Top Ten Sep 02 2008 @ 09:13 am
Top 10 Noirs of the Last 10 Years
Another great list from Graham Culbertson of Movies et al. Debate and discuss.
I enjoyed making my “Ten Best Westerns of the Last Ten Years” so much that I decided to start an irregular feature called “Genres that Time Forgot” where I highlight a genre that had a heyday but has since become a niche endeavor. I started this post months ago but never finished it, so here it is, in conjunction with MovieZeal’s Noir month, the Ten Best Noirs of the Last Ten Years.
10. Dark City (1998)
Dir. Alex Proyas
Unfortunately I haven’t seen the recently released Director’s Cut of this movie, but even the version the studio put in theaters is quite a winner. Proyas is best known for the overrated schlockfest The Crow, but this is a much better movie. The only plot information I’ll give away is that The Matrix rips this movie off heavily, but it’s best to go in knowing nothing. Probably the most oppressively dark films in the movie on this list, the eponymous dark city is a noir wonderland, inhabited by a whole host of noir types. Our hero is played by Rufus Sewell, an astonishingly odd everyman, who wakes up arrested for brutal murders he can’t remember committing. The road he goes down to find the truth, aided by neo-noir standout William Hurt, is a dark rabbit hole indeed.
Watch the first 8 minutes of Dark City here. 
9. Veronica Mars (2004-2006)
Creator Rob Thomas (not that Rob Thomas)
Veronica Mars isn’t the best noir set in a 21st century high school, but it certainly gets credit for being first. Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s Kristen Bell brings her inability to act to the proceedings as our lead, but that’s not a problem (at least not in this show, which was a WB original and features WB level acting from everyone). But each of its seasons is possessed of a twisty, noirish plot that keeps you guessing, and some soap opera elements that wouldn’t be out of place in The OC but are nevertheless fun. Creator Rob Thomas is frequently compared to Joss Whedon, but I can listen to Thomas’ dialogue without wanting to kill myself, so I give him the edge.
8. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005)
Dir. Shane Black
Shane Black, as the creator and screenwriter of Lethal Weapon, is responsible for some of the worst crimes against filmdom ever recorded. Luckily, his directorial debut has an indie soul, which means we’ve replaced blander than bland Gibson and Glover with wacked out Robert Downey Jr. and a charming Val Kilmer (it’s hard to believe that Kilmer actually turned out to be charming when he stopped being a movie star). This is an in-your face postmodern endeavor, which means that Downey’s character addresses the camera and mentions noir cliches, while Black built the story by decoupaging various classic noirs. As such, the movie always threaten to collapse under its own weight, but while it’s standing, it’s as fun as an action movie gets.
The opening title sequence for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is phenomenal. 
7. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
Dir. Coen Bros
The Coen Brothers are the driving force behind the neo-noirs of the last three decades, but this is probably their only film that really looks noir. It’s a classic noir story of infidelity and murder, with Billy Bob Thornton toning down his crazy guy act for a very mild turn playing the protagonist, a laconic barber who goes through life as if he wasn’t there, but gets mixed up in some serious business. I know there are lots of candidates, but I don’t think cigarette smoke has even been filmed so well – this is the Coens only black-and-white movie, and it makes me wish they’d shoot more like this. Full of their patented mix of darkness and dark comedy, and a Coentacular cast (Frances McDormand, Tony Shaloub, Jon Polito, and a small but great role for a pre-crappy Scarlett Johannson), The Man Who Wasn’t There is top notch neo-noir.
6. The Lookout (2007)
Dir. Scott Frank
Like Shane Black, Scott Frank is a screenwriter who’s committed some cinematic crimes (Minority Report, The Interpreter) but those have been whitewashed with his directorial debut. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has emerged as Hollywood’s best actor under the age of 30, and his intensity is perfectly suited to the noir genre. Gordon-Levitt plays Chris Pratt, a small town Kansas kid with brain damage who’s recruited to help rob the bank he works at as a janitor. The heist goes predictably and fatally wrong, and Chris is left to pick up the pieces. It’s not hard for us to follow the action, but it is for the impaired Chris, and his efforts to keep everything together while making wrongs right make for a compelling story.
