Film noir | the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! “The Batman” as a Paranoid Conspiracy Thriller…

Posted on March 1, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist yesterday evening. With The Batman releasing this weekend, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at Matt Reeves’ take on the Caped Crusader.

Reeves has discussed the influence of seventies cinema on The Batman. The film draws heavily from paranoid films of the era, movies like The French Connection, Klute and The Conversation. However, it is more than just nostalgia at play. The Batman finds an interesting thematic overlap between the seventies and the present day, particularly in its recurring fascination with voyeurism and surveillance. The Batman is many things, but it’s also a story about the importance of looking into the darkness, but realising that looking alone is not enough.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: 1970s, cinema, Film noir, in the frame, matt reeves, the batman, the escapist, voyeurism | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Reminiscence

Posted on August 18, 2021 by Darren

Reminiscence is an intriguing concept in desperate need of a stronger execution.

Reminiscence marks the feature film directorial debut of Lisa Joy, the co-creator of Westworld. In some ways, this is revealing. It often seems like the best version of Reminiscence might be a television pilot, a two-hour feature-length exploration of a futuristic dystopia that lays a lot of groundwork to be explored by later episodes and seasons. It’s very clear that Joy has put a lot of thought into the world of Reminiscence, about how it works and how it developed, and why it turned out the way it did. All of that work is either on-screen or blasted over the audio system via helpful voiceover exposition.

On the record.

Unfortunately, Reminiscence struggles to devote any real energy to its actual narrative or characters. Reminiscence is clearly constructed as an affectionate homage to classic film noir, in everything from its production design to its plot structure to its thematic concerns. However, it lacks the richness and the complexity that distinguishes the best of the genre. Instead, because so much time is spent explaining and re-explaining the mechanics of the world, everything else feels like a thinly-drawn sketch.

Reminiscence often feels like the faded memory of a much more engaging film.

Shining a light on it.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: dreams, film, Film noir, hugh jackman, Inception, lisa joy, memory, Movie, noir, non-review review, reminiscence, review, science fiction | Leave a comment »

195. The Third Man (#177)

Posted on August 15, 2020 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Neasa Hardiman, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, Carol Reed’s The Third Man.

Holly Martins arrives in Vienna to visit his old friend Harry Lime. However, Holly quickly discovers that all is not what it seems. Harry apparently died in a freak traffic accident shortly before Harry arrived. As British officers start asking pointed questions about the dead man, Holly becomes increasingly anxious that something has gone very wrong.

At time of recording, it was ranked 177th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: america, austria, british cinema, carol reed, cowboys, expressionism, Film noir, films, Movies, neasa hardiman, podcast, review, second world war, the third man, Trümmerfilm, vienna, western | 1 Comment »

189. White Heat – w/ The Movie Palace – Independence Day 2020 (#—)

Posted on July 4, 2020 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a fortnightly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

This week, a special crossover episode with The Movie Palace Podcast, a film podcast hosted by Carl Sweeney taking a look at the classics of Hollywood’s golden age. Carl suggested a crossover episode taking a look at the list, and particularly some of the classic movies listed on it.

So this week, Raoul Walsh’s White Heat.

Fleeing the authorities after a train robbery that resulted in two murders, Cody Jarrett latches on to an unconventional scheme to evade detection. Jarrett turns himself into the authorities for a crime he didn’t commit, earning a lesser sentence and putting him in the clear. However, things are changing rapidly for Cody, and the ground is very quickly shrinking out from under him.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: atomic horror, carl sweeney, end of an era, Film noir, gangsters, horror, james cagney, monster movie, podcast, raoul walsh, recording, second world war, the movie palace, warners, white heat | Leave a comment »

120. Andhadhun – This Just In (#129)

Posted on March 2, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Giovanna Rampazzo and Babu Patel, This Just In is a subset of The 250 podcast, looking at notable new arrivals on the list of the 250 best movies of all-time, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, Sriram Raghavan’s Andhadhun.

