In 1972, filmmaker Paul Schrader famously declared Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil to be film noir’s “epitaph.” The 1958 film is now generally considered the last true noir and a way to mark the period where the boom of the American film noir style had officially faded out. A style that catalyzed in the 1940s and lasted through much of the ‘50s (the term was coined in 1946 by French critic Nino Frank, literally meaning “black film”), it had, within a decade, found its traits widespread enough that the specificity of it no longer really existed, while crime stories became far more populated on TV. But film noir was always contested; it was a style, but also considered by some to be a genre. Like the French New Wave, it was a genre that wasn’t really a genre. Neo-noir followed suit.
Generally, however, icons of film noir, such as The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity and In a Lonely Place, shared similar traits that have come to famously define the term, including but not limited to: Expressionistic cinematography and camera movements, low-key, black-and-white visuals, grimy environment, a crime element, anti-hero protagonist (often, but not always, a private detective or cop) and femme fatale. Directly influenced by the pulp fiction crime novels of the early 20th century, the films were also distinctly a reflection of the post-war period and the anxieties of the Cold War; a fear of the world and of your fellow man.
However, the influence of film noir persisted past Touch of Evil, into the 1960s and beyond (arguably peaking during the 1990s and early 2000s), giving way to countless films that both owe themselves to noir and knowingly take from them. The term “neo-noir” is the label used for these self-aware children of film noir but, like classic noir, it’s a term painted in broad strokes. In fact, it’s often harder to pinpoint what constitutes as “neo-noir” as opposed to film noir. Films like Blade Runner, Chinatown, Oldboy, L.A. Confidential and Se7en (and much of both David Fincher’s and Park Chan-wook’s work, in fact), are very obvious in their consideration as staples of neo-noir. They employ high stylization, amoral protagonists, seedy settings and dour conclusions. But noir is a style so universally influential that it bears its mark almost everywhere.
But like film noir at the end of the ‘50s, neo-noir has seemingly reached its own epitaph. Googling “recent neo-noir films” brings up scant or very reaching results (Knives Out??). In spite of our often horrifying and perpetually uncertain times being an otherwise open playground for the sordid terror of noir, Brian Raftery got to the heart of why neo-noir has become so sparse last year: The explosion of streaming TV and the decline of the star-driven, mid-budget movie. Still, some legitimate neo-noirs have slipped through the cracks, mostly underseen independent films on the industry fringes—a far cry from the mainstream, blockbuster success of films like Basic Instinct or The Usual Suspects.
So, if you’re keen on noir and want some recent fare that really, truly earns the title of “neo-noir,” here are 10 recent neo-noir films that you can’t miss:
Under the Silver Lake (2018)
David Robert Mitchell’s criminally underrated follow-up to It Follows was buried by its own distributor after middling reviews out of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. In the wake of two release date changes, a pitifully limited run and then a bump to VOD less than a week later, Under the Silver Lake gained a cult following from people feverishly invested in attempting to disseminate the same clues befuddling the film’s sleazy protagonist. Under the Silver Lake follows jaded, lusty conspiracy theorist Sam (Andrew Garfield), who becomes mixed up in the disappearance of the mysterious Sarah (Riley Keough). Sam’s convoluted, unorthodox and often aggressive search for a woman he barely knows leads him into a wide-reaching conspiracy that spans across Los Angeles. Ambitious, confounding and formally indulgent, Under the Silver Lake is a neo-noir inspired by both film noir and neo-noir alike, wearing its influences (Billy Wilder, David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock, Thomas Pynchon) on its sleeve.
Decision to Leave (2022)
South Korean director Park Chan-wook has been channeling Hitchcock for most of his career, and has made memorable contributions to neo-noir (Oldboy, The Handmaiden). But his most recent work, 2022’s Decision to Leave, is his most outwardly Hitchcock riff to date, and a sumptuous neo-noir that embraces its roots to the fullest extent. We follow overworked detective Hae-jun (Park Hae-il), who becomes embroiled in the case of a mountain climber’s suspicious death, with the man’s much younger, foreigner wife, Seo-rae (Tang Wei), pegged as the prime suspect. And surprise: Hae-jun finds himself forgoing career ethics and falling for the newly-widowed woman, an ill-fated though never consummated affair that threatens to unravel Hae-jun’s life. Utilizing impressive filmmaking techniques and camera trickery, Hitchcockian themes of (to quote myself in my own review of this film) “romance, betrayal, obsession and voyeurism,” Decision to Leave is a maximalist noir, and a gut-wrenchingly romantic one at that.
The Empty Man (2020)
Filmed all the way back in 2016, then dishearteningly lost in the maelstrom of COVID-19, David Prior’s adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name hit theaters squarely in the middle of the pandemic, in October 2020. Thus, it barely made a blip on audiences’ radars. But like Under the Silver Lake, The Empty Man has been finding its fanbase and growing a cult following since hitting home media, and it couldn’t be more deserved. Starring James Badge Dale as retired-detective-with-unclear-past James Lasombra, James finds himself entangled in the strangest case of his career: A group of teenagers who have committed communal suicide, all connected to summoning a supernatural entity known as “The Empty Man.” Initially nothing more than a fictitious teen dare akin to Bloody Mary, James is progressively besieged by visions of the entity and startled by the circumstances surrounding it. This leads him to a cult that believes in the manifestation of tulpas, and in The Empty Man itself. Comparably dark and seedy to a David Fincher detective film (unsurprisingly, Prior and Fincher have collaborated before), The Empty Man is a chilling hybrid of horror and noir about a tortured man looking for a path to redemption—and coming up empty.
The Voyeurs (2021)
One of the few real erotic thrillers to be released in recent years, Michael Mohan’s Rear Window and Body Double riff The Voyeurs more or less succeeds in bringing some necessary sleaze back to cinema (even if the film was unfortunately only sent direct to streaming on Amazon Prime). The Voyeurs stars It Girl du jour Sydney Sweeney as Pippa: An optometrist who recently moved in with her musician boyfriend Thomas (Justice Smith), and who begins the new hobby of peeping on her attractive neighbors living in the apartment across the street. As Pippa’s voyeurism becomes more of an obsession than a pastime, it creates a rift between her and Thomas, and she unwittingly begins to meddle in the lives of strangers until the unthinkable happens. The film is a lusty melodrama and beautifully stylized by cinematographer Elisha Christian, who utilizes rich colors and plays with contrast and shadows to evoke the film’s noir roots.