The MoFo Top 100 Neo-noir Countdown

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Holden Pike's Avatar
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One Ornery Sumbitch
04-08-24
We are coming toward the end, and I think only another eight of mine will be in this Top Thirty, meaning five of my remaining titles won't make it.

1. definite
2. absolutely
3. gotta be
4. Night Moves
5. surely
6. definitely
7. The Grifters
8. One False Move
9. Blast of Silence
10. shockingly (to me), this will miss
11. must be
12. To Live and Die in L.A.
13. The Naked Kiss
14. Angel Heart
15. Shallow Grave
16. extremely doubtful
17. Dead Again
18. no way
19. holding out feint hope, but probably not
20. absolutely
21. 100%
22. The Hot Spot
23. no way, José
24. Blue Ruin
25. Johnny Handsome (one-pointer)


That would make nineteen on the list, six no shows. We shall see. Would love to be wrong about a couple of the flicks I have figured as misses.
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04-08-24
Predictions for My Ballot:

1. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (#35)
2. You Were Never Really Here (#50)
3. The Man From Nowhere (#87)
4. The Departed (#53)
5. The Big Lebowski (#38)
6. Will Make It
7. True Romance (#60)
8. Will Make It
9. Will Make It
10. Won't Make It
11. Will Make It
12. Shutter Island (#86)
13. The Nice Guys (#39)
14. Inherent Vice (#41)
15. Gone Girl (#34)
16. Pulp Fiction (#37)
17. Killer Joe (#66)
18. Will Make It
19. Will Make It
20. Might Make It
21. Will Make It
22.Might Make It
23. Won't Make It
24. Won't Make It
25. Won't Make It

That will leave me with 19 or 20 making the countdown, which is the highest ever for me.

Edit: I'm changing 22 to a maybe. So could be 21 that make it.
Last edited by Miss Vicky; 04-10-24 at 01:38 PM.



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Basic Non-B
04-08-24
1. Definitely
2. Definitely

3. Brick (2006)
4. Heat (1995)

5. Definitely
6. Probably
7. Definitely

8. Point Blank (1969)
9. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

10. Guaranteed

11. Lost Highway (1997)

12. Maybe?
13. Probably
14. Probably

15. Oldboy (2003)
16. Basic Instinct (1992)

17. Definitely
18. Unlikely

19. Gone Girl (2014)
20. A Simple Plan (1998)

21. Probably
22. Probably

23. Maybe?

24. Under the Silver Lake (2018)

25. Unlikely



WHITBISSELL!'s Avatar
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04-08-24
1 for 2 today. Watched Heat and rooted for the so-called bad guys. So the ending left just about everything to be desired. I don't know if it completely torpedoed the experience. The film is so effortlessly stylish and cool and that shootout is hard to top. I just didn't want Vincent Hanna winning. They should have just let them both die. That would have been a much more fitting end.

Angel Heart is another of those "blind spot" films for me. Where it's there in plain sight and there's nothing stopping you from watching it. But you never actually do. Hmm, I wonder if it would help if I got a RECTIFY tattoo?

46 of 70 seen.



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04-08-24
Originally Posted by Thief
There's also games for the neo-noir gang. Here's a little simple game of Fill in the Blanks.

Missing Word: Neo-Noir

Let us know how you do! As you'll see, neo-noir confusion is not exclusive to MoFo
20 of 20 / 1:55
If I wasn't such a crap typist that would have been 5 or so seconds faster.



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04-08-24
Angel Heart(1987)

This film is worth watching for Mickey Rourke’s acting. He’s at his scruffy tawdry best in his role as a private investigator hired to locate a crooner named Johnny Favorite, who has broken a contract with Rourke’s client. This is some of Rourke’s best work since The Pope of Greenwich Village. It’s interesting to see fellow New Yorker Robert DeNiro in the role of Rourke’s employer, Louis Cyphre. It was the type of role that DeNiro could have phoned in, and it would be surprising if he had more than two day’s work out of it.

The rest of the cast did creditable work, including early roles for Lisa Bonet, and the always absorbing Charlotte Rampling.

Outside of Rourke’s performance, the chief attraction for this picture is the wonderful cinematography by Michael Seresin. His framing and lighting produced a gorgeous looking film. The set design is also memorably good, adding to the spookiness of 1950s New York and New Orleans cityscapes.

Apparently there was a tiff with the ratings board, culminating in some minor cuts in order to acquire the picture’s “R” rating. The objections are almost laughable today, what with every form of brutality, perversion, language, and violence so common in many popular contemporary films—which attests to a steep moral slide in the past 30 years.

The story itself was somewhat of a let down—starting with one premise and ending with a switcheroo conclusion. Without spoiling the narrative or its denouement, the outcome put me in mind of 2010’s Shutter Island.

The detective portions are noirish, but the picture is reallty a supernatural horror thriller. The shadowy photography is the principle nod to noir. Yet the acting and cinematography keep it from B movie status. And if one likes that kind of Faustian tale, then it holds up today as a good period piece.



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04-08-24
Heat is a very enjoyable crime picture. Not sure what makes it neo-noir.

The acting and directing were first rate. I especially enjoyed the shoot out sequence in downtown L.A. It may be the best that's ever been done there. Didn't care much for the ending.



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04-08-24
I find Heat to be a tad drawn out but still plenty awesome. I didn't consider it here.

Surprised to see Angel Heart but not disappointed. Cool flick that I haven't seen in some time.



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04-08-24
Gone Girl is my #20 and Dog Day Afternoon is my #3.
I saw Night Moves this weekend, It was fine. The best part of the movie is the final scene on the sea. It is wild and hilarious. I didn’t care for the nudity of an underaged actress. But now I know why I hadn’t seen it before. There is no way my parents would have allowed me to see that movie back then. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was fun. It is the only movie I l liked of the last six that wasn’t on my list.



