Year: 2015

Book Review: The Shotgun Rule by Charlie Huston

bryancyr Book , , ,

Charlie Huston is an author I’ve really enjoyed reading in the past. The Hank Thompson trilogy is one of my favorite modern noir stories I have read. I also read the first Joe Pitt book, Already Dead about a hardboiled private investigator that happens to be a vampire. This is also very good, and I enjoyed the mixing of urban fantasy with classic noir. I found The Shotgun Rule on sale for my Nook and had to snag it up.

This book is a noir coming of age tale revolving around four friends. Two are brothers, the younger one is a genius and the older one is the leader of the gang. We also have a Latino with a Mohawk who loves punk rock music and a boy who has lost his mother and has a strained relationship with his father. When the youngest brother gets his bike stolen, the gang knows it is the family of criminals down the street. When a fight ensues and the bike thieves go to jail our gang explores the house to find a new meth lab. As our story progresses we find a lot of interesting characters, including a drug dealing aunt, a father with a mysterious criminal past, a friend that has never truly grown up and a fat drug dealer who likes to use a scooter rather than walk.

This is another very good book from Huston with some interesting dialog and a twisting violent story line. I enjoyed the mixing of coming of age tale with a gritty crime saga. If you have never read Huston before I would start with Caught Stealing, and if you are already a fan of Huston and have not read this book, I think it is worth your time.

Article: TO LOVE HER ISN’T TO KNOW HER: THE GREAT, MYSTERIOUS GLORIA GRAHAME TAKES LINCOLN CENTER

bryancyr article, film-noir ,

nyv_film_20150902_humandesire_courtesy_filmlinc.com_002

Here is an article about the film noir career of Gloria Grahame and bit of history of her personal life, which sounds like a noir tale itself! This is written by Graham Fuller over at The Village Voice and is well worth reading. Here is the link:

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/to-love-her-isn-t-to-know-her-the-great-mysterious-gloria-grahame-takes-lincoln-center-7585740

Review: They Live by Night

bryancyr film-noir, Movie , , , , , , , ,

They Live by Night is a classic film noir based on Edward Anderson book Thieves Like Us.

This is also director Nicholas Ray’s first film, a pretty good start to an amazing career. This film stars Cathy O’Donnell and Farley Granger as a young couple in love. They would go on to team up again in Anthony Mann’s Side Street a few years later. I reviewed that film here:

https://everythingnoir.com/2015/06/10/review-side-street/

This film starts out with a quick scene before the credits role of our happy couple. We than flashback to three men in the process of a prison escape. We see Granger and his two cohorts played by Howard Da Silva and Jay C. Flippen. There is an interesting scene here, where Ray shot from a helicopter for a bird’s eye view of our trio fleeing. This is one of the first action scenes ever shot from a helicopter(pretty amazing idea for a first time director). As our hero has a bum foot or ankle, he hangs by a billboard as his fellow escapees move on to their destination and will send help back for him. When a truck pulls up we meet Cathy O’Donnell as the farmer’s daughter there to take him to meet his friends. We can see the attraction right away between our two leads as she drives him to her father’s farm. As the trio regroup they decide the best move is to rob a bank to raise some money to make their getaway. Will they succeeded? Will our happy couple live happily ever after?

I’m not sure if Edward Anderson wrote this story as a fictional tale of Bonnie and Clyde or not, but it at least had to be a huge influence. This is a twisted love story in more than a few ways. This film is a must see for film noir fans, though I would not rank it among my favorites and maybe my expectations were to high going in. This is a good film and when you know it is Ray’s first film, I do appreciate it. I hope to read the book on which this film is based someday and revisit this film again.

Favorite Tidbit: Another film was made in 1974 based on this novel as well. It goes by the novel’s title Thieves Like Us and stars Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall. I have not seen this film but may have to watch both of these films back to back for an interesting double feature.

Article: What Works & What Doesn’t: ‘Chinatown’

bryancyr article, Movie, Neo-Noir , , ,

what_works_what_doesnt_-_chinatown

Christopher Shultz over at Lit Reactor has written a very interesting article about Robert Towne’s screenplay for Chinatown. I have not watched this film in many years, but after this article I hope to revisit it soon. What do you think of Shultz’s point of view? Here is a link to the full article:

https://litreactor.com/columns/what-works-what-doesnt-chinatown

Review: New World

bryancyr Asian Noir, Korean-Noir, Movie, Neo-Noir , , , , , ,

New World is a neo noir from South Korea written and directed by Park Hoon Jeong. Park Hoon Jeong is a writer I have enjoyed before, if you have not seen I Saw The Devil, go do it right now! I will be re-watching that film and posting about it here soon.

This film is based around Jung-Jae Lee’s character as an undercover police officer in the Korean mob. The current mob boss is killed in a shady car accident and a power struggle in the mob begins. The top two candidates to lead the mob are Jeong-min Hwang and Seong-Woong Park. This starts a gang war between the two factions. Our hero’s boss is played by  Min-sik Choi who is the sector chief in charge of bringing down this mafia. We soon find Choi will do anything to gain his own power in this struggle and is maybe a little dirty. This story goes back and forth as we find new alliances and just as you think you know somebody, they will change alliances and who you are rooting for.

The film puts into question where your loyalties should lie. Friendship, family or should you just do your job? Does good and evil come in to the equation? What is good and what is evil in this dark world of crime and violence? This film is an epic gangster film from Korea in the vein of The Godfather or Goodfellas. No, it isn’t in the same class as those two classics, but if you like gangster films, especially those from Asia, you will love this film.

