Top Favorite Neo-Noir Films

[Keith]

I know these "Top Favorite" list are grueling and I myself can never decide what are my top favorites but I'd like to know what everyone's top favorite Neo-Noir films, spanning from 1960 to now. You can list as many as you can think of.

Here's my list, I couldn't do a top 10, so I did 15 films instead.

1. Taxi Driver
2. Memento
3. Red Rock West
4. Blue Velvet
5. L.A. Confidential
6. Mulholland Dr.
7. Body Double
8. Reservoir Dogs
9. Heat
10. A History Of Violence
11. Romeo Is Bleeding
12. Carlito's Way
13. Harper
14. Bound
15. Eastern Promises

[slimdundee62]

I'm listing 20 and still leaving off some great stuff

1. Chinatown - (1974)
2. To Live and Die in L.A. - (1985)
3. Little Odessa - (1994)
4. The French Connection - (1971)
5. The Friends of Eddie Coyle - (1973)
6. Atlantic City (1980)
7. Night Moves (1975)
8. Phoenix (1998)
9. The Salton Sea (2002)
10. Point Blank (1967)
11. Internal Affairs (1990)
12. The Silent Partner (1978)
13. Romeo Is Bleeding (1993)
14. Miami Blues (1990)
15. Straight Time (1978)
16. Un Flic (1972)
17. The Hot Spot (1990)
18. Julia (2008)
19. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
20. 52 Pick-Up (1986)

[Nighthawk]

No love for "Brick," huh? Here's my top five.

1. Memento
2. Chinatown
3. Brick
4. Blade Runner
5. Point Blank

[Mandrakegray]

I'm listing 20 and still leaving off some great stuff

1. Chinatown - (1974)
2. To Live and Die in L.A. - (1985)
3. Little Odessa - (1994)
4. The French Connection - (1971)
5. The Friends of Eddie Coyle - (1973)
6. Atlantic City (1980)
7. Night Moves (1975)
8. Phoenix (1998)
9. The Salton Sea (2002)
10. Point Blank (1967)
11. Internal Affairs (1990)
12. The Silent Partner (1978)
13. Romeo Is Bleeding (1993)
14. Miami Blues (1990)
15. Straight Time (1978)
16. Un Flic (1972)
17. The Hot Spot (1990)
18. Julia (2008)
19. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
20. 52 Pick-Up (1986)

Fantastic List!! I have yet to see "Un Flic", but any list that name drops 'The Silent Partner' is aces in my book.

[Justanotherdame]

My top five:

1. Blade Runner
2. L.A. Confidential
3. Dark City
4. Body Heat
5. Chinatown

[lime]

No particular order but here's some modern noir films that have impressed me and stand up to multiple viewings:

Blood Simple, Animal Kingdom, The Killer Inside Me (Winterbottom), The Grifters, Nightmoves, Bad Education, A Simple Plan, The American Friend, Collateral, The Conversation, Cutter's Way, Fargo, Edmond, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Insomnia (Swedish version), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Last Seduction, Seven and last but not least Hollywoodland.

[Adam Lounsbery]

My top five:

1. Cape Fear (1962)
2. Chinatown (1974)
3. Taxi Driver (1976)
4. The Grifters (1990)
5. Blade Runner (1982)

I think a larger question is, "What qualifies something as neo-noir?" I love The French Connection, Point Blank, and 52 Pickup, but I don’t consider any of them neo-noir.

I won't name names right now, but I find a lot of the self-conscious neo-noir from the '90s to be turgid exercises in stylistic necrophilia. As for the rest, what is it that makes Miami Blues (a movie I really like) neo-noir? Just being a crime film and having a downbeat ending doesn't qualify it, does it?

Oh, and I still haven't seen Brick. I should rectify that soon.

[Arthur Bannister]

No order but alphabetical here. I'd be hard-pressed to rank them.

