Masters of Neo-Noir

/ jeffstillwell
This educational video essay compiles clips and interviews to examine the film genre of Neo-Noir, using specific films to track the evolution of the genre, and also unpack its philosophical influences.
SPOILERS FOR
Chinatown
The Long Goodbye
Taxi Driver
Blade Runner
Blue Velvet
The Usual Suspects
L.A. Confidential
Brick
Sin City
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Alex NES for the Twin Peaks synthwave cover: ( • Twin Peaks Theme Synth... )
MP Audio Solutions for 'A World of Blue (Instrumental)':
• A World of Blue (Instr...
And as always, a million THANK-YOUs to my awesome Patrons over at Patreon. Thank you guys so much ❤️

[@coopermiller3216]

this man jeff got the quality content right here. dont you let us down now my man

[@EarthtoAdam95]

After all these years of loving a specific type of film I had no idea they fell into this category! It all makes sense now

[@stevemcnary7963]

A few neo noir favorites of mine are Body Heat, Night Moves, To Live And Die In LA, Insomnia, Training Day, Warning Shot, among others.

[@TTurs]

Everyone always forgets "The Big Empty" this is a great neo noir modern day one that's gone under the radar for sure

[@moxxibekk]

Brick is such a good and underrated film

[@morenofranco9235]

Excellent presentation, Jeffrey. Beautiful job.

[@martinsorenson1055]

Couple of things on The Long Goodbye: Pay attention to the score/background music or anytime music is playing. You'll hear the John Williams composed song called The Long Goodbye in various interpretations. It plays as background music when Elliott Gould is trying to feed his cat; a pianist plays it and sings it in a bar during the day; it's the muzak in a market; it's the doorbell chime at someone's beach house. Also, the voice singing The Long Goodbye in the trailer (you can hear a bit of it in this video) is the Schoolhouse Rock guy!

[@derickstark4261]

Neo Noir is undoubtedly my favorite genre of film-along with all its hybridizations! I’ve watched every film you mentioned on this list including the honorable mentions except Blue Velvet. I feel that Nightcrawler should have also been mentioned, since I’m fairness could be viewed as a neo noir thriller

[@Jinx301]

I only discovered the name of the genre and then I realised why I loved Max Payne the game, Taxi driver, John wick,nightcrawler and sin City so much. Then the hitchcock 50s movie vertigo and n by northwest. Amazing genre and my favourite too

[@martinsorenson1055]

There's still a bunch to explore - just off the top of my head: The Grifters, Red Rock West, The Last Seduction, Kill Me Again, Night Moves (with Gene Hackman), Body Heat, Blood Simple, The Big Lebowski, Inherent Vice, The Late Show, Still of the Night, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Against All Odds (loose remake of Out of the Past), No Way Out (loose remake of The Big Clock), House of Games...I'll stop there.

[@Camiloquai1]

10:09 the timing of the musical piece "Memories of Green", by Vangelis, has the most perfect timing of a musical quote EVER.

[@TNrick]

What a stunning documentary on Neo Noir. It was as entertaining as it was informative.

[@OperativeD]

I recently just watched Blue Velvet in honor of David Lynch's passing. I think it's an excellent Neo Noir example. Also I'm a fan of Brick and Sin City and I believe they are also great examples too.

[@AlexNes]

Cool video! Only noticed at the end that the video was almost 30 mins long, the minutes flew by. Keep doing this man!

[@halokeeper]

I haven't re-watched it in years, but I remember Body Heat very neo-noir like.

[@kentjensen4504]

"Like"? Body Heat is the very definition of Neo Noir, and probably more so than any other film, including Chinatown.

[@authorrayrogers]

Blade Runner did for me what Star Wars did for everyone else. After I saw - no - experienced that film, I wasn't the same. Later that year I read William Gibson's Neuromancer for the first time. I say first time because I can't actually count how many times I've read it since. The melding of Noir and Science Fiction is my jam. It's what is in my brain and my heart. I can't shake it. I don't want to ever try.

