More a “blanc” than a noir, this a really great thriller in which a big city detective finds himself investigating a murder in a small town north of the Arctic Circle, where the sun is out 24 hours a day and keeps him from sleeping. Is his gradual insanity caused by the lack of sleep, the case, or both?
Category Archives: Film Noir
MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001)
In which I finally find a movie too weird for me, or perhaps more accurately, a movie that left me wondering what all of its weirdness was actually in service of.
ACE IN THE HOLE (1951)
An ultra-cynical satire of the news media and America in general, this is a movie that very much feels like it could have come out in 2021.
THE HITCH-HIKER (1953)
A surprisingly tense thriller about two guys who pick up a hitch-hiker only to quickly discover he’s actually a serial killer, that is considered the only “classic” film noir directed by a woman.
FARGO (1996)
The Coen Brothers’ masterpiece of a modern noir set against the snowbound niceness of the Upper Midwest in winter.
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950)
Maybe the first great heist movie, for me it still works just as well today as it did 70 years ago.
THE THIRD MAN (1949)
A movie of black and white paranoia that to me is one of the all-time classics, perfectly capturing a very specific time and place.
LAURA (1944)
Perhaps the most campy and nonsensical of all 1940s murder mysteries, I love it so much.
BLUE VELVET (1986)
An, um, unique take on the dark underbelly of a small town from David Lynch, sort of the proto-Twin Peaks.
DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS (1995)
A very well-done neo-noir that deals with issues the original film noirs mostly ignored. Denzel Washington plays the detective in over his head.
Movie Valhalla 