5. History of Violence (2005)
Dir. David Cronenberg
Sci-fi/horror master Cronenberg was an unlikely director to make a masterful neo-noir, but he’s done it here. In a play on both Out of the Past and The Killers, Viggo Mortensen plays a small-town diner owner who brutally intervenes when a pair of killers try to rob the diner. The event gets him recognized by Ed Harris, a gangster with a nasty scar who’s convinced Viggo is a hit man trying to hide out in a small town. A great deal of nasty violence and one of the weirdest sex scenes ever recorded on celluloid follow, as does another wicked performance by William “neo-noir” Hurt.
4. Sin City (2005)
Dir. Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller
The case against Sin City: It’s unnecessarily violent and joyfully misogynistic, with dialogue so pulpy it sounds like it’s been through a blender and a visual look that approximates what The Third Man would like like to a toddler on acid. The case for Sin City: Ditto
3. The Big Lebowski (1998)
Dir. Coen Brothers
There’s not much to say about The Big Lebowski and its excellence that hasn’t been said. So let me just point out, in case anyone didn’t notice, that this is the only stoner movie-film noir mashup I’m aware of. The plot of The Big Sleep, carried out by characters who would fit just find in Raising Arizona, written and directed by two men who still might go down as the greatest of all time, and with a cast to rival Batman Begins (Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Sam Elliot, David Thewlis, Jon Polito. Just try to ignore Tara Reid).
2. Memento (2000)
Dir. Christopher Nolan
It’s confusing that Amores Perros and Memento came out in the same year, because as near as I can tell, Alejandro Inarritu’s entire filmmaking credentials come down to having seen Memento. Tarantino made chronological muddling cool, but Chris Nolan made chronological muddling matter with a brilliant plot device: our hero Leonard (Guy Pearce) can’t make new long-term memories, so he forgets whatever just happened whenever his short-term memory runs out. Nolan tells half the story straight, and half the story backwards, working back through Leonard’s perspective to the film’s earliest events. What sounds disorienting is in fact invigorating, as standard noir fare becomes a puzzling thriller. As Leonard tries to make sense of his life through notes and tattoos, and the Matrix team of Joe Pantoliano and Carrie-Ann Moss manipulate him along the way, a standard noir story becomes a metaphysical adventure. Still one of Nolan’s best films, including his double-dose of Bat-Awesomeness.
1. Brick (2005)
Dir. Rian Johnson
As a crushingly dark noir set in a high school, Brick works on a multitude of levels. On the one hand, its premise is absurd comedy, as seemingly normal high schoolers think and talk like Bogart and Mitchum and Bacall. On the other hand, the same premise rings powerfully true: high school can be every bit as dark and opaque as Chandler’s L.A, as social groups scheme and drugs and sex begin to make their mark. For me, Brick is both laugh-out loud hilarious in a very ironic manner, and claustrophobically serious. All of the actors are fantastic, especially Lukas Haas as the drug dealer “the Pin” and Richard Roundtree as the assistant principal who uses our protagonist Brendan as an inside man. But this movie belongs heart and soul to Joseph-Gordon Levitt (as Brendan), who I guess is the next William Hurt. As Brendan, Gordon-Levitt is a violent, intense figure who meets out physical and verbal violence with a facility I’m not sure I’ve ever seen. He’s also a lonely kid who eats lunch by himself, ever since his girlfriend started hanging out with the cool kids. This is not just my favorite noir of the last 10 years, but one I’d rank with the best ever produced.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 9:26 am 1. Evan Derrick said …
What list would be any good without a little bit of dissension in the comments section?
Firstly, Dark City should have been WAY higher on your list. Apart from The Man Who Wasn’t There and Brick, it appropriates the tropes of noir better than any of the other selections. Kiefer Sutherland’s Igor performance continues to grate, but everything else about it remains top notch. By the way, I’ve seen the new director’s cut, and it’s ok. They’ve added a few scenes in and shuffled things around, but it’s not a big change.
