Review: Son of a Gun

March 28, 2015March 28, 2015 bryancyr Movie, Neo-Noir Alicia Vikander, Australia Noir, Brenden Abbott, Brenton Thwaites, Matt Nable, Neo-Noir, Post Card Bandit, Son of a Gun

Son of a Gun is a neo-noir film from Australia, this is the second film from Australia I seen this week. This films biggest star is Ewan McGregor, but our main character is played by Brenton Thwaites who has already stared in a few big Hollywood movies and looks to have more to come. He will be a name to watch in the future. Our femme fatale is played by Alicia Vikander who is also an up and comer with roles in the impressive looking Ex Machina and big Hollywood movie Man from U.N.C.L.E.. Matt Nable plays a small but memorable role as one of the gang of thieves.

Son of a Gun starts out with Thwaites getting thrown in prison. He is taken under the wing of McGregor who saves him from other baddies. Thwaites gets out of prison but soon finds he needs to pay back McGregor for his kindness. A prison escape is the first plan and then a robbery spree ensues. Thwaites is in over his head, like any good protagonist in a good noir story. This story has prison violence, a prison escape, gangsters, double crosses, triple crosses, torture, murder, a heist, car chases, cheap hotels and femme fatales. What more do you want?

Though this isn’t an original story by any means, more of a mishmash of things we’ve already seen put together to make an entertaining film. It’s worth watching if you’re looking for something new to see.

Favorite Tidbit: Ewan McGregor’s character is based on real life bank robber Brenden Abbott known as the Post Card Bandit. Abbott has escaped prison 2 times and is currently serving a 23 year sentence.

Gangsters in Movies from Jorge Luengo Ruiz

March 26, 2015March 26, 2015 bryancyr film-noir, Movie, Neo-Noir Film Noir, Neo-Noir

I just found this and thought it was pretty cool. After seeing this, can you name any great actors that have not played a gangster?

Gangsters in Movies

from Jorge Luengo Ruiz

AS FAR BACK AS I CAN REMEMBER, I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A GANGSTER.

Movies than appear:

Little Caesar (Mervyn LeRoy, 1931)
The Public Enemy (William A. Wellman, 1931)
Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932)
Angels With Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938)
On the Waterfront ( Elia Kazan, 1954)
Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
Bonnie & Cylde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
The Godfather II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie, 1980)
Scarface (Brian de Palma, 1983)
City Heat (Richard Benjamin, 1984)
Cotton Club (Francis Ford Coppola, 1984)
Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)
The Untouchables (Brian de Palma, 1987)
Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990)
The Godfather III (Francis Ford Coppola, 1990)
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
King of New York (Abel Ferrera, 1990)
Miller’s Crossing (Joel Coen, 1990)
State of Grace (Phil Joanou, 1990)
Bugsy (Barry Levinson, 1991)
Resevoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)
A Bronx Tale (Robert de Niro, 1993)
Carlito’s Way (Brian de Palma, 1993)
True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993)
Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995)
The Funeral (Abel Ferrara, 1996)
Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell, 1997)
Hoodlum (Bill Duke, 1997)
Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino, 1997)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Guy Ritchie, 1998)
Analyze This (Harold Ramis, 1999)
Snatch (Guy Ritchie, 2000)
Road to Perdition (Sam Mendes, 2002)
Una Historia de Violencia (David Cronenberg, 2005)
The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006)
American Gangster (Ridley Scott, 2007)
Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg, 2007)
Public Enemies (Michael Mann, 2009)
Drive (Nicholas Winding Refn, 2011)
Killing Them Softly (Andrew Dominik, 2012)
Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012)
Gangster Squad (Ruben Fleischer, 2013)
The Family (Luc Besson, 2013)
The Drop (Michael R. Roskam, 2014)

Review: Mystery Road

March 25, 2015March 25, 2015 bryancyr Movie, Neo-Noir Aaron Pedersen, Australian Noir, Bruce Spence, Hugo Weaving, Ivan Sen, Mystery Road, Neo-Noir, Ryan Kwanten, Samara Weaving

Mystery Road is a neo-noir from Australian written and directed by Ivan Sen. Sen is an up and coming director in Australia who was able to get an all-star cast to do this film with him. Our lead is Aaron Pedersen as an indigenous detective who has returned to his home town after 10 years of working and training as a detective elsewhere. The two biggest names for American audiences will be Hugo Weaving and Ryan Kwanten. Hugo Weaving has a role as a hardboiled detective who has been on the force for a while. Ryan Kwanten plays a smaller role but it is a very interesting one. Bruce Spence of Mad Max movie fame plays a small role of a coroner.