At time of recording, it was ranked 129th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Filed under: This Just In | Tagged: Andhadhun, babu patel, blind man, film, Film noir, giovanna rampazzo, indian cinema, Movie, netflix, noir, Sriram Raghavan | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Out of Blue

Posted on February 27, 2019 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival 2019. Given the high volumes of films being shown and the number of reviews to be written, these may end up being a bit shorter than usual reviews.

Out of Blue is just awful.

Carol Morley is an intensely talented director. Dreams of a Life is a fascinating documentary, exploring a harrowing true story with empathy and compassion. However, Out of Blue seems to get away from her. Morley is directing a screenplay that she adapted from Night Train, Martin Amis’ darkly comic parody of detective fiction. Indeed, Out of Blue seems to carry over some of the parodic intention of the source material in its better moments, playing as deranged and heightened homage to detective movie clichés. However, there is also a sense that Out of Blue is taking all of this very seriously underneath it all, that it is unwilling to commit to “the bit” and that it confuses its own pseudo-profundity for actual insight.

Even if Out of Blue never actually functions as a cinematic narrative, there is some fun to be hand with certain stretches of it. There’s enough in Out of Blue that it almost plays as investigative thriller pastiche; a knowing and heightened riff on the familiar formulas of sordid investigative thrillers. There are stretches when Out of Blue plays like the kind of weird and esoteric object that a view might find playing on Adult Swim in the early hours of the morning, couched between episodes of NTSF:SD:SUV and playing opposite Angie Tribeca. The dialogue is so hardboiled that it could be used as murder weapon, the insights into the human condition so laboured that they’ve been granted health insurance.

The biggest issue with Out of Blue is that it never seems to be “in” on the joke.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Carol Morley, dialogue, existential, film, Film noir, New Orleans, noir, non-review review, Out of Blue, review, virgin media dublin international film festival | Leave a comment »

110. L.A. Confidential – Christmas 2018 (#107)

Posted on December 22, 2018 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Phil Bagnall, The 250 is a fortnightly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, a Christmas treat. Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential.

In fifties Los Angeles, three very different police officers discover their lines of inquiry converging as they uncover a deep and sprawling web of corruption and inequity.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 107th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: bud white, christmas, film, Film noir, Guy Pearce, james cromwell, kevin spacey, L.A. Confidential, Movie, phil bagnall, russell crowe | Leave a comment »

104. Double Indemnity – w/ The Movie Palace (#88)

Posted on November 10, 2018 by Darren

So this week, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity.

Regarded as one of the earliest codifiers of film noir and one of the strongest examples of the form, Double Indemnity is the tale of door-to-door insurance salesman Walter Neff. Through chance, Neff wanders into the life of a young wife by the name of Phyllis Dietrichson. When they get together, it’s murder.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 88th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: Billy Wilder, carl sweeney, double indemnity, Film noir, imdb, podcast, The 250, the movie palace podcast | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Scannain Podcast (2018) #30!

Posted on September 7, 2018 by Darren

It’s time for the latest Scannain podcast.

This week, I join Ronan Doyle and Graham Day from Speakin’ Geek to discuss the week in film news, what we watched, the top ten and the new releases. Films discussed include The Long Goodbye, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Upgrade. New releases include a number of arthouse releases (including The Guardians) and reissues (including Mildred Pierce), along with more conventional fare like Christopher Robin and The Equaliser 2 – which is sadly still not called “The Sequaliser.” Oh, and Ronan discovers that Sergeant Stubby: An American Hero exists.

Give it a listen at the link, or check it out below.

Filed under: Movies, Podcasts! | Tagged: 2001: A Space Odyssey, christopher robin, Film noir, mildred pierce, the equaliser 2, the long goodbye, the sequaliser, upgrade | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Scannain Podcast (2018) #27!

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Darren

Your podcast, should you choose to accept it…

This week, I join Jay Coyle and Luke Dunne from Film in Dublin to discussion the week in film news. There’s a host of interesting stuff here, from the James Gunn controversy over Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 to the film noir compromise of Gilda to the divisive Dublin Oldschool. Along the way, we take a side-trip into discussions of vaguely unsettling YouTube algorithms aimed at children. However, perhaps the real reason to give it a listen is to hear Luke’s “grand unified theory of Tom Cruise” as part of a broad discussion about Mission Impossible: Fallout.