And you’re a teensy-weensy bit too hard on Shane Black and Scott Frank. I don’t think you can call The Lookout “compelling” and Minority Report a “cinematic crime.” That’s being a bit subjective, no?
I can also share the love for Veronica Mars, although I like Kristen Bell’s acting chops. My wife and I went through quite the obsessive stage with that show when we got it on DVD. I think we finished the first season in 3 days.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 10:50 am 2. G said …
Evan, I don’t know what about the Lookout isn’t compelling, but I definitely consider Minority Report a cinematic crime.
Phillip K. Dick is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, and my favorite science fiction writer of all time. And in 1982, a brilliant director decided to take one of his least “filmable” books, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and make a movie out of it. And the results were, to say the least, fantastic.
Since then, everyone and their brother has tried to make a decent PKD movie, and they have all sucked. Minority Report took a nuanced and difficult story and turned it into a confusing, sensory assaultive video game with the soul of a turd. It introduced me to an incompetent named Colin Farrell, and misused Bergman’s man-muse horribly.
I can heap a great deal of this at the feet of Frank, but the worst bit is that, having replaced Dick’s fascinating plot with a silly whodunit, only way he was able to resolve that silly whodunit was with a Murder, She Wrote tactic: “I never said she drowned, I just said she was murdered. You must be the killer!”
Cue laugh track and/or Angela Lansbury.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 10:51 am 3. G said …
Oh yeah. I haven’t seen Dark City in a long time. I liked it, but didn’t love it, when I originally saw it. It might move up if I saw it again.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 10:57 am 4. Evan Derrick said …
But G, you’re filtering Minority Report through the lens of Phillip K. Dick. Understandable, for sure, but thoroughly subjective, nonetheless. I hated I Am Legend because I was so tied to the source material, and the film marred Matheson’s work so egregiously, but I recognize that the film on its own two feet is at least a moderately enjoyable sci-fi thriller. It’s not great cinema, but its not a travesty either. Minority Report has a lot to enjoy, even if it pales in comparison to Dick’s original story (the two share little to no similarities). Sure, it’s not Oscar caliber cinema, but a turd?
And A Scanner Darkly is probably the best Dick adaptation ever. Blade Runner is a great film, but a piss-poor adaptation. Scott didn’t even read Dick’s book. It was “too confusing,” he said. Scanner is as pure a representation of Dick as can be found.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 11:11 am 5. Luke Harrington said …
Fun list, G. Your thoughts on Sin City pretty much say it all. (Looks like we’ll have to agree to…mostly agree…on that one.)
I think I’m in the minority on this (certainly among my fellow pretentious critics), but I really disliked The Man Who Wasn’t There. It really felt like the Coens had completely lost sight of the quick-and-dirty aesthetic that made noir great in its heyday, replacing it with goofy special effects and way-overdone visual metaphors (not to mention a far-too-long running time).
Yep.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 11:14 am 6. Adam K said …
Since I’m of the camp that noir occurred in a specific place and time and within generally specific narrative and visual parameters, it’s a sore spot for me to see “noirs” and “last 10 years” in the same sentence. “Neo-noirs,” por favor.
But otherwise, you’ve pretty much hit all the bases. Despite its debt to noir, I’m not sure that I’d call History of Violence a noir; a Cronenberg movie is part of no other genre than Cronenberg movie. Some of these are definitely noir parodies, like Kiss Kiss and Big Lebowski, so it makes it hard to categorize them. Is Blazing Saddles a Western?
My dark horse pick of the best noir of the last ten years? The sorely underrated Ice Harvest.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 11:22 am 7. G said …
Evan, admittedly I am looking at this partially through a PKD lens. But first, I didn’t like this movie and I found it’s plot silly, and I think you can blame the writer if a story has an interesting plot and a film doesn’t. Especially that horrible ending, and the totally uninteresting Farrell and .