[@Serjioscozychannel]

Terrific work, thank you! I might add Frank Darabont's Mob City TV series. That was great

[@TheHeadbanger93]

I always saw Blue Velvet as an Agent Cooper origin story.

[@o.l4890]

They feel soo different tho , even Dale of S1 nd the 1st half of S2 feels different from the rest of S2 and S3

[@jc128744]

Sir this is a truly excellent video. Thank you.

[@ThompsonExpress]

Can't believe i got spoiled years ago about "the Usual Suspect" twist. That and "Fight Club"...

[@thirtyyearoldmulberryfield]

Terrific stuff Jeffrey, and as others are pointing out, extra internet commendations for the more frequent uploads. To keep you in the noir-ish headspace for a little while longer, any chance on some jazz videos. Maybe a guide to the Blue Note label or some Bebop/Beat Generation exploration?

[@alalalaaaabdullah2076]

Blue velvet was such an impactful movie for me too. I think David Lynch has been such an inspiration, he too has made me want to pick up film n directing. Blue velvet n Mulholland Drive are some examples of how you can fuck someone's mind up through the art of storytelling n directing. Simply said, it doesn't need to make sense. Cause sometimes life doesn't make sense too.

[@bestusernameever1548]

ASSALAMUALAIKUM WR.WB.

[@StevenBishop-c9r]

'Mulholland Falls' is pretty good too...

[@swordguy1243]

Great video man thanks 🙏🏻 Like you said we could go on forever talking about this , but would love to see more videos on these topics

[@daftdoggo7662]

You’re probably my favorite video essayist, good shit bro

[@camerons9229]

Daniel Grozier are you having a bad day, or do you just take that much pleasure in insulting everyone commenting on this video?

[@camerons9229]

Daniel Grozier nice troll lol

[@_Pauper_]

This was really really good.

[@steveculbert4039]

Thanks for this wonderful document.

[@manha81]

I love this analysis, really well put together. Thank you!

[@alexandernewton5853]

Dude this was great. Good job

[@mattk1631]

DeNiro's role in King of Comedy adds to the great casting choice in Joker too

[@williammetcalf7239]

This is truly interesting. The presentation pulls you in.

[@lukarados5491]

beautiful, love your videos!!

[@GlenHallstrom]

Good job. May I mention, if it hasn't been mentioned already, The Big Lebowski? I always saw it as a parody of noirs.

[@jamesnetwall1193]

This is an excellent introduction to Neo Noir. Thank you and I subscribed

[@Kurosawa3]

I will watch this but keynote are John Dahl and Carl Franklin. Both have directed multiple noirs in their body of work. Also, I think it's important to always include Devil In a Blue Dress and/or A Rage in Harlem. These two Neo-noirs prove noir worlds are not about race per se. These criminal environs can be exhibited in various cultures/ethnicities. Neo-noir is able to elevate Film noir on this level. I understand you had to be selective but a few stronger ones deserved focus over something like Usual Suspects. Bad Times at the El Royale immediately jumped to one of my fave Neo-noirs. Motherless Brooklyn was fun and different. Big NWR fan.

[@manchester8117]

Loved the video. You spend a lot of time talking about the cinematographers/cinematography (rightfully so). You should mention who they are.

[@koltrane70]

I love how undiscovered your channel is. Like most things sacred.

[@KoiKen8]

I agree, while watching joker I couldn’t help but think it was a retelling of Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy mixed together, funny enough both starring De Niro

[@ninonikalis2608]

Have you ever heard of Grim Fandango ? It's a great noir point and click adventure game.

[@andrewrodgers2180]

Good stuff Jeffery, very interesting and brought back a lot of memories. First of all good for you that you made a film. Is it available on the old KZbin. A large amount of excellent films you cite . I loved brick, thought it was very innovative with it's unconventional use of traditional noir dialogue within a modern high school drama. Also got to say Blue velvet is one of my favorite films. Dennis Hopper was ferocious and terrifying. I would always offer him a Pabst's Blue Ribbon at a cook out.

