The MoFo Top 100 Neo-noir Countdown

TRAILERS



Killer Joe - When a debt puts him on the crossfire, a young man hires a corrupt cop to kill his evil mother in order to collect the insurance.




Strange Days - When a former cop turned street-hustler discovers evidence of a potential murder, he pairs up with a bodyguard friend to help find the killer. But what he finds is a vast conspiracy involving the police force he once worked for.

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Strange Days has been on my radar for a very long time, but for some reason, I've never gotten to it.

Killer Joe is such a weird film because of its darkly humorous tone and its bizarre ending. But regardless of how those two things land for you, it's a film that will certainly stick with you; maybe for laughs, maybe for other reason. I'm not that crazy about Emile Hirsch as the lead, but Matthew McConaughey easily steals the film. He's so good that the film is worth a watch if only for his performance. I had this at #20.


SEEN: 20/36
MY BALLOT: 5/25

I've been thinking about watching Killer Joe for a while now,but still haven't gotten around to it. I've seen Strange Days and rated it a 6/10. My review of Strange Days: "A couple good moments,but much of this doesn't work for me. Performances are hit and miss. It also felt longer than it needed to be."

Seen: 26/36

One from my ballot! I had at #7 Strange Days. I haven't seen it in years, make that two decades.

Strange Days was #81 on the MoFo Top 100 Science Fiction Films.

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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

it was also #9 on the "directed by women" list.

no votes. could've sworn strange days was on my ballot, but it would appear not. pity, i think it's definitely a contender for bigelow's masterpiece that perfectly straddles the line between the pulpiness of her early features and the more overtly prestigious work she'd do afterwards. seen killer joe once and liked it, but never seem to be in the mood to revisit it (which is honestly understandable given how...provocative it is).

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

I haven't seen either of them, but they seem intriguing.

Strange Days ended up at #3 on my ballot.

My first watch of 2013 couldn't have been more bizarre. Killer Joe walks a fine line between a dark comedy and a sick thriller. The film follows Chris (Emile Hirsch), a young Texan drug dealer who, after falling in debt with some thugs, decides to murder his alcoholic mother to collect the insurance money. He then recruits the help of his father, Ansel (Thomas Haden Church) and his current wife, Sharla (Gina Gershon). Although they try not to involve her, Chris young and naive sister, Dottie (Juno Temple), also agrees to the deed. To achieve their goal, they hire the titular character, Joe Cooper (Matthew McCounaghey), a detective whose side job is as a contract killer. When Chris can't come up with Joe's $25,000 fee up front, Joe asks for Dottie as a retainer. And from there, the plot unravels in what ends up being a chaotic mess.

I have to say, I rented this expecting it to be more of a suspense/thriller. I never thought the film would end up being what it is. And what a bizarre and twisted film it ended up being. I'm still not sure what to make of it, but it sure wasn't boring. The film gloats in its own chaotic and messy nature, as if there were no bridles to hold it back. Depending on what you expect, or how receptive you are, this might be good or bad.

For starters, during the first hour or so, I thought most of the acting was uneven. Everyone from Hirsch and Haden Church, to Gershon interacted and behaved in a sort of self-conscious way, screaming in what seemed to me as unnatural or awkward. Now, on hindsight, I wonder if it was part of the darkly comedic tone of the film. Temple was the only one of the lead family that was pretty good from the beginning. Her performance as the innocent and childlike Dottie was pretty good, without limiting herself to the usual crutches of this type of characters.

But either way, the standout of the film is Matthew McConaughey as the titular character. McConaughey completely owns the role of Killer Joe in what I think is one, if not the best performance I've seen of him. His character is a contradiction, in every single way. A police detective, who happens to be a contract killer on the side. A murderer who sometimes investigates his own murderers. A man of order in the middle of the chaos, that sometimes he is a part of. McConaughey gives so many layers to Joe, as we see him charmed by Dottie one moment, and then intimidating Chris and Ansel. As reprehensible as his actions might be, he maintains a sense of order in everything he does: his punctuality, his manners, the way he talks. His "employers", in the other hand, are a total mess in all those same aspects.

The climatic scene of the film is a tense dinner at the trailer of our characters which brings to the surface some of this contradictions. In this scene, all the characters collide in one of the most twisted and intense scenes I've seen recently, as Joe confronts the intentions and motivations of each of them. Again, we have to wonder, who is the bad guy then? who is the killer? Despite all the serious ramifications, there are moments in the scene where I was just chuckling and asking myself "WTF?", highlighted by the awkwardly anti-climatic ending. But even if you chuckle or shake your head at it all, I think it was worth it.

Initially, I wasn't sure what to think of the film and didn't grade it. But as time has passed by, I can say I really liked it. I think it's worth a watch for anyone who's ready for something odd, or for a great performance from an underrated actor.

Grade:

^Sharing an old review I wrote for Killer Joe back when I first saw it. I readjusted some bits so I could add it as a "review" on MoFo, but for the most part, that's how I felt back in 2013. If you ask me now, I would probably bump that rating a notch.

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF... KILLER JOE


Roger Ebert said:

Josh Larsen said:

@JayDee said:

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF... STRANGE DAYS


Roger Ebert said:

Tom Joliffe, from Flickering Myth, said:

@TheUsualSuspect said:

Everything is fine

I want to see Killer Joe---but all I know about it (and find very funny) was Friedkin's hilariously casual dismissal of the fact that the camera crew is totally visible in one seen on the reflection of a truck.

Another film from my list made the Countdown! Strange Days was my #8. I'm oddly not sure what to say about it though, other than the fact that Ralph Fiennes was really charismatic in it. I know I found it really engaging despite the runtime - which seemed much longer a few years back, even though it's a fairly standard length now haha.

I haven't checked in awhile, but isn't Strange Days one of those films that just doesn't seem to be on any streaming service? You might want to watch it while you still can, before it becomes lost media.

Seen: 18/36

My List: 5
05. Blue Ruin (2013) - #82
06. Mother (2009) - #67
08. Strange Days (1995) - #65
10. The Man from Nowhere (2010) - #87
15. Infernal Affairs (2002) - #91
25. The Chaser (2008) - DNP 1-pointer

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Mystic River and Killer Joe both made my ballot at #'s 12 and 22. I don't know how neo-noir Mystic River really is but it was eligible and it's one of the better films of the 00's and probably my second fav from Eastwood so I had to put it somewhere. Just outside the top ten seemed right. Kind of a downer flick, I loved the acting even if it has the rep for being a little too over the top at times. Vigilante justice at it's finest.

Killer Joe we saw in the theater and it was a weird experience. It seemed like a lot of folks wanted to laugh but weren't sure if they should, maybe waiting for somebody to break the seal and then when it ended it was just....quiet. Nobody was saying anything on the way out. It was strange. I love really dark humor so this was right up my alley and it gets better every time I see it. Everybody was great in this, the ending was both horrifying and hilarious and what did end up happening? Dottie?