But I think your comment about Scanner and Runner shows how little I was looking at this through that lens. I totally agree with you that Scanner Darkly is truer to Dick’s vision, but Blade Runner is much, much better. It’s fine to discard as much as you want from the source material, as long as you make a great movie. But if you discard a lot of the source material, and replace it with a shiny and stupid Tom Cruise vehicle, I think I can bash you for not paying closer to Dick’s story all I want without it being about Dick’s vision. It wasn’t that he wasn’t “true” to a “sacred” text, it’s just that he made a stupid, simplistic movie.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 11:27 am 8. G said …
Well Adam, that’s your opinion, but I’ve never been that big on hard and fast categories. Noir, neo-noir, post-noir…the terminology doesn’t much matter to me.
Of course Blazing Saddles is a Western. What else would it be? Again, this might be because I don’t favor hard and fast categories; just because it’s a parody doesn’t mean it’s also not a Western. It’s both. Kiss Kiss is definitely not a parody; it’s not making fun of noir conventions, just using them in a meta-fashion. And I don’t think Big Lebowski is a parody either; it’s not sending up or mocking noir conventions, just using them in a surprising manner.
As for History of Violence, I agree with you most there. It’s definitely its own creature. But it’s also heavily noir influenced.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 11:36 am 9. Evan Derrick said …
“it’s a sore spot for me to see “noirs” and “last 10 years” in the same sentence. “Neo-noirs,” por favor.”
I knew that would come up.
I conspicuously left Graham’s title as is for that very reason. I know, I’m a stinker.
And yes, Cronenberg is his own genre. For that matter, the Coens are their own genre as well, so Lebowski and Man Who Wasn’t There are really Coen films first and noir/comedy/crime films second.
I have not seen Ice Harvest, Adam. Remind me what that one is about again? (I’m too lazy to google at the moment)
on Sep 02 2008 @ 11:38 am 10. Evan Derrick said …
Oh, and G, I agree that if you’re going to jettison great source material you had better replace it with something that is more than simply an attempt to cash-in on a pre-existing product. However, I still kind of liked Minority Report, so we’ll just have to agree to disagree there.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 11:51 am 11. Adam K said …
I was hoping to be the first one to bring up “neo-noir.” The Ice Harvest from 2005 stars John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton trying to swindle the mob on Christmas Eve. Harold Ramis directs. Funny, tense, grim. I’d say it’s about as noir as The Lookout, in that it’s not particularly self-conscious about its influences.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 11:53 am 12. Evan Derrick said …
Ok, I remember that one now. It felt like a mix between Bad Santa and A Simple Plan. At least, that’s the vibe I got from the marketing.
Will have to drop that into the ‘ole Netflix queue.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 12:20 pm 13. Jandy said …
Nice list! I kept looking through thinking, “where’s Brick, where’s Brick?” And then, there it was, right where it should be.
Also glad to see some love for The Lookout, which flew under the radar a bit, I think, last year. It deserved much more recognition than it got. And my girl Veronica. I refuse to get into the “can Kristen Bell act” debate; I love her either way. I worried about the lack of L.A. Confidential for a second, but then realized it just missed your 10-year cut-off.
I hadn’t thought of Big Lebowski as a noir before. Now I’ll have to rewatch it (considering I really only remember the goofing off at the bowling alley part).
on Sep 02 2008 @ 4:52 pm 14. Daniel said …
Glad that a neo-noir post was part of this. I considered it at one point but definitely would not have done it justice as well as this.
I like the effort if not the execution; I would agree with probably 5 out of the 10, but none of the 5 I don’t agree with are offensively bad choices. Like Jandy, I also had to consider the lack of L.A. Confidential and The Usual Suspects. Just goes to show time flies.
How about Snatch or Lock, Stock? The Black Dahlia (even though I hated it)? Could have included some foreign films in here as well.
Still, excellent work.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 7:13 pm 15. jeffmcm said …
All I can say is, Minority Report is a better film than Brick.
on Sep 02 2008 @ 7:13 pm 16. Anil said …
I would’ve placed Sin City at #1 spot after approximately 0.3 seconds of considering. Cunning commentary on your part but from a more serious and considered perspective, none of the things you have mentioned can constitute a case against the film, in my humble opinion.
