# best neo-noir movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 8, 2020, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229 "2020-06-08T03:40:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/1 "2020-06-08T03:40:24Z")
B/W film noir is my favorite genre and I think I have seen all the great ones. Neo-noir, well there is Body Heat, a favorite. Watching it now for about the 10th time. I’ve seen the one by Dennis Hopper, can’t remember the title now, and one with Madeline Stowe and Ed Harris, China Moon, pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/2 "2020-06-08T04:01:32Z")
Here are some lists of best neo-noir films I found online: > **[33 Essential Neo-Noirs, From Jackie Brown to Gone Girl](https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/best-neo-noir-movies.html)** > > A guide to the most political and stylish genre of film and TV. > **[30 Beautiful and Dangerous Neo-Noir Films](https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/best-neo-noir-films/)** > > Film noir was massively influential but it died out within 10 years — and Neo-noir emerged from the ashes. Here are the best Neo-noir films ever. > **[The 20 best film noirs, from The Big Heat to Double Indemnity](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/best-film-noir-movies-b1990127.html)** > > Rain-streaked streets, femmes fatales, hard-boiled gumshoes and antiheroes fated to die... Graeme Ross presents his pick of the 20 greatest film noirs of the classic era > **[The 30 Best Neo-Noir Movies of All Time](http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/the-30-best-neo-noir-movies-of-all-time/)** > > The classic 1940s/1950s era of film noir produced some true cinematic treasures such as Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past (1947), John Huston’s The Asp I suppose my personal favorites are these two: Blood Simple. (1985, U.S., dir. Joel Coen) Chinatown (1974, U.S., dir. Roman Polanski) ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/3 "2020-06-08T04:08:21Z")
I don’t know about the best, but I liked Oldboy and Romeo is Bleeding. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/4 "2020-06-08T04:23:04Z")
Can’t believe none of those lists have Nicolas Cage’s _8mm_. I’m also a huge fan of neo-noir and that movie is one of the best, in all seriousness, and totally underrated. Everyone just thinks “Nicolas Cage” and forgets that the film also includes James Gandolfini, Joaquin Phoenix, and Peter Stormare; has a phenomenal original score; and overall incredibly immersive world-building that sucks the viewer right into the atmosphere of grime and squalor. And it stays true to the original noir theme of a hardened protagonist uncovering a gruesome conspiracy that stretches all the way from the most depraved underbelly of society to the highest reaches of wealth and power. _“When you dance with the devil, the devil doesn’t change - the devil changes you.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/5 "2020-06-08T04:37:12Z")
“LA Confidential“ is IMO the best neo-noir film around. A more recent neo-noir that I really enjoyed was “Bad Times at the El Royale.” ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/6 "2020-06-08T11:48:28Z")
My favorite is **Point Blank,** starring Lee Marvin. It’s got that 1967 LSD weirdness going on in it. While the cast looks straight, you get the impression that the screenwriter, the director, and the entire crew were sampling the electric orange juice throughout the filming. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/7 "2020-06-08T11:52:22Z")
My favorite is **Point Blank,** starring Lee Marvin. It’s got that 1967 LSD weirdness going on in it. While the cast looks straight, you get the impression that the screenwriter, the director, and the entire crew were sampling the electric orange juice throughout the filming. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/8 "2020-06-08T12:01:45Z")
To Live and Die in LA ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/9 "2020-06-08T14:13:25Z")
How about the John Wick movies? They are action but there is a noir motif in them. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/10 "2020-06-08T14:23:34Z")
[Brick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(film)), written and directed by the same guy who made Knives Out. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/11 "2020-06-08T14:23:35Z")
Try “Brick.” (2006) Great 1930-ish noir, a la “The Maltese Falcon” set in contemporary high school, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt investigating the death of an old girlfriend. Full of great dialogue, like “Throw one at me if you want, hash head. I’ve got all five senses and I slept last night, that puts me six up on the lot of you.” Very well done! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/12 "2020-06-08T14:57:57Z")
_Blade Runner_, with a jaded ex-cop called in for one last job “retiring” replicants in a gloomy, rainy, decaying, future L.A. _Dark City_, with an amnesiac man on the run for a murder he might (or might not) have committed in a strange, shadowy city that never seems to see the dawn. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/13 "2020-06-08T15:38:26Z")
Blue Velvet seems pretty Noirish to me. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/14 "2020-06-08T18:14:21Z")
L. A. Confidential is great, Chinatown is great, Memories of Murder kind of qualifies and is great. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/15 "2020-06-08T18:15:33Z")
Mullholland Falls would be noir except that it’s just too brightly lit and there was too much honest love between characters. No one was trying to cheat anyone else and the good guys were too good to be noir, despite their often shady actions. But the plot and atmosphere had that tension and there were dirty deeds afoot. And Nick Nolte’s speech to the Baldwin Brother he had just brutally beaten was epic-ally noir. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/16 "2020-06-08T18:25:08Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > My favorite is **Point Blank,** starring Lee Marvin. It’s got that 1967 LSD weirdness going on in it. While the cast looks straight, you get the impression that the screenwriter, the director, and the entire crew were sampling the electric orange juice throughout the filming. I like the movie, and Lee Marvin played the laconic but violent buy out for revenge perfectly. The “LSD weirdness” thing was funny, but that tune in the nightclub drove me batty with its never-ending simple repetitiveness. I wonder if it was actually played that way, or was just some riff continually looped for the movie. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/17 "2020-06-08T18:30:24Z")
dead again. > **[Dead Again (1991) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101669/)** > > Dead Again: Directed by Kenneth Branagh. With Kenneth Branagh, Andy Garcia, Emma Thompson, Lois Hall. A woman who has lost her memory is taken in by a Los Angeles orphanage, and a private eye is enlisted to track down her identity, but he soon finds... ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/18 "2020-06-08T18:50:17Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > I like the movie, and Lee Marvin played the laconic but violent buy out for revenge perfectly. The “LSD weirdness” thing was funny, but that tune in the nightclub drove me batty with its never-ending simple repetitiveness. I wonder if it was actually played that way, or was just some riff continually looped for the movie. The nightclub scene was irritating, I agree. By “LSD weirdness” I was thinking more of the “bad trip” acid parts of the movie…the woman’s murder and the scene presented by her corpse, the fact that no one in the mob has access to the kind of money needed to pay off Walker because everything is handled by banks and computers by 1967, and the ghostly final scene… ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/19 "2020-06-08T19:14:43Z")
Although it isn’t a movie but a netflix series, Babylon Berlin has a lot going for it in the noir department. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229/20 "2020-06-08T20:01:25Z")
Some of my favs Brick The Grifters Red Rock West The Salton Sea [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-neo-noir-movies/855229.md?page=2)