Chris Pine stars, directs and co-wrote Poolman, a sun-baked film noir that never quite finds its tone in spite of its best efforts, and feels like the love child of Chinatown and The Big Lewbowski. A pastiche of the eccentricities and lifestyles of LA, Pine populates his film with characters you could only find in…
Tag: film noir
TIFF’23: Knox Goes Away
I’ve said it before, and I know I’ll say it again. I love a good noir, and Knox Goes Away directed by and starring, Micheal Keaton may be one of my new favourites. making fantastic use of his framing, lighting, score and production, Knox Goes Away, despite its modern trappings, feels like a throwback to…
TIFF ’23: Reptile
I love a good film noir, and Reptile, having its World Premiere at TIFF, definitely falls into that category. Being released by Netflix (which means if you can’t see it on the silver screen you;ll be able to see it on your big screen at home in October) the film is a tightly wound spring…
The Sniper (1952) – Edward Dmytryk
I do enjoy a good film noir, and The Sniper is one I had never heard of, and quite happily dug into, contained as it was in a Film Noir Collection I had been gifted one holiday season. Despite some very sexist trappings, it was the 50s after all, there’s a really fascinating story here….
Star Trek: Picard – Rogue Elements (2021) – John Jackson Miller
The year is 2391, four years after the Romulan star was destroyed, and Simon & Schuster’s next entry in the Star Trek: Picard, is an enjoyable entry that mixes a lot of humor with a very noir detective story that ties back to one of the biggest events of the 23rd century. The longest of…
Dark City (1998) – Alex Proyas
As much as I enjoy The Crow, Dark City may be my favourite Proyas films, it combines two of my favourite genres, the film noir and science fiction and delivers something intelligent, engaging, and fantastically put together. And yet, I hadn’t watched this one in forever, but of course, when it was time for a…
The Ninth Gate (1999) – Roman Polanski
Johnny Depp finds himself caught up in a literary supernatural film noir that serves as the next entry in the chapter of The Devil’s Work in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movie. Using the novel The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte as its basis the film follows a book detective, Corso (Depp) who is hired…
Pickup on South Street (1953) – Samuel Fuller
Jean Peters sizzles in this spy/crime film noir that is another film mentioned in Philip Kemp’s Movies book. It also falls into the category of how had I never heard of this film before? As it ticks a lot of my boxes, spies, film noir… it’s a corker! Candy (Peters) is on the subway, and…
L.A. Confidential (1997) – Curtis Hanson
Before we dive in to this one, I want to admit that yes, this one is sullied now because of Kevin Spacey, it doesn’t however change the fact that this is a fantastic film. Chinatown is the next big recommendation from DK Canada’s The Movie Book, but as I’ve covered it previously I jumped right…
Miami Vice (1986) – Definitely Miami, and Yankee Dollar
A fantastic episode is hindered by the presence of Ted Nugent (ugh), as I head back to Miami for more Vice. Definitely Miami aired 10 January, 1986 and was written by Micheal Ahnemann and Daniel Pyne is a Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) story that plays out brilliantly. Callie Bassett (Arielle Dombasle) and her husband Charlie (Nugent)…
The Mind Reels 