought I heard it in the same sentence as Cold Mountain, so I probably would have guessed they might have been a similar subject (not that I have a good sense what Cold Mountain is about either), so I would have been way off. Apparently it was directed by Clint Eastwood. I don't know if there's been a Clint Eastwood directed movie that I particularly love, but to each their own.

Mother - I enjoy Bong Joon-ho movies, but I seem to enjoy them less than other people. Haven't seen this one though. The plot synopsis always made me think of Poetry, which also not actively seek this one out, because it would probably do it no favor if my mind was comparing the two.

Killer Joe - This one didn't cross my mind to consider for the list. Not as a, "not a neo-noir," consideration. It just didn't cross my mind when thinking of possible neo-noirs. I'm sure I would have at least considered it. No idea if it would have made my ballot, but I'm sure I would have at least considered it.

Strange Days - I think I watched five minutes of this back in the 90s after it hit the cable channels. Given that it basically

ETA: re-reading my post from the middle of last night and I have no idea what thought I just randomly stopped in the middle of, right there. I think, "Given that it basically disappeared from availability for a long while there, I wish I had. Though, given I was a teenager at the time, I wouldn't want to rely on my memory of it, either."

I haven't seen Killer Joe. I like Strange Days quite a bit, but it didn't make my ballot.

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I definitely didn't expect for you to be a fan of it.

yeah i know what you mean, i seen it long time ago, i might not even like it now, who knows

I've been away dealing with some personal stuff for the last few days, so I have a little catching up to do. Of the last several reveals, I've only seen Mystic River, Strange Days, and Killer Joe. I thought Mystic River was really good, but I don't think it ever came to mind while compiling my ballot. I have a lot of respect for Strange Days, but it just isn't my kind of movie and didn't get my vote.

Killer Joe shouldn't be my kind of movie. I usually can't stand movies about terrible people doing terrible things to each other, but something about this one just works and it's a whole lot of fun. I voted for it at #17.


My Ballot:
3. The Man From Nowhere (#87)
12. Shutter Island (#86)
17. Killer Joe (2011) (#66)

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I've never heard of Killer Joe. I'll definitely check it out. I've heard of Strange Days, but I had no idea it had Noir elements. I'll check that out as well.


Seen 17 of 36

66. Killer Joe - I've seen Killer Joe a few times - pretty dark, unusual kind of caper. Leans a lot towards black comedy - although a lot of the laughter comes from discomfort at the extremes the characters go to for their own ends. One of William Friedkin's last movies, and one I haven't caught up with in a few years. One where miscreants get themselves in deeper, and deeper, and deeper.

65. Strange Days - Got to see this through a Hall of Fame I believe. Modern technology has done this film no favours, seeing as it's set in 1999, and the tech in the actual film is still way, way ahead of what we have today. I'd have set this around 2050. Never mind. Anyway, mind-sharing devices and software lead to one intrepid character played by Ralph Fiennes having a copy of a murder on his hands. Cue all kinds of mayhem and action. I remember a lot of running around and violence - and I think Fiennes was quite good in this.

Neither of those were under consideration regarding my 25

Seen : 21/36

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Alright alright alright, Killer Joe is a crazy arthouse/art-trailer-park, deprived of moral, filled with chicken leg oral film by William Fried chick in. With a killer performance by pre-Oscar McConaughey.
SEEN: 32/36
BALLOT: 5/25

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I did not realize that Killer Joe was so well regarded in this community. I thought it was good but to be honest I forgot it existed until now.
Strange Days is good as well but I recall it starting out better than ending. Great cast and interesting concept, plus it gets the sci-fi/future (1999!) 5% bump from me.

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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."

I might be out for most of the day, so "early" reveals in a while.