What are your choices for the best of the best of the more modern batch of “film noir” movies? Let’s say, for purposes of this thread, movies since 1980. (that allows “Body Heat” and “The Last Seduction” to be nominated, but not “Touch of Evil” or “Charley Varrick.”)
This question is prompted by a recent viewing (by me) of “Payback,” which struck me as a perfect throwback to the era of Bogie, Michael Curtiz, and John Huston.
What say you all?
Drive is the best modern noir movie I’ve seen. I love everything about it.
LA Confidential
Millers Crossing.
Devil in a Blue Dress
The Grifters
And, of course The Big Lebowski
Hmm, I’m wondering if Get The Gringo would fit. Brick is an obvious one. **The Ice Harvest **would fit, as well as Reindeer Games. I’d also include Collateral.
I just watched Brick last week. I really enjoyed it but I actually had to turn on the closed captioning a few times to figure out some of the dialogue.
I’ve always been a fan of “Noir” movies, but hadn’t thought about the relation between classic and modern noir.
Wikipedia has an extensive list, subdivided into “neo-noir”, etc. and another list with more discussion. These lists contain several modern noirs that I thought of. Two of my favorite recent movies are Snatch and Crash (2004), but of the two only Snatch is on Wikipedia’s list. (I’d have thought Snatch to be more comedy, and Crash the more noire-y. No?)
Actually, if you want to talk about modern film noir, you should make the period be anything since 1960. Usually film noir is considered to have lasted from 1941 (The Maltese Falcon) to 1958 (Touch of Evil). In the U.S., film noir ended in the late 1950’s and didn’t really get started again until the early 1980’s, with one significant outlier in the movie Chinatown. Outside the U.S., there were quite a few more or less deliberate imitations of classic American film noir in the 1960’s and 1970’s:
I think these are the best examples of film noir since 1960, although we could probably argue forever about whether a film fits into the category:
Chinatown (1974, U.S., dir. Roman Polanski)
Body Heat (1981, U.S., dir. Lawrence Kasdan)
Blood Simple (1984, U.S., dir. Joel Coen)
House of Games (1987, U.S., dir. David Mamet)
The Usual Suspects (1995, U.S., dir. Bryan Singer)
I’d argue that The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) was the last film noir. Everything from Chinatown on was retro-noir.
Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid
What?
Blade Runner
The ones that come to mind quickest have been accounted for already. A little head scratching helped me remember one that’s hard to find but makes the grade for me.
Memento has a sort of noir vibe, and it’s a good one.
Also, Angel Heart.
FARGO has a huge noir vibe, with the added joke that everything is white (snow) rather than dark (true noir.)
Looper.
Dark City
Would Kiss Kiss Bang Bang count?