[@JeffreyStillwell]

It's a recording of Surf's Up from 1967, made during the production of Wild Honey (kzbin.info/www/bejne/qWS3g6GplN-mqa8)

[@gordongiobanni7543]

Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould are truly masters of this Genre

[@qwertstrewq]

I’m surprised to know that The Man Who Wasn’t There wasn’t and Fargo by the Coen Brothers weren’t even included in this video! In my opinion, I consider them also to be part of the neo-noir spectrum and both are great films as well!

[@WaverBoy]

What, no mention of John Dahl’s brilliant neo-noirs Red Rock West and The Last Seduction? Inexcusable. (I still liked the video though 😊)

[@do9138]

The best example of neo-noir is Body Heat. Director Lawrence Kasdan said it was inspired by the highly recognized film noir Double Indemnity. The plot for the first half of Body Heat is very similar to the plot of Double Indemnity. A man of questionable ethics is convinced to kill the husband of a woman he thinks he is in love with. The second half of Body Heat is very different from that of Double Indemnity, and of course the femme fatale of Body Heat survives. But the ending of the film Double Indemnity is very different from how the work ends in the novel, too .

[@1948painter]

When I saw “The Long Goodbye” on TV many years ago, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. However, when I recently read James Naremore’s analysis of the film in his book “Film Noir: A Very Short Introduction” (in the Oxford UP series of short introductions), I finally got an inkling as to what Robert Altman was doing. Naremore said Elliott Gould was “intentionally miscast as Marlowe.” Naremore quotes the director’s observation in “Film Comment”: “I think Marlowe’s dead. I think that was ‘the long goodbye.’ I think it’s a goodbye to that genre-a genre that I don’t think is going to be acceptable anymore.” Naremore sees Altman’s film as offering many elements of parody but also, in other ways, being “faithful to its source and engaging as a mystery story.” He asks, “Was it a Chandleresque critique of LA’s gangsters and hippies, or a pot-induced critique of Chandler?”

[@steveculbert4039]

Loved SIN CITY.

[@ashroskell]

Not sure if L A Noir is the last film noir, or, the last, “great,” film noir? But it’s certainly the movie that raised my hopes for a noir revival that never fully arrived. And it did have the full ingredients.

[@davidbullard194]

I enjoyed this video very much. The one thing that I did not understand was, why did you say that Blue Velvet was not even that good of a film? I think it was David Lynch at the top of his game, before he went way over the top and became a cliche of himself. That was a sad thing to see.

[@Badastro59]

I have watched " Blue Velvet" Many, Many times I keep coming back to answer one Question

[@AdarshRaj-nw3yj]

That twin peak bgm in the beginning of this video

[@KamenSentaiMetalHero]

What about Se7en? I think that's another great neo-noir that stars creepy Kevin Spacy.

[@richardtaylor8106]

Very good. Thank you.

[@CUBETechie]

How would you classified this movies? Minority Report - Edge of tomorrow -oblivian - Elysium - total Recall (original besonders Remake) -gattaca - iRobot -paycheck -equilibrium -surrogate -selfless -upgrade -eXistenZ -Source Code -Looper

[@Owl_of_Omens]

Again another very well summation of Neo noir, and I would also like to commend you for being so vocal against the abhorrent behavior of Roman Polanski and his fleeing from Justice a lot of people say nothing about that and I think that that silence is very telling.

