Search IMDB for “Film Noir” and you will find a fairly exhaustive list of the top fifty film-noir titles as voted by users like you and I. However, closer inspection of this list reveals that every film was made sometime before 1958. This begs the question – did great film noir die with the black and white era? Certainly not.
Film noir is as alive today as the days when dark, gritty fiction was printed on cheap wood pulp paper. So if you`re in the mood for some detective drama, beautifully-crafted-albeit-cheesy dialogue, and lovable anti-heroes.
Dark City (1998)
Director Alex Proyas masterfully weaves together intelligent dialogue, intriguing plot developments, stunning art direction, atmospheric lighting design, and competent visual effects to create a critically maligned box office failure. Ouch.
Yet the last ten years have been kind to Dark City – a strong cult following has spurred many critics to revisit their original scathing reviews. The film, half science-fiction, half film-noir, chronicles John Murdoch, a man who might be a murderer, as he looks for answers in a city that never sees the light of day. Pursued by police and a group of all-powerful ghouls known as The Strangers, Murdoch uncovers the truth of why it is always dark, and why no one can ever leave the city. Look for a young Jennifer Connelly as she co-stars opposite Rufus Sewell.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit reminds me of the days when Robert Zemekis used groundbreaking special effects to help tell his story – not to be his story. A remarkable achievement of live-action and 2D animation seamlessly blended, this film coined its own phrase within the special effects community – “bumping the lamp.”
The story follows detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) as he investigates the murder of Marvin Acme, the owner of Toontown – a place where Disney and Warner Bros. characters film cartoons, and always share equal screen time. All signs of Acme`s murder point to one toon, the hysterically inept Roger Rabbit. Valiant, an avid toon-hater, must protect Roger and unearth the truth while navigating a bevy of unique characters in the Golden Age of Toontown (Hollywood). This is a film you have probably seen, but not recently, and is well worth another look.
Sin City (2005)
A veritable wet dream for any film noir/comic book/Jessica Alba fan – Robert Rodriguez adapts Frank Miller`s famed graphic novels straight from the page. This film is brimming with ultra-violence, gratuitous nudity, and pretty much everything else that makes us want to go to the movies. No plot synopsis can do this film justice – it`s a visual masterpiece and quite possibly the greatest noir film ever made. Not for the faint of heart.
Brick (2005)
Brick is an interesting experimental film that is not for everyone. Neophyte director Rian Johnson paints an intricate tale of sex, drugs, and murder centered around a Southern California high school. The cast, led by Joseph Gordon Levitt, is packed with real teens and twentysomethings, playing students/moonlight detectives and drug kingpins. Brick is very well written, but unfortunately, much of the clever dialogue is lost within So-Cal mumbles. The film doesn`t always work, but the mere fact that any of it works is a remarkable achievement.
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Curtis Hanson`s Tinseltown opus was the underdog`s favorite to win the 1997 Best Picture Oscar. However, James Cameron`s Titanic quickly sunk that notion. So was L.A. Confidential, an all-star cast 1950s detective drama, truly worthy of the statuette? In hindsight, many Academy voters would probably say yes. James Ellroy’s novel serves as an excellent launch pad for the acting talents of Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, David Strathairn and more. The film plays out like a cousin of Polanski`s Chinatown – and that`s a very good thing.
Payback (1999)
When every telephone in a film (sans cellphones) is a rotary, you`ve got yourself some great film noir. Payback follows small-time hood Porter (Mel Gibson), as he kills off big-time hoods in his pursuit of $70,000. An interesting footnote to this film is that director Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential screenwriter) was fired during production – and a sizeable portion of the film was re-shot prior to release.
One could come to expect all sorts of continuity problems due to this, but surprisingly, it works well. An additional interesting footnote is that Helgeland revisited the work in 2006 to produce Payback: Straight Up – The Director’s Cut, a much darker film.
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