• Atlantic City

• Blue Velvet

• Le Cercle rouge

• Chinatown

• Coup de torchon

• Cutter's Way

• Le deuxieme souffle

• The Friends of Eddie Coyle

• The Ghost Writer

• The Grifters

• The Long Goodbye

• Mulholland Drive

• No Country for Old Men

• Point Blank

• Police Python 357

• Serie noire

• The Silent Partner

• Taxi Driver

[Movie Memories]

Some very good films listed here, but there is one that seems to have slipped under the radar. Touched on briefly in another thread is a film that should be included.

The Square - a recent Australian film that fits right in!



Seems like the new YouTube share links may not show up. It's a film worth viewing.

[Adam Lounsbery]

Oh, man, I forgot my top, #1, all-time favorite neo-noir: Angel Heart (1987).

What an oversight...

[slimdundee62]

Some very good films listed here, but there is one that seems to have slipped under the radar. Touched on briefly in another thread is a film that should be included.

The Square - a recent Australian film that fits right in!



Seems like the new YouTube share links may not show up. It's a film worth viewing.

I thought of that after I complied my list , I loved The Square and when i showed it to a group of friends they loved it!
A couple of others i have viewed recently :

Fever (1999) Teri hatcher was in it ,but it's a small part as the lead characters sister.
this was a great movie and really creepy at times. the standout part of the movie was a scene on a subway where the lead character knives the tenant from upstairs (who was also creepy).
That scene on the train was straight out of a Hitchcock movie , so beautifully and artistically shot , I was impressed.

Also The Stickup (2001) ,Rowdy Herrington flick (he directed Striking Distance with Bruce Willis popcorn thriller ,with a small bit of noir in it, would have been better if some of the actors had toned it down)
But Stick Up on the other hand is a nice little Neo Noir
James Spader is very good in Stick Up and it has a cool twist in it , it's unfortunate that on DVD only a Pan & Scan version exists.

[lime]

The Square was very good and while on the subject of Aussie neo-noir what about Wake In Fright now that's a doom laden film, I know a few Australians who think it's more of a horror film but that's because they realise the implications the film has truly one of the grittiest films ever to come out of Australia although I thought Animal Kingdom comes close but in a different way.

P.S.

Also most if not all Jim Thompson's adaptations to screen or TV should get a mention, maybe another thread on Thompson's representation at the cinema would be good and what stories of his that have not been adapted should be, he's definately becoming more relevant and light years ahead of his time.

[High Hat Post]

I just watched Body Heat last night and was so impressed at how well Kasdan captured the essence of a noir film without lampooning it. My only trouble with the film is that the story, while superbly well written, is such a cliche I knew from the very beginning pretty much how the entire rest of the film would play out.

I guess the enjoyment is in the journey, not the destination.

[JohnChard]

I simply have to give a shout out to the criminally under seen and under valued Robert Aldrich directed movie, Hustle (1975), with Burt Reynolds and Catherine Deneuve.

[cigar joe]

What. . . nobody mention The Last Seduction

[noirguru]

I have one to add to the list, Mean Streets (1973)

[dax]

I don't know what my favorite neo-noir films are, but a few I like would be
Chinatown
Devil in a Blue Dress
Angel Heart
Body Heat
Le Samourai

[JohnChard]

Adding 10 that I really like that deserve a mention.

State of Grace
At Close Range
Cop
Drive
Madigan
Charley Varrick
Deep Cover
The Town
Heist
King of New York

Got a few lined up for first time viewings such as The Naked Kiss, Twilight, 21 Grams, Insominia (2002) & The Drowning Pool.

[JCharles]

Besides The Last Seduction, John Dahl also directed two other excellent neo-noirs: Kill Me Again and Red Rock West, both well worth checking out.

[cigar joe]

I'll have to add a couple of Films Soleil, that are worth checking out. Films Soleil was coined by a French critic whose name escapes me to differentiate those Films Noir that take place in the desert and in mostly daylight. Think The Hitch-Hiker (1953), Jeopardy (1953), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955). So I'd add my all time favorite of those Neo Films Soleil, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) and No Country for Old Men (2007).

I did a quick search about the above and found this:



But I don't think this is where I read about Films Soleil

Anyway link to book review is here:

http://www.greencine.com/article?act...&articleID=294