Night Moves (1975) is an underrated example of the neo-noir genre of the era. Alongside Chinatown and The Long Goodbye, these films paid tribute to 1940s noir while investing everything with a post-Watergate feeling of disappointment; in Night Moves, for example, there’s a scene where characters talk about where they were when JFK was killed. I think this is definitely one of Gene Hackman’s best performances, up there with The Conversation. He plays Harry Moseby, a private eye hired by an aging movie star to track down their runaway daughter – naturally this leads to a bigger criminal conspiracy, all the way to the waters of the Florida Keys. Usually in police/detective procedurals, scenes of the investigator’s home-life seem like an after-thought or perfunctory; here, Harry’s marriage problems with his wife (Susan Clark) are another layer into his intriguing characterisation (an ex-football star who also grew up an orphan), someone who can’t focus on his own problems and prefers to escape into trying to solve other people’s. Directed by Arthur Penn and written by novelist Alan Sharp, the film has a swift sense of pacing while having great dialogue, investing everyone with rounded dimensions and motivations (for example, Jennifer Warren’s character who is full of quips and creates an mysterious relationship with Hackman’s character). There’s definitely a strain of male movie critic who over-identifies with Hackman’s character for the one scene where he slams the movies of Eric Rohmer as “watching paint dry” (still, quite fascinating for a movie like this to have characters talk about a French film auteur in passing). Night Moves produces unexpected scenes like Harry eating fondue while in bed wearing a bathrobe, and an ocean-based climax that results in a huge visual metaphor for the labyrinthine times it was made in (and a metaphor that still applies for these times). A twisty, uncertain slice of investigative nilhilism and an involving character study. Available to rent on iTunes. Recommended.
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