Movies - TV
The 12 Best Neo-Noir Films Ranked
By LIAM GAUGHAN
12. The Long Goodbye
Robert Altman is a master of tone; the events of "The Long Goodbye" are lurid and often disturbing, but as Raymond Chandler's famous detective Philip Marlowe, Elliot Gould finds an exasperated side to the character that is hilarious. He is hardly a traditional private eye and it’s one of Gould’s best roles.
11. Memento
Christopher Nolan's second feature film, "Memento," proves that his ingenuity still flourishes when he's working with a lower budget. Nolan is renowned for his complex narratives and shocking plot twists, and "Memento" holds up on repeated viewings.
10. L.A. Confidential
This is a clever reimagining of 1950s detective stories; even though its style recalls classic noir, it acknowledges the genre's clichés and addresses important themes like police brutality. Kim Basinger's Lynn Bracken is a much more complex femme fatale character than classic '50s stereotypes, too, and her romance in the film has real emotional weight.
9. The Conversation
While "The Conversation" is a work of political commentary, it's also gripping as a thriller. Francis Ford Coppola's masterwork follows the independent privacy researcher Harry Caul, who meticulously built his life around avoiding detection, but the discovery of critical information threatens his seclusion.
8. Brick
"Brick" took the hallmarks of hard-boiled detective stories and placed them in an unusual environment: a suburban Los Angeles high school. Rian Johnson's directorial debut is intense and gripping, and it's actually more heartbreaking to see the younger characters dealing with the concerns of an adult genre.
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The 12 Best Neo-Noir Films Ranked
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