Brick is cool and admittedly it has the most interesting and original premise among the ten but overall I would’ve placed it lower. The spot would be right if you had named the list “Most interesting noir ideas of the last 10 years”.
Don’t hate me for this but I hated seeing Big Lebowski on the list. It’s a great film and I see how you relate it to the classical noirs but I don’t like to see the borders of film-noir stretched out so much. On a noir list that includes Big Lebowski, you might as well add anything else if it’s equally great.
The rest, great choices. On a side note, I have seen The Man Who Wasn’t There second time in color, and I have to tell you it was way more gorgeous. If only people could overcome their simple conservatism for black&white in film-noirs (not that I’m against b&w, mind you)
on Sep 02 2008 @ 8:40 pm 17. David said …
I will start by kind of agreeing with Evan on one point. Calling Minority Report a “crime against cinema” is awfully harsh. That said, it seems to be an awfully polarizing movie, some people like myself absolutely love it, and some can’t stand it. I personally would have put it on this list, not so much because of any kind of noir style per se, but because the plot is so much like a film-noir. I consider this a great companion to Blade Runner, and love the future that is so refined that it becomes a dystopia.
on Sep 03 2008 @ 7:35 am 18. Evan Derrick said …
HA HA! David agrees with me, Graham, so that’s like 2 to 1. Which, in internet terms, means I’ve won. Concede defeat and retain some of your dignity.
on Sep 03 2008 @ 10:22 am 19. G said …
Evan, as always, your grasp of internet math is perfect. Just out of curiosity, how do you feel about Seinfeld?
I don’t have anything more to say about Minority Report.
Anil, I consider films #1-5 among my favorites of all time. So I can understand if you want Sin City higher; I’d take it over most films. In regards to The Big Lebowski, I won’t hate you, but I think your statement (On a noir list that includes Big Lebowski, you might as well add anything else if it’s equally great.) should be amended to: On a noir list that includes Big Lebowski, you might as well add anything else if it’s equally great, made by the pre-eminent noir filmmakers of our day, and is a remake of one of the most important and influential noirs.
Daniel, I didn’t see Dahlia, but I heard it was bad. This wasn’t supposed to be list of most-noirish films, but best films that are noirish. And I don’t regard Ritchie as a noir filmmaker; I see his films more in the British gangster/caper tradition. There is some neo-noir overlap there, but it’s just never felt noirish to me.
Jandy, I completely agree that the Lookout was underrated and overlooked, and that Brick is an absolute masterpiece. Clearly, by Evan’s logic, you and I have defeated Jeffmcm. I’m so proud of us for both being so smart.
on Sep 03 2008 @ 11:32 am 20. Ari said …
Dark City is a near masterwork to me, one of the best films of the ’90s. I’m glad to see it get any attention.
But there’s something here that needs to be addressed because it’s factually incorrect: The Matrix is not a rip-off of Dark City. The Wachowski’s didn’t steal or lift anything from that movie. Dark City came out in 98. The Matrix was written years before that. The film was well into production before they saw Proyas’ film. Movies share similar ideas. Especially in sci-fi. People call Existenz a rip-off of The Matrix. It’s not. They came out around the same time, that’s different.
on Sep 03 2008 @ 11:44 am 21. G said …
Ari, I’m afraid I’m going to continue to believe that The Matrix ripped off Dark City. Really, they ripped off the look and the feel even more than the ideas. But you’re right that making the case for ideas as hermetically sealed is silly, especially in the case of The Matrix; they drew from everything. And yeah, the Wachowski brothers have been known to rip people off before. As with Tarantino and other “postmodern” directors, they’ve elevated ripping people off to an aesthetic. I for one am for it.
Sometimes the creator who gets ripped off gets a little upset, though.
http://www.poormojo.org/pmjadaily/archives/002657.html
on Sep 03 2008 @ 1:08 pm 22. Ari said …
I don’t mean to be a dick about this, but I’m sort of confounded by your comment that “they ripped off the look and feel even more than the ideas”, especially considering that your initial argument was that The Matrix ripped off Dark City’s plot.
