I’d go with A Simple Plan.
Probably Sam Raimi’s most underrated film ever.
I thought you just needed a detective, rain, fedoras, and a minimalist jazz soundtrack?
Some neo noir films I’ve liked over the past decade or so:
Shutter Island
The Town
Drive
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Gangster Squad
American Psycho
Memento
Heist
Murder By Numbers
Road to Perdition
The Salton Sea
Basic
21 Grams
Confidence
The Cooler
Mystic River
Collateral
A History of Violence
The Ice Harvest
Sin City
Basic Instinct
The Black Dahlia
The Departed
Smokin’ Aces
American Gangster
No Country For Old Men
Eastern Promises
Gone Baby Gone
I disagree with much posted in this thread but will just go with: “Film noir is characterized by villains who are not so much evil or greedy as sick.”
Like Casper Gutman, Joel Cairo and Briget O’Shaunessy?
I’ve always thought “Noir” was a descriptive term that obsoleted itself almost instantly… because once such movies became popular and known, the elements that made them unique started getting used throughout “other genres”, and their uniqueness, and thus definition, vanished.
Bear in mind, however, that I know almost nothing about the topic…
These are four of my favorites:
Eastern Promises
A History of Violence
Drive
Payback
Wild Things - noir with boobs.