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Master of None
04-09-24
Originally Posted by GulfportDoc


Apparently there was a tiff with the ratings board, culminating in some minor cuts in order to acquire the picture’s “R” rating. The objections are almost laughable today, what with every form of brutality, perversion, language, and violence so common in many popular contemporary films—which attests to a steep moral slide in the past 30 years.

Do you think the "steep moral slide" from the past 30 years is any steeper than the "moral slide" between 1957 and 1987? I mean, I'm sure that the things that did make it into the final cut of this film, or many other 1980s film, would still be mighty scandalous to people that grew up in the 40s and 50s.
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04-09-24
Reviewing my list there's as many as five that don't stand much of a chance of being called. While another five appear very likely to be named.

1. The French Connection (1971)
2. You Were Never Really Here (2018)
3. Get Carter (1971)
4. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
5. Blast of Silence (1961)
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18. One False Move (1992)
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24. Point Blank (1967)
25. Collateral (2004)



04-09-24


04-09-24
30
9lists129points
Zodiac
Director

David Fincher, 2007

Starring

Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Robert Downey Jr.





04-09-24


04-09-24
29
11lists132points
Thief
Director

Michael Mann, 1981

Starring

James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky, Willie Nelson





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Master of None
04-09-24
TRAILERS



Zodiac - Set in late 1960s San Francisco, a cartoonist becomes obsessed with the Zodiac Killer and pairs up with a detective and a journalist to try to track him down.




Thief - A highly skilled but aging safe cracker wants to make one last big score for the mob in order to settle down with his girlfriend. Unfortunately, that's not what his associates want.



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Master of None
04-09-24
Seen both, LOVE both, but only one made my list.

As far as I'm concerned, Zodiac is a legitimate masterpiece. Love the way Fincher uses the relentless pursuit of this killer as a lens to show us the lengths that obsession can take you to. You can read my full review here, but here is an excerpt from it:

As the film progresses, Fincher turns the tables on us to focus more on these three characters, becoming more of a character study than a plot-driven film. Thankfully, all three actors are up to the task delivering excellent performances all around. Downey, Jr. is particularly impressive in one of his best performances before he became absorbed by the MCU machinery.
I love how Fincher flips that switch from a plot-driven serial killer film into a more complex character study. It's quite brilliant, but also not something I would qualify as noir/neo-noir, so it didn't even occur to me to put it on my list.

Thief, on the other hand, is pure neo-noir. A great balance of style and substance. I have a review written that I might share in a while, but it's easily my second favorite Mann film. I had it at #11.


SEEN: 47/72
MY BALLOT: 13/25

My ballot  



Holden Pike's Avatar
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One Ornery Sumbitch
04-09-24
Originally Posted by Thief
Forgot to add that yesterday's entries were the second ones for both David Fincher and Michael Mann. Fincher had The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo back at #84 and Mann had Manhunter back at #77. Do you think they'll get any others?
Originally Posted by Holden Pike
Fincher, yes (SE7EN and likely Zodiac, too). Mann, yes (Heat for sure and maybe still Thief, though that will have to show very soon).



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Master of None
04-09-24
Who would've thought? A Michael Mann 1-2-3 punch, and the second Fincher in three days. Mann now has four entries in the countdown, three of them in the last three days in a row. Fincher has three so far, two of them in the last three days.



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Master of None
04-09-24
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF... ZODIAC


RT – 90%, IMDb – 7.7

Roger Ebert said:

"What makes Zodiac authentic is the way it avoids chases, shootouts, grandstanding and false climaxes, and just follows the methodical progress of police work. Just as Woodward and Bernstein knocked on many doors and made many phone calls and met many very odd people, so do the cops and Graysmith walk down strange pathways in their investigation. Because Graysmith is unarmed and civilian, we become genuinely worried about his naivete and risk-taking, especially during a trip to a basement that is, in its way, one of the best scenes I've ever seen along those lines." (read full review here)
Haaniyah Angus, from Medium, said:

"Through his obsessive attention to detail Fincher has created a docu-drama that pays homage to the victims of the killings and a perfect neo-noir film of the 21st century that gives audiences the same sense of claustrophobia that the Zodiac Killer gave those involved in the case." (read full review here)
@PHOENIX74 said:

"This is an engaging and enjoyable film that doesn't feel at all long even at 157 minutes. Best of all, we feel what the characters are feeling, whether that be curiosity or fear [...] From a top rate script to confident filmmaking from Fincher, added to a good score and interesting photography, this popular film entertains on successive viewings and is interesting - not to mention attention-grabbing." (read full review here)



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Master of None
04-09-24
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF... THIEF


RT – 80%, IMDb – 7.4

Roger Ebert said:

"Michael Mann's Thief is a film of style, substance, and violently felt emotion, all wrapped up in one of the most intelligent thrillers I've seen. It's one of those films where you feel the authority right away: This movie knows its characters, knows its story, and knows exactly how it wants to tell us about them. At a time when thrillers have been devalued by the routine repetition of the same dumb chases, sex scenes, and gunfights, Thief is completely out of the ordinary." (read full review here)
The Guardian said:

"Everything about Mann’s debut feature Thief [...] is uncommonly assured for a first-time director, with many signature touches in place from the very first shots: the stylish neon-blue titles, the rain-slackened neo-noir nightscape, the pulsating synth score by Tangerine Dream." (read full review here)
@Joel said:

"I find this to be a perfect movie. The dialog is impeccably written as this was handled by Mann himself. His pet project. So much technique is on display here, from the camera work with curiously metered positions and movements, to the night time street photography. The set design echoes an emerald gemstone in contrast with the overall diamond theme of glassy white." (read full review here)

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