But on the argument that they ripped off the look and feel:
Dark City came out February 27th, 1998. The Matrix started principal photography on March 14, 1998. That means The Matrix was previsualized months before that. Sets were built (though they did shoot at the same studio, I’ll give you that). The script was storyboarded. The visual approach was already prepared.
The Matrix takes from a lot, I agree, the influences are very clear when you watch it. It’s not a complete original like many people want to believe. But it’s damn near impossible that they “ripped off” Dark City, a movie that was made around the same time. Both movies draw from similar sources, especially in terms of premise. Like I said, I think it’s just as absurd when I hear people criticize Existenz as a Matrix knock-off.
But look, Proyas does the same thing. Dark City takes from Fritz Lang. Sets and ideas that evoke Metropolis, images lifted directly from Liliom. You’re right, a lot of contemporary filmmakers do this. I don’t think Proyas or the Wachowski’s should be lumped with Tarantino, though. But that’s another topic….
on Sep 03 2008 @ 2:13 pm 23. Maurice said …
Oh G, please. PLEASE! How can you possibly moan and chant about one director or producer “ripping off” another? Honest to Pete, is there the remotest chance that there is even one original thought in Hollywood? What did Harry Farber say? “There’s nothing original left in this world” and he was talking about movies. I think he was right except for maybe art and that is subjective at best.
Hollywood is formulaic, very much so. With few exceptions, I cannot think of a film that doesn’t follow one or more of the tired formulas that have been recycled since the day. Here’s one that has always and will always leap to mind first: “Bubba Ho-tep” I was blown away by this small film with an original idea that it stole from the book it’s based on. If you’ve not seen it, Elvis is in a nursing home. He meets a wheelchair bound JFK who has been dyed black. They team up to fight a 2,000 year old mummy that wears cowboy accoutrements. Good god, I knocked over three kids and pushed a nun down in order to get my ticket for this puppy and it delivered on so many levels.
Sure, it has the usual four acts and some unusual pathos. It has cheesy effects and sad acting by the bit players. But there’s a mummy. In a Stetson hat. And boots. And it wasn’t porn of any kind. Elvis talks about a boil on his penis. JFK has a spot where they took out some of his brain and replaced it with sand. The film is quirky and new and nobody saw it until it was released on DVD. It’s a film that cries for attention and I’ll bet you credits to Navy beans that no one will ever be able to copy its premise.
I saw “Dark City” and I liked it. Roger Ebert had it on his 10 best of the year but I’m stumped as to why cause it surely didn’t make mine. Frankly, I am still waiting for the pay off, cuz I am sure that the next morning, it all changed again for the proponents. Did the “Matrix” steal from it? Sure it did, just like “Dark City” did from “The Lathe of Heaven.” And like “The Forgotten” took from the former. Look at film making as a huge, never ending buffet that you go to once a week. You mix up the food and add this to that. You get a good meal, even if it all seems familiar each time.
on Sep 03 2008 @ 4:12 pm 24. G said …
Maurice, maybe you would like to read my comment, directly above yours, before you accuse me of “moan[ing] and chant[ing]” about film’s being ripped off: “As with Tarantino and other “postmodern” directors, they’ve elevated ripping people off to an aesthetic. I for one am for it”
I am for directors ripping off other directors. for it. not moaning and chanting. for it.
clear enough?
on Sep 03 2008 @ 4:22 pm 25. Evan Derrick said …
I’ve got some rusty forks around here somewhere if you guys would like to duel to the death.
Death by rusty fork. Heh heh heh.
on Sep 03 2008 @ 5:36 pm 26. Luke Harrington said …
I approve of death by rusty fork.
on Sep 03 2008 @ 6:38 pm 27. G said …
Guys, you’re gonna spoil my trolling if you defuse it with amusing banter.
on Sep 03 2008 @ 10:57 pm 28. Luke Harrington said …
Sorry G. Wouldn’t want to do that. Quick, say something unflattering about Seinfeld!