[@theochariskalaitzidis8301]

Hey guys! It's seems everyone here is very knowledgeable, so lemme try with a question. Could you recommend any neo-noir comedies? I am super interested in this potential genre, where the conventions of the noir genre are played with, subverted, and deconstructed. This is a very niche line which starts from The Long Goodbye (1973), is solidified in The Big Lebowski (1998), and really takes off in the 2010s with excellent pieces like Inherent Vice (2014), Under the Silver Lake (2018), and The Kid Detective (2020). One could even list films like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), or Memories of Murder (2003), even though they move in and out of the neo noir genre. Key traits seem to be: absurdism (in the Camusean or Kafkaesque sense), an unlikely protagonist, a paranoid and conspiratorial atmosphere, as well as cultural postmodernity and capitalist cynicism. Any ideas as to similar films?

[@Evanderj]

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.

[@aCrazyGandW]

Who framed roger rabbit

[@susanmargolis4438]

How could you leave out Body Heat?

[@AshleyGraetz]

Usual suspects is mash up of Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment (part 6) with a Citizen Kane twist

[@jeon0169]

2 Days in the Valley was one of the first Neo-Noir movies I saw

[@johnchalmers7336]

In my opinion the film "The Crying Game" , could also be considered a Neo- noir flick ?

[@Mandemics]

This video, paired with your video about Film Noir, are being shared with my Intro to Film History class. Thanks for your quality work.

[@michaelabbott516]

Jumpin' Jesus no wonder kids today are so clueless if they are looking to this guy for guidance about the noir/neo noir genres, this was an exercise in promoting his student film that be admits he ripped off from BV. If I was in that class I would demand my money back.

[@JstJaybeingJay]

Brick is my favourite, love that movie to death. If you haven't watched it yet then definately do it. I wish they made movies that more. And p.s I didn't know Cowboy Bebop is Neo-Noir.

[@_Pauper_]

James Ellroy books need more adaptations

[@XxjeffersonDkidxX]

I will try watch every movie in this video.

[@texasranger9599]

The biggest one not in this is Seven.

[@MateuszTTT]

I would also add Harry Angel and Light sleeper .Great list of movies anyway.

[@LudwigBeefoven]

Joker has been influenced by both Taxi Driver and the King of Comedy, IMHO.

[@johnchalmers7336]

Speaking of Curtis Hanson , he wrote the screenplay for what could be considered a Neo- noir and that's "The Silent Partner" . Shot here in Canada , the flick stars Elliot Gould and is laced with many of the classic noir tropes . Check it out sometime .

[@bb1111116]

The last great neo-noir? These come to mind; Blood Simple, Seven, Fargo, Memento. Then I stopped. A neglected spin-off of neo-noir is stoner noir. For that I prefer The Big Lebowski.

[@mc98smusicmoviereviews93]

I love all things noirish---be it in cinematography, plot, characters or all of the above. My favorite films in other genres that I love, such as horror and sci fi, have strong elements of "noir".

[@joshmiley3658]

Can anyone tell me what movie the shot from 0:13 is from?

[@imthestein]

Stranger On The Third Floor from 1940

[@tonebenderx]

@6:40 "... starring the infamous Robert DeNiro ..." Why do you refer to him as infamous?

[@Del-Lebo]

well done....son. Well done

[@LascoAtkins]

I just realized the film noir I've working on ATM is actualy Neo Noir oops...

[@maxback4053]

This was very informative and giving. Thank you!

[@Kewrock]

LA Confidential is probably the best movie mentioned here. Chinatown is a close second. Then Taxi Driver. Though Taxi Driver is in a classic movie class all it's own. Usual Suspects is over hyped. I saw Sin City when it came out, before I discovered vintage film noir. I liked it, but though it went on forever. I'll have to check it out again. I didn't even know there was a sequel.

[@pilulerouge2106]

GOOD JOB THANXX

[@linus.170]

Anyone knows what movie is the frame from at 0:12?

[@greenvelvet]

So what did you think of 'Motherless Brooklyn'?