Our story starts with a trucker stopping along side the road, hears something strange…maybe a dog…a big wild dog? He follows the noise and finds a body of a young girl. Our detective comes on the scene to start the investigation. He knows the girl as a friend of his young daughter. As our story continues, he is worried for his daughter’s safety. The mystery grows deeper as he uncovers drugs, corrupt cops and prostitution.

This movie shows a lot of the racism in Australia towards the Aborigines as our hero has to work with a white police force and try to gain the trust of his fellow Aborigines, all while he tries to solve the murder of this young girl.

This film has a great look with its desert landscapes, small town flavor, and ghetto like living of some of its citizens.

This film starts out with a bang, and then slowly burns to an explosion of an ending. I enjoyed this film with its very noir story where we never know what quite is going on and where it is going. We may still feel that way when it is all over as well. This film is worth a look for any noir fan or those that just want an interesting view of the Australian outback.

Favorite Tidbit: Samara Weaving has a cameo as a police officer’s wife. She is the niece of Hugo Weaving. Looks like acting runs in the family.

Review: Bastards

March 23, 2015March 24, 2015 bryancyr Movie, Neo-Noir Bastards, Chiara Mastroianni, Claire Denis, French noir, Julie Bataille, Lola Creton, Michel Subor, Neo-Noir, Vincent LIndon

Bastards is a neo-noir from France written and directed by Claire Denis. This is an idea ripped from the French headlines about wealthy, powerful men and a prostitution ring. This is my first Denis film and it is supposed to be one of her darkest so far. I hope so, because this is very dark!

Denis has teamed with Vincent Lindon before and wrote this movie with him in mind. Lindon plays our protagonist who is a Sea Captain and comes back to Paris after hearing the news of his brother-in-law’s suicide. Our femme fatale for this film is played by Chiara Mastroianni who is married to an older man and lives upstairs from Lindon’s recently rented apartment.

This has a slow pace and sparse dialog, but every little thing you are seeing seems to be important. The story is told with a few flashbacks that show us what happened the night of the brother-in-law’s suicide. The older man living up stairs is played by Michel Subor in a small but pivotal role. He might be the performance of the film with his body language and how he evolves through out the film. Julie Bataille plays a widow, mom and sister to our protagonist. She is in a desperate situation with an insurmountable amount of problems to overcome. Lola Créton is our protagonist’s niece. She is very troubled and as the film goes on we find little clues to why.

Our story starts with the suicide of the brother-in-law and his daughter walking down a side street naked and disoriented. We see our hero getting the news on his ship and this is all before the opening credits role. We flash forward a month where our hero returns to Paris to help his sister get her affairs in order and to help his niece who is still in a mental hospital. As the film goes on we don’t really learn as our protagonist learns as we are used to. We do learn as things go on, but the audience is left in the dark for a lot of this film. It is worth watching to the end to see where all this goes, but be warned, it is disturbing and not for the weak of heart. This movie will stay with you for a while after you see it.

Favorite Tidbit: This film is inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s movie The Bad Sleep Well. I hope to watch and review this film soon.

This movie is for fans of Denis and other French films tackling tough subjects. Neo-noir fans that can handle a little darker and more disturbing content then the norm will…I was going to say enjoy this film, but I don’t think this film is meant to be enjoyed.

Review: Le Cercle Rouge

March 22, 2015March 22, 2015 bryancyr Movie, Neo-Noir Alain Delon, Bourvil, French noir, Gian Maria Volonte, Jean-Pierre Melville, Le Cercle Rouge, Neo-Noir, The Red Circle, Yves Montand

Le Cercle Rouge translates to The Red Circle in English. The reason I wanted to watch this was a little tidbit of trivia from the film John Wick. When I was looking at the background of that film, the night club in one of the scenes has a red circle neon sign and the club is called the Red Circle. Someone said this was in homage to this film. That was enough for me to watch and review this movie. Here is my review of John Wick:

https://everythingnoir.com/2015/02/06/review-john-wick/

Jean-Pierre Melville wrote and directed this film and was his next to last film before his untimely death of a heart attack at age 55. Melville wrote and directed many classic neo noir films from France and made some masterpieces, this being one. Melville is an important influence on today’s neo noir and crime directors. Influencing a who’s who of today’s talent. John Woo, Quentin Tarantino, Michael Mann, Volker Schlöndorff, Johnnie To, Martin Scorsese and fellow countrymen Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut all said Melville was a big influence on their work. Needless to say we will be looking at more of Melville’s movies on this site as well as those he influenced. Melville had the idea for this film in 1950 but shelved it until 1970 because of the similarities to the Asphalt Jungle that came out that year. He held on to the idea 20 years, until he started working on this project in 1970. Here is my review of the Asphalt Jungle:

https://everythingnoir.com/2015/02/08/review-the-asphalt-jungle/

Alain Delon plays our main protagonist and appears in a number of Melville movies. Delon/Melville seem to be the French version of the USA’s De Niro/Scorsese. Bourvil plays the police detective set on the case. Gian Maria Volonté plays a recently escaped convict on the run and teams up with our hero for a big score. Yves Montand plays a retired cop with chemical dependency issues and knows both our lead detective and our escaped convict. He teams up with our thieves for the big score.

