The MoFo Top 100 Neo-noir Countdown

My top entry was of course Roman Polanski's masterpiece neo-noir, Chinatown.

I also agree that this is pretty much a perfect film, and the darkest of the dark in the entirely of the neo-noir catalog. Not a shred of hope remains by the time you reach the end of the film, where you find out that it's just best to forget it Jake, it's Chinatown. As I compiled my ballot, there was never a question in my mind what my top two entries were going to be, and I had settled on putting this film first from pretty much minute one.



Like Blade Runner, this is a film that I wasn't totally over the moon for after the first viewing. I recall being surprised by the revelations of the third act, and thinking it was a little bit too much of a slow burn for my taste - it seemed a bit event light. I think ti was a good year or two before I tried watching it again, but by that time, I had read a couple of books on film noir that my father had gifted to me, and I had started really paying more attention to the craftsmanship in films. So, on my second, or maybe even third viewing, I remember pausing the film about the time we are in Jake's office when the fake Evelyn makes her visit, and just marveling at the mise en scene. Then I binge watched the film a few times and from then on, I was hooked.



One scene I have watched many, many times, is the conversation between Noah Cross and Jake Gittes. Huston looms in this scene, while Nicholson's usually commanding presence shrinks as each second ticks by. Not sure the character of Jake Gittes realizes he is in too deep during this scene, but we as the viewers certainly do.

Faye Dunaway is stellar here, and this is my favorite role of hers. Watching her transform from what seems like a cold, calculating figure in act one to the shattered, shrinking violet in act 3, into someone that has absolutely no control over her trajectory, is heartbreaking. Gittes, who thinks he is ahead in the game right up until she reveals her dark secrets, is just as stunned as we are, realizing how badly he has read his hand, figuring out he is dead money at the table and that they have both lost the game long ago. From that second onward, it's just a dark spiral of misery and death.



That about does it for another wonderful MoFo countdown. Thanks to everyone involved, especially Thief, and of course Yoda for the under-the-hood stuff. Another shout out to Holden Pike for all the excellent tidbits of info, videos, and other various sundry contributions. Lots of great input from many MoFos, really!

One of my favorite countdowns ever on the site, as neo noir contains many of my favorite films of all time.

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62/100 seen

It's very difficult to answer with anything other than Chinatown if asked "What's the greatest neo noir of all time?"

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Well, I am not a huge fan of Chinatown. I don't know why.


But my #1 was Seance On a Wet Afternoon. Which I believe is a must see. It is a British film starring Richard Attenborough and Kim Stanley. They play a middle-aged couple, the women of which is a medium. The husband is a man who would do any mad thing she ask him. She plans a kidnapping of a child. They plan on using the kidnapping to promote her abilities as a medium. Of course, everything goes sideways. It is a wild suspenseful ride and a psychological look at this, shall we say... codependent couple.


Did anyone else have The Matrix as a neo-noir or am I the only one? It was my #18.


I want to thank Thief for doing a masterful job of running this countdown. Thanks, man!

I like The Matrix, but don't love it. As far as its qualifications as neo-noir, I guess an argument could be made for its visuals to be very noir-ish, but I think that is as far as one could take it. Conceptually, I don't see it really sticking the landing.

Did someone mention Chinatown...

Director: Roman Polanski
Genre: Neo Noir

Evelyn Mulwray is NOT a Femme Fatale. She wants to present a controlled, powerful, refined exterior, but Jake sees though it pretty quickly. He interprets her motives for those deceits to be self-serving, to hide a crime she has likely committed fueled by jealously or contempt, murdering her philandering husband. But of course the big reveal is that the crime she is hiding are her father's monstrous, unnatural acts against her, trying desperately to be strong and unflappable when in reality she is damaged and incessantly sad.



That moment post-coitus in bed with Gittes, after she had allowed herself to be as vulnerable and she can manage and probably so rarely does, emotionally and physically naked, the way her entire body and soul recoils when she stutters, "You spoke with my father...?" is masterful acting. The weight of her trauma landing right back squarely on her shoulders, where it usually resides. The rightfully famous slapping scene of course gets a lot of attention and looms large in the collective memory, but Dunaway was magnificent in Chinatown.

Not all Noirs, Classic or Neo, have a Femme Fatale. It is not a prerequisite.


The 1974 crop of Best Actress nominees was very strong. Ellen Burstyn won for Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and she was wondeful of course, and it probably should have gone to Gena Rowlands for Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence, but Dunaway was just as worthy for her work in Chinatown.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Thanks for hosting. Good job.

My list

1. Le Samouraď (1967)
2. Thief (1981)
3. Memories of Murder (2003)
4. Dead Man's Shoes (2004)
5. Blood Simple (1984)
6. The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
7. Cure (1997)
8. Fireworks (1997)
9. Branded to Kill (1967)
10. Infernal Affairs (2002)
11. Breathless (1960)
12. The Wild Goose Lake (2019)
13. Caché (2005)
14. Fargo (1996)
15. A Prophet (2009)
16. A Bittersweet Life (2005)
17. Ash Is Purest White (2018)
18. Amores Perros (2000)
19. Animal Kingdom (2010)
20. Bad Timing (1980)
21. Humanité (1999)
22. Arlington Road (1999)
23. Brick (2006)
24. Nine Queens (2000)
25. Fallen Angels (1995)

One more: Blade Runner was #2 on the countdown, I'm just going to pretend it's the original theatrical cut

Blade Runner...Theatrical Cut (1982)

I really love this movie. I don't know if I love the story more or the look of it? Or maybe it's the brilliant music score. I know it's a film that makes me think and I've thought about this film a lot!...Any film that can capture my imagination and hold it, is special and Blade Runner is very special to me.

