After Dark, My Sweet (1990)

Adapted from a novel by Jim Thompson, After Dark, My Sweet (1990) is an underrated neo-noir that is set in the outskirts of Palm Springs, California. Wandering out of the desert is a drifter, Kid Collins (Jason Patric), an ex-boxer who tells us over voice over narration that he’s escaped from a mental ward. In […]

Too Late For Tears (1949)

A bag filled with money is a classic object and inciting incident in film noir, never an opportunity but a source of fatalistic consequences. So it goes in Too Late For Tears (1949) when a married couple (Lizabeth Scott and Arthur Kennedy) are driving down a lonely stretch of road when another car throws in […]

Black Widow (1987)

There’s more than one Black Widow on Disney Plus – you can also check out the neo-noir Black Widow (1987) directed by Bob Rafelson (Five Easy Pieces, The King Of Marvin Gardens). I remember watching this when I was a kid on TV and being a bit underwhelmed – I thought there was going to […]

Woman On The Run (1950)

Woman On The Run (1950) is an effective and underrated film noir that’s under 80 minutes and has made me a fan of main star Ann Sheridan (who was also a silent co-producer on it). When her husband (Ross Elliott) witnesses a murder while walking their dog, he reports it to the police but gets […]

Point Blank (1967)

Lee Marvin in a series of dapper suits with a revolver in hand is enough for a 1960s neo-noir like Point Blank (1967) but the actor’s collaboration with young British director John Boorman offered them both a chance to push the crime genre into pop art experimentation. Revisiting Point Blank, it feels like Steven Soderbergh […]