One of the things this film is famous for is the 25 minute heist scene. There are no words spoken and had to be influenced by Riffi from 1955. I will re-watch Riffi and review it later for this site.

Our story starts with our protagonist in jail and is visited by a money man that lets him know he will be getting out tomorrow, on one condition. A job, one that is made for him and one that he will get away clean, as long as he doesn’t screw up! Famous last words, right? We also have our convict handcuffed on a train in the company of our lead detective, he escapes and is on the run. Our two outlaws meet in a very unusual way and our adventure begins.

I already mentioned how John Wick gave a nod to this film, and I think there are many more. I can’t help noticing this has many similarities in plot points to Heat, reviewed here:

https://everythingnoir.com/2015/03/12/re-watching-the-classics-heat/

And the scene in the forest reminded me of a similar scene in Miller’s Crossing, reviewed here:

https://everythingnoir.com/2015/02/15/re-watching-the-classics-a-fresh-look-at-millers-crossing/

I also seen small similarities in Ocean’s Eleven. What other movies do you think used this for inspiration? Let me know in the comments below.

There has been a remake in the work for years, with Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson rumored to be attached. From some reports this may be dead now. A remake could be brilliant or it could be a big disaster. How do you remake a classic of this caliber? Worst case scenario is a remake will bring attention to the original. This is a must see for neo-noir fans, and foreign movie fans alike. It is a little long and the pacing deliberate, but is well worth your time.

Review: Victim

March 21, 2015March 21, 2015 bryancyr Movie, Neo-Noir British Noir, Dirk Bogarde, Peter McEnery, Sylvia Syms, Victim

Victim is not a timeless story, in fact if taking place in today’s world it would be almost pointless, and that’s a good thing. This is a British film, filmed in Black and White with classic film noir shots. This film would never have been made in Hollywood in 1961. This is a very interesting film for its time, It raised quite a stir. This film wasn’t even allowed in the United States at first, then this film was giving an X rating upon release. To see how times have changed, when this was released in 1986 on VHS it was given a PG-13 rating. In Britain it currently has a PG/12 rating. This film has no scene of violence or sexuality to speak of. This was the first English language film to say the word “homosexual” in it. At the time this film was made, homosexual activity between two males was illegal. At this time in the early 1960’s the police had been really lax in enforcing this law. That did open up the opportunity of blackmailers to take advantage of the law. Law Enforcement was pretty lax at trying to find these blackmailers as well. That is the basis for this film.

We start with Barrett, played by Peter McEnery running from the police. He eventually gets caught and is questioned why he has stolen over 2,000 pounds from his employers. He is flat broke and the detectives quickly determine that he has been blackmailed. The whole time he is running, he is trying to get a hold of our hero, the lawyer Melville Farr played by Dirk Bogarde. We soon find that Farr and Barrett knew each other and may have had a relationship, this is very ambiguous and depending on the editing of the version you see, may be more or less so. Farr is married to a wife, played by Sylvia Syms, she seems pretty forgiving, especially given the times this film takes place in. When Farr is brought in by the detectives for questioning we get some harsh news and Farr starts his own investigation to find the blackmailers. This has some holes in the plot for sure, like if you’re a blackmailer why would you blackmail the young single working class man, instead of the rich lawyer with a wife?

This film may have been one of the things that helped get the laws for gays changed in Britain, which came 6 years later in 1967. In that way this was a very timely and very important film in the early 1960’s and is worth viewing for capturing a pivotal time in human rights. Outside the politics of this film, we have a decent plot with some twists and turns, a red herring here and there, but not an overly satisfying mystery on its own.

Re-watching 25th Hour

March 18, 2015March 18, 2015 bryancyr Movie, Neo-Noir 25thHour, Anna Paquin, Berry Pepper, Brian Cox, David Benioff, Edward Norton, Neo-Noir, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rosario Dawson, Spike Lee

25th Hour is a neo-noir from a not so likely source, Spike Lee. This takes place in New York, so Lee isn’t a bad choice. Lee has actually been making some great neo-noir and crime films before and since this. I really liked Son of Sam, Inside Man and though it isn’t as good as the original, I thought Oldboy was pretty good.