I've seen this before of course, many times, the last time I watched the Final Cut version of the film. But it's been 34 years since I've seen the original Theatrical Cut, that's the version that was released in theaters and the version I watched.

I swear Blade Runner gets better every time I watch it. This time around I realized just how beautifully Ridley Scott frames his compositions. The scene in the Tyrell corporation's office is perhaps my favorite, that's why I chose that photo. Seconds before that shot in the photo above, we see the reverse angle as Tyrell enters the room. There's this eerie light shimmer on the walls and the lighting is a warm gold, it just looks stunning. The decor is stunning too, with it's voluminous spaces and an Egyptian feel...which matches the pyramidal shape of the building. The film is filled with so many beautiful compositions...and the art designs is sublime.

If there's one thing that Ridley Scott excels at is, world building, he fills the movie from side to side and top to bottom with details...details upon details! The film is so three dimensional that it looks like you could enter the world of Blade Runner at any scene. Ridley's use of night shooting coupled with rain...lots of rain...and lots of smoke, gives the set texture and realism, that otherwise wouldn't be there. The man's a genius at getting the right look.

Then there's the haunting music score by Vangelis. It's heavy and dark when we're on the crowded urban streets, then like a lifting storm the music lightens as the spinner car lifts up into the sky. During Rachel's Voight-Kampff test, the score changes to a light tinkling bell sound. Later we have a mellow steamy saxophone score in Deckard's apartment setting the appropriate mood. The music score presents is powerful.

And what's not to like about a film noirish, existential, slow burn-sci fi film, with some graphic violence punctuating the dark night. The morals that the film explores, as it examines what it means to be human, is deep. So deep that the debate still rages over just what the film is saying. Like I said, it makes me ponder the story like no other film ever has.

My Neo-Noir ballot


1. Lost Highway (1997)
2. Blade Runner (1982)
3. Inception (2010)
4. Angel Heart (1987)
5. The Dark Knight (2008)
6. Fargo (1996)
7. Cape Fear (1991)
8. Chinatown (1974)
9. Badlands (1973)
10. The Conversation (1974)
11. The French Connection (1971)
12. Blue Velvet (1986)
13. Mean Streets (1973)
14. To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
15. The Departed (2006)
16. Ghost Dog : The Way of the Samurai (1999)
17. The Player (1992)
18. Memento (2000)
19. Mulholland Drive (2001)
20. Batman Begins (2005)
21. Wild at Heart (1990)
22. Minority Report (2002)
23. Insomnia (2002)
24. Taxi Driver (1976)
25. No Country for Old Men (2007)

Rauldc14's List

1. Mystic River (2003)
2. Gone Baby Gone (2007)
3. Se7en (1995)
4. L.A. Confidential (1997)
5. Collateral (2004)
6. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
7. No Country for Old Men (2007)
8. Taxi Driver (1976)
9. Jackie Brown (1997)
10. The Player (1992)
11. Chinatown (1974)
12. Fallen Angels (1995)
13. Inside Man (2006)
14. Fargo (1996)
15. The Dark Knight (2008)
16. Hell or High Water (2016)
17. Le Samouraď (1967)
18. Gone Girl (2014)
19. The Long Goodbye (1973)
20. Blood Simple (1984)
21. Heat (1995)
22. Memories of Murder (2003)
23. Sin City (2005)
24. Lost Highway (1997)
25. Drive (2011)

Looks like I missed 3.

Props to @Holden Pike for the cool ballot presentation idea. The man is always a step ahead of the curve. Two, even!

Those subversions of the stereotypical expectations of the femme fatale are part of what distinguishes neo-noir from classic film noir. The same can be said, to a lesser extent maybe, about Lynn Bracken in L.A. Confidential.

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But Neo-Noir has plenty of full-blown Femme Fatales, too. Linda Fiorentino's Bridget Gregory (The Last Seduction), Kathleen Turner's Matty Walker (Body Heat), and Sharon Stone's Catherine Tramell (Basic Instinct) being three of the prime examples, mirroring their Classic Noir predecessors. But even Classic Noirs had female leads that were not Femme Fatales, like Gloria Grahame in In A Lonely Place, Gene Tierney as Laura, and Teresa Wright in Shadow of a Doubt. As I say, it is a variable, not a prerequisite. But yes, you are correct that both Chinatown and L.A. Confidential play against the archetype by having those characters presented as possible Femme Fatales when introduced, but ultimately proven to be something else by the end of the flicks.

My List

1. Taxi Driver (1976)
2. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
3. Dark City (1998)
4. Sin City (2005)
5. Body Heat (1981)
6. Alphaville (1965)
7. The Nice Guys (2016)
8. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
9. Shutter Island (2010)
10. Cape Fear (1962)
11. L.A. Confidential (1997)
12. Miller's Crossing (1990)
13. Chinatown (1974)
14. Klute (1971)
15. The Long Goodbye (1973)
16. Blood Simple (1984)
17. Shallow Grave (1994)
18. Blast of Silence (1961)
19. Brick (2006)
20. Jackie Brown (1997)
21. Drive (2011)
22. High and Low (1963)
23. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
24. Blade Runner (1982)
25. Affliction (1997)

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