[@Kalelrocks]

LA Confidential was based on the James Ellroy's novel. They had no choice about when it took place. Btw, if you haven't read Ellroy's LA Quartet, you should,. Also, the Coen Brothers don't show up in this monologue but they should

[@dannygandolfini4517]

bruh what is ur film im tryna watch that shit it looked pretty interesting especially with that sharkhead restaurant shot

[@BludPanda]

Hello. I learned a lot from this video and a few other Noir videos, and I am using what I learned to make my own video, but in regards to the new Batman movie coming in 2021. I don't usually make many movie related videos so I was wondering what I should look out for when dodging copyright, especially for newer movies?

[@Kalelrocks]

Arnold was in Hercules in New York in 1969, which predates The Long Goodbye.

[@LattWest]

I love blue velvet but god damn is it uncomfortable to watch

[@CassFilms]

Is your feature film available anywhere? I recognize the Ocean Shores scenes!

[@bb1111116]

If it’s in color, it’s neo-noir.

[@thomi-m7u]

I am sorry to have felt compelled to comment ...... because the rest is articulate - interesting - and on the money...... Without prejudice - I would say possibly review ''good-bye'' and possibly reply in kind..

[@TheTwyker]

Brick is such a fucking masterpiece.

[@clash79]

TLJ haters are the whiniest people on the internet. Too bad, as I was half ass enjoying the video. FWIW, the Maltese Falcon is a McGuffin, not a red herring. Hopefully you already know this by now, as you sound pretty young here

[@neoninfusion847]

Thanks for the video. What is your take on Neo-neo Noir versus Neo-Noir? I thought modern movies that were either set in the early 20th century or took their visual cues from classic film noir were labelled ‘neo-neo’ (eg Chinatown, Sin City, LA Confidential) while neo-noir were films set now or in the future that utilised the film noir traits of femme fatales, detectives and crime (eg Blade Runner, Basic Instinct, Blue Velvet). Is there such a thing as neo-neo anymore?

[@Kewrock]

I agree. Neo-Neo is defined. Neo-Nior could be just about anything. Dirty Harry, Pulp Fiction. Hell, even Kojak to some extent. BTW. If you ever get a chance to see the original Kojak TV movie(first pilot). It's a great slice of old NYC.

[@FractalRaver]

I feel like Blue Velvet was sort of practice for Twin Peaks. But still good as it’s own thing

[@laninfapimentel311]

If you think about it, Equilibrium (2002) is a neo noir film.

[@heavyflamerheresy2581]

Is Monthy Python Neo Noir? I fell like it fit it so good

[@insanqolbi50]

Joker is a mashup of Scorsese noirs and Michael Douglas' Falling Down.

[@Amelia_PC]

Hey :) I know it's an old video, but I'd like to share my experience. Neo-noir is a thing for movies and games, but it's totally a black sheep (or a dark horse) in comics. I'm a veteran of the comic book industry who are migrating to games, just because there's no room for Noir in comics anymore. Sad, right? Thank you for sharing your knowledge about this genre/aesthetic! It's a subject so hated by online users that it's not easy to find good quality content about it.

[@CaribouDataScience]

Forget it Jake, it's China town....

[@STINKAHBELL]

I'd consider John Wick neo-noir, besides the actual action, visually it ticks the boxes of crime, syndicates, and the actual cinematography is dripping in noir style. just imo

[@Dr.Kananga]

There was also The Two Jakes.

[@MisterTutor2010]

You mean tell me that The Maltese Falcon is NOT the stuff dreams are made of? :)

[@cranberryred9780]

Where the hell am I? Was there a camera somewhere?

[@nosrePnamuH]

Wait what do you mean “by no means is Blue Velvet a good film”?

[@Axspt]

god how I wish they made fallout 4 into something of a neo Noir themed game..It has all the ability to be, and has massive themes that portray this exact stuff, such as the main character you play as literally being a detective and such. But it wasnt refined enough, which makes me disappointed with it lmao. awesome points and video btw.

[@Munijkhan1]

DRIVE IS ALSO A NEO -NOIR