film noir – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Ariel

Ariel (1988)
Written and directed by Aki Kaurismäki

The more I watch Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s work, the more I warm up to him. I haven’t seen a considerable amount so far, only Le Havre, Fallen Leaves, and now Ariel. I found myself adjusting to his tone & style in Le Havre and would probably enjoy it even more if I rewatched it. I loved Fallen Leaves, and Ariel is my favorite of all the films I’ve seen. It is also Kaurismäki’s personal favorite of his films thus far, the middle of what he labeled his Proletarian Trilogy.

Movie Review – Johnny Guitar

Johnny Guitar (1954)
Written by Philip Yordan and Ben Maddow
Directed by Nicholas Ray

By 1954, Joan Crawford was in the latter part of her career. She debuted in 1924 after receiving a contract from MGM that paid $75 a week. This was during the silent era, which Crawford was able to transition from into sound. By 1938, she was one of several actors labeled “box office poison” for declining revenues. That didn’t stop Crawford; she got bought out of her contract to move to Warner Brothers. It was here she starred in Mildred Pierce, one of her most well-regarded pictures of this era. She would branch out to other studios, and it was with Republic Pictures that she collaborated with Nicholas Ray to make the cult classic Johnny Guitar.

Movie Review – Collateral

Collateral (2004)
Written by Stuart Beattie
Directed by Michael Mann

We end our brief survey of neo-noir films with this crime flick from Michael Mann. I wouldn’t say I adore all of Mann’s work, but I would never question how gorgeous his movies look. He invented an aesthetic we mainly associate with the 1980s yet kept with it for the next few decades. Whether the scripts work or not, Mann will deliver a moody, atmospheric experience, and that is half of what most noir stories are. You need to feel the seediness and grime for the story to work its magic. Mann accomplishes something even more impressive here, he got Tom Cruise to play the villain.

Movie Review – Jackie Brown

Jackie Brown (1997)
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino

Saying a lot has been written about Quentin Tarantino’s films would be an understatement. I think it would be safe to say that Jackie Brown is the film the least written about or regarded with the least awe. It was the filmmaker’s follow-up to Pulp Fiction, and such “next movies” can fail to live up to eager fans’ expectations. Brown is a far more muted picture than we have come to expect from Tarantino. There are a few loud stylistic flourishes, but for the most part, the picture is entirely character-driven. The result is something that still feels very fresh despite being made twenty-five years ago. Other movies will age poorly, but Tarantino’s work always feels like it could have been made today.

Movie Review – Chungking Express

Chungking Express (1994)
Written and directed by Wong Kar-wai

The Chungking Mansions is a building located in Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was intended as a residential building but ended up being partitioned into many independent low-budget hotels, shops, and other services. There’s a mix of selling directly to the public and wholesalers from these businesses. Because it has become so unlike its original intent, the Chungking Mansions are often compared to the now-demolished Kowloon Walled City. Wong Kar-wai grew up in the Mansions, and their densely packed environment shaped his sensibilities as a filmmaker. So many people in such a small space meant many stories, relationships, and conflicts.

Movie Review – Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
Written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman
Directed by Robert Zemeckis

There will never be a film like this one again. Warner Bros. and Disney allowing their characters on screen together makes it a rare event. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was a celebration of classic American animation, both in the characters featured but also in animation legend Richard Williams overseeing that part of the production. Watching it now as an adult, it is surprisingly straightforward. It follows the noir genre closely with its plot while letting the tone be set by the zany premise. The story takes place over two days, and there’s never a lull; the pacing keeps us moving along with the characters, leading up to a very memorable conclusion.

Movie Review – The French Connection

The French Connection (1971)
Written by Ernest Tidyman
Directed by William Friedkin

It’s not the story that compels you to keep watching. It’s the lead performance by Gene Hackman. It’s the bleak atmosphere of a decaying New York City. It’s the sense that no matter how this turns out, no one really wins. The rot will just keep spreading. Reactionary cinema had its Golden Age in the 1970s. Most of those depicted the rogue cop or the street vigilante as a bastion of “real justice,” pushing aside those pesky civil rights laws to “get the job done.” You might lump The French Connection in with something like Dirty Harry, but that would be a mistake. Dirty Harry revels in Callahan’s sadism and hatred of pretty much all humanity. Popeye Doyle is not someone we’re meant to admire. He’s an animal we’re observing who stalks and hunts vulnerable prey, invoking the Law as his justification. He doesn’t care about the Law, though. This is about ego.

Movie Review – The Conformist

The Conformist (1970)
Written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci

Time and again, people in the States seem to conflate fascism with iconography. Yes, that is undoubtedly a piece of the ideology, but its believers are clever enough to know that continuing to wear swastikas and black leather while goosestepping isn’t going to sow seeds anymore. The danger of fascism is how much like the mundane & ordinary it can appear. This is where “I was just following orders” emerges from. You can be a mild-mannered civil servant, just signing the papers across your desk and filing them correctly. Nothing wrong with that, right? If those papers are in connection to greenlighting death camps or murdering political dissidents, then it doesn’t seem like you are “just doing your job.” You are carrying water for a type of thought that seeks to annihilate every last atom of humanity in us.

PopCult Podcast – Love Lies Bleeding/Drive-Away Dolls

As Billy Eichner once said, “Let’s go, lesbians!” On this week’s sapphic episode we look at a two lesbian neo-noirs with two very different takes on the genre.

Patron Pick – The Pledge

This special reward is available to Patreon patrons who pledge at the $10 or $20 monthly levels. Each month, those patrons will pick a film for me to review. If they choose, they also get to include some of their thoughts about the movie. This Pick comes from Matt Harris.

The Pledge (2001)
Written by Jerzy Kromolowski & Mary Olson-Kromolowski
Directed by Sean Penn

I remember liking this movie more when I saw it in college. It’s not a bad film, but The Pledge is incredibly messy. There’s a clear sense of director Sean Penn getting a day with an actor he likes and shoehorning a scene in with them. The film drips with the essence of being a picture directed by an actor. It’s more interested in being a character study that plays in the tropes of the crime thriller; that’s one of its strongest aspects. However, the script demands a plot, so throughout the entire runtime, we experience tension between Penn’s desire to play with his performers and the genre tropes indicating specific plot beats to the audience. It doesn’t surprise me that The Pledge is a movie that split critics & audiences on its release. And despite all its many flaws, it is one of Jack Nicholson’s great late-career performances.