The Long Goodbye (1973)

American cinema in the 1970s had an interest in reviving older genres, and film noir was a great way of expressing society’s disillusionment and paranoia. Casting the hangdog, bemused charm of Elliott Gould as the classic detective character of Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye (1973) must have seemed like a joke to fans of […]

Blow The Man Down (2019)

Acquired by Amazon Studios and streaming now on Amazon Prime is the film, Blow The Man Down (2019). Beginning with a stirring rendition of the title sea shanty by several fisherman on the docks (who function as a type of Greek Chorus throughout the film), it’s a stylish way of announcing its setting – a […]

The Shout (1978)

This was an odd one and I knew it was going to be. The Shout (1978) is a British horror film directed by Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski. All I knew about the film was that it was about a man – named Crossley and played by Alan Bates – who can kill by shouting. Based […]

New Rose Hotel (1998)

New Rose Hotel (1998) is based on a William Gibson short story but is pretty low-tech in terms of being anything cyberpunk. For director Abel Ferrara (of Bad Lieutenant and King Of New York), it’s more about the raw emotions surrounding what is basically a classic noir plot – a honey trap designed to secure […]

Laura (1944)

Laura (1944) has always been held up as a classic and a key title when it comes to the genre of film noir. What I was surprised by was, in comparison to say Raymond Chandler adaptations, there is something sophisticated about this film, a drawing room mystery rather than a plunge into the dark, gritty […]