This film revolves around Monty, played by Edward Norton. Norton is one of my favorite actors in today’s films. He usually picks pretty strong scripts and always does a great job. Monty is going to jail tomorrow and is going out with his friends for one last night of freedom. Monty is a drug dealer that gets busted and doesn’t know who ratted him out.

His girlfriend is played by Rosario Dawson, is she our femme fatale? She is another actress I’ve liked in most of the things she has done. Barry Pepper plays the sleazy stock broker that thinks he’s better than everybody else. He plays the part well. Our hero’s other friend is played by the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman who plays a shy teacher with a bit of a dark side. Other standouts in the cast are Brian Cox as Monty’s father and Anna Paquin as a high school student. We also see Isiah Whitlock Jr. as the DEA agent and swearing like only he can.

The film is based on a book by David Benioff who also wrote the screenplay, his first. He has gone on to do many more screenplay adoptions for movies and television.

We have a lot of great stuff in this film and one of the things I forgot about was this being made in New York City in 2002, the loss of the Trade Centers is an import part of the back drop.

The movie opens with Monty and one of his mafia friends picking up an abandon dog, left on the street to die. Monty takes the dog in as his own. I guess this is to show our hero is a good guy at heart and a drug dealer by necessity.We flash forward to Monty’s last day of freedom and we have the occasional flash back to explain how we got to this point. Monty needs to make a decision, go to jail for 6 years, run, or suicide, all of which, him and his friends consider on this final night.

Favorite tidbit: Edward Norton says he believed in this project so much that he used all his earnings from Red Dragon to help make it. This seems to fit Norton, do a few big films so he can do many small films he believes in. I always look forward to anything with him in it, and this might not even be in his top 10 films, but it is a good film worth seeing.

A must watch for Norton, Dawson, Hoffman or Spike Lee fans, as well as neo-noir fans. It’s a film that will make you think and stay with you awhile after you see it. What would you do in this situation?

Review: Alphaville

March 14, 2015March 14, 2015 bryancyr Movie, Neo-Noir, Sci-Fi Neo Noir Alphaville, Anna Karina, Eddie Constantine, Jean-Luc Godard, Lemmy Caution, Neo-Noir, Sci-Fi Neo-Noir

Alphaville is the first sci-fi neo-noir film that I’m aware of. It is the predecessor for films like 12 Monkeys, Donnie Darko, and Predestination, but it may be closer to Matrix, Terminator and Blade Runner. Why? you ask…, the theme. The Theme of this movie and the other three are not time travel but machines taking over and running the humans. This film is very strange, beautiful, unique, challenging, and trippy. I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t understand a lot of this film. I think each person that watches it may take something different away from the experience. A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution is the tag line of this film and seems to be a far assessment.

This film is written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, a french director that started directing in 1955 and is still going strong today. He has made a few noir type films and I look forward to reviewing some of those later on this blog. This film is filmed in a classic film-noir fashion, black and white, interesting angles and lighting, an odd perspective that makes it interesting to watch. It takes place in the future in the city of Alphaville, but is just filmed in than modern-day 1965 Paris. This gives it a unique look, its futuristic for classic noir era, but probably felt old-looking to 1965 viewers.

Eddie Constantine plays Lemmy Caution in this film, he also played this character in 13 other films. Though I have never seen any of these other movies, they look to range from traditional crime dramas in the 1950’s to musicals to a drama in 1991, also directed by Godard. This is interesting to me and would like to see a few of these to see how the character evolves over time.

Anna Karina plays our femme fatale, we never know if we can trust her, if she is just a pawn for the computer Alpha 60, or she is working with her engineer father to take down Caution. Karina was married to Godard at this time and starred in many of his films in the 1960’s.

I still don’t know what to think of this film, it will definitely stay with you and make you think. It may be a movie worth watching a couple of times to get all the subtleties. I would not recommend this film to just anybody, but if you find the science fiction neo-noir movies I listed above interesting and some of your favorites, I would check it out. Would this replace any of the above movies on my favorite 1001 movies of all time? No, but this movie gave me some prospective of where they came from.

Re-Watching the Classics: Heat

March 12, 2015March 12, 2015 bryancyr Movie, Neo-Noir Al Pacino, Ashley Judd, Chuck Adamson, Danny Trejo, Edward Bunker, Hank Azaria, Henry Rollins, Jeremy Piven, Jon Voight, Michael Mann, Natalie Portman, Neil McCauley, Robert De Niro, Tom Sizemore, Val Kilmer

Heat is 20 years old now! That is hard to believe, I didn’t