Review: Desperate

bryancyr film-noir, Movie , , , , ,

Desperate is a B-film from 1947. Anthony Mann Directs and helps with the original story. Of course Mann went on to A films soon after this and created some classics in the noir genre as well as some other Hollywood classics.  I recently reviewed Two O’Clock Courage from Mann which he made 2 years before Desperate and you can see his growth between those two films is petty huge. Though I liked Two O’Clock Courage, Desperate is darker, the story is better and the cinematography is way ahead. There are a couple of scenes in this film that are noir cinematography at its best. The first scene where Burr and his gang is torturing our hero is amazing. The last scene with the chase/gun fight on the stairwell is worth watching the whole film just to for this one.

Our story is a basic noir tale, but it is always worth seeing different takes on it all these years later. Our hero is played by Steve Brodie who has his own truck and is recently married to Audrey Long. He gets a call from a stranger for a last-minute trucking job. He had plans with his wife but can’t pass up the $50 this job will pay.

What he doesn’t know is this is a job where he will be hauling stolen goods for Raymond Burr and his gang of thieves. When he figures out he is on a robbery, he flashes his lights at a police officer. The officer is shot and soon dies by the hand of Burr’s little brother. Our hero pulls the truck away and Burr’s brother falls off the loading dock and is knocked out. Burr’s little brother is caught and charged with murder. Burr is soon on a rampage to free his little brother and frame our hero for the whole job, including the murder of the police officer. Our hero’s sole objective now is to get his wife to safety before Burr can find them. Will he succeed? Will he be able to save himself too? Will Burr and his gang get revenge?

This is a very good B-movie noir and well worth checking out. Fans of Mann will like this film and will want to seet his early work. As per usual Raymond Burr steals the show, this being only his 4th film and his first film noir. This maybe the reason Burr was cast for years to come as the ultimate heavy in film noir. His performance is worth watching this film for as well.

Article in Rolling Stone Magazine: ‘Ray Donovan’: How to Get L.A. Noir Right

bryancyr article, Neo-Noir, News, Television , , ,

1035x1380-RayDonovan_307_0461.R

A couple of weeks ago I shared an article from Vulture.com titled The Modern Noir Has Atrophied. Though it had some good points one of the main ones was how Season 2 of True Detective has disappointed.

Today Rolling Stone has come out with an article by Rob Sheffield about how great Season 3 of Ray Donovan is and how it has done modern noir right. Here is a link to the full article:

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/ray-donovan-how-to-get-l-a-noir-right-20150827

This is interesting because I have had a few discussions with noir fans talking about how bad season 2 of True Detective is and nobody is talking about Ray Donovan and how good it is. If you haven’t watched Ray Donovan I encourage you to do so. I agree with the above article, I almost stopped watching after Season 1 but fell in love with this show during Season 2 and Season 3 is amazing so far.

I have not seen Season 2 of True Detective yet and will hold judgement until I do, but I am not surprised that it has been a let down given Season 1 was so amazing! Here is a link to my review of Season 1:

https://everythingnoir.com/2015/04/23/re-watching-the-best-of-2014-true-detective-season-1/

Here is a link to the Vulture article I mentioned before:

https://everythingnoir.com/2015/08/11/article-the-modern-noir-has-atrophied/

Re-watching: Revolver

bryancyr Movie, Neo-Noir , , , , , , , , ,

Revolver is a film by Guy Richie made in 2005. So on its 10 year anniversary I decided to take another look at it. We have an ensemble cast of neo noir and gangster regulars revolving around Jason Statham.  Luc Besson also helped Richie in the writing of the film.

This film starts out with Statham getting out of prison and looking for revenge on a casino owner played by Ray Liotta. He goes to the casino and wins a bunch of money. He then gets a business card from a stranger, played by Vincent Pastore, on his way out of the casino. He falls down the stairs for an unknown reason and is soon in the hospital. He finds he has a rare blood disease and is going to die soon.  Vincent Pastore and André Benjamin are business partners who have a proposition for Statham to get revenge before he dies. Along the way we meet Mark Strong playing a hit-man for the mob, and Terence Maynard as Liotta’s right hand man. The story pits Liotta against an Asian mob boss along the way and the story twists and turns through out the film. Nobody is who they seem and every reveal just leaves more questions as we go.

This film has a very neo noir filming style with some interesting camera work through out. It also dives into some psychological subjects I will not get into here, because it may be a bit of a spoiler. This film is entertaining, but not Richie’s best neo noir work. If you are a huge fan of his or Statham you will find this film entertaining. The story will leave you thinking about it and it maybe one of those films that is better on a second viewing.

Short Film Review: Lover’s Leap

bryancyr Movie, Music, Neo-Noir, Short Film ,

11973783_10153223926708353_486239374_o

I was contacted by writer/director Jonathan Zuck to take a look at his new short film/music video. So I was lucky enough to get a preview of the 7 minute film a few weeks ago. The clip is dripping in classic noir with tons of shadow play, fedoras, a smokey bar and dark streets. Our lead character is a chain-smoking, heavy drinking, hardboiled detective and of course we have a fiery red-head of a femme fatale. We even have a twist with a downer of an ending told in a classic flashback form!

All this is set to the song Lover’s Leap by Exit 10,a band I have never heard of, but based on this song I will be looking for more of their music.

Check out the full video below: