The MoFo Top 100 Neo-noir Countdown

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A Simple Plan - Three small town residents come across a crashed plane with a dead pilot and four million dollars. As they come up with a plan to keep the money, complications and mistrust make everything go wrong quickly.




The Grifters - A small-time conman has torn loyalties between his estranged mother, who works as a swindler for a dangerous bookie, and his new girlfriend who is looking to pull off another big-time con.

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2 for 2 seen AND 2 for 2 from my ballot!

A Simple Plan is yet another one of those that, even though I haven't seen it in a couple of years, it stuck with me. The story of three friends crumbling under the pressure of money is not new, but it is wonderfully told by Raimi, and handled by the great cast. It was my #19.

The Grifters, on the other hand, was higher for me. What a wonderfully dark film. Great performances from the three leads, in a film that moves at a fast pace, with some dark humor and bleak results. It is probably my favorite film from 1990, and I had it all the way up at #2.



SEEN: 33/56
MY BALLOT: 9/25

Paul Rudd?

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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."

Don't tell me this is an April Fool's joke

As much as I love John Cusack, I was only indifferent to The Grifters. I probably ought to give it another chance, since I may have just not been in the right mood, but a rewatch isn't a priority.

I don't think I've seen A Simple Plan.

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Actual A Simple Plan Trailer

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A Simple Plan is good, but didn't make my ballot. I haven't seen The Grifters.

Seen: 43/56

Neither of these were on previous MoFo Lists. Of the last few days of reveals The Player was #84 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1990s and Oldboy has popped up a lot: #20 on the MoFo Top 100 of the Millennium, #22 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 2000s, #21 on the MoFo Top 100 Foreign Language Films, and #8 on the MoFo Top 100 Comic Book Movies.

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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

My #5 A Simple Plan (1998)

A Simple Plan is a quality film with great performances that did not make my list but when I was thinking of 90s neo noirs this one definitely came to mind and I expected to place well enough.

And yet another great example of a noir from the nineties, this film was #19 on my list. The Grifters moves at such an assured pace and style thanks to the excellent direction by Stephen Frears, exceptional writing, and great performances especially from Angelica Huston - who is nothing less than amazing in the film.

4. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
10. Alphaville (1965)
17. Fireworks (1997)
18. Pale Flower (1964)
19. The Grifters (1990)
22. The American Friend (1977)
25. Série noire (1979) - one pointer

Another one from my list! A Simple Plan is my #20. The performances in this one haunt me.


I've seen the Grifters, but they didn't make my list.


Seen 30 of 56

My list:


3. Brick
8. Point Blank
11. Lost Highway
15. Old Boy
16. Basic Instinct
20. A Simple Plan

24. Under the Silver Lake

no votes. a simple plan is a great effort by sam raimi to deliver a quote-unquote serious film, one that downplays his more distinctive traits as a filmmaker in order to do right by the kind of caper-gone-wrong plot that would be right in the wheelhouse of his buddies the coens - can't forget the interplay between paxton and thornton either. haven't seen the grifters.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

While we revel in the glory that is Mac and Me, why don't you try your hand on this game?

Neo-Noir Movies Picture Click I

Let us know how you do!

Big fan of A Simple Plan, which is #22 on my list. It is the first neo-noir I remember really embracing. Most teenagers had car or band posters on their walls. Mine had A Simple Plan poster! It is an enjoyably tense small-town Macbeth-like tale with four very strong lead performances. I was rooting for Thornton to get the supporting Oscar, but it's not that surprising he didn't win since the Academy awarded him for doing similar work in Sling Blade. I also love that Raimi was able to utilize his horror experiences in it, such as in a certain scene with a shotgun.

The Grifters didn't do much for me. Besides Annette Bening's justifiable star-making work, I found the experience to be pretty ordinary.

They're all pictures of mac and me. Why so cruel!

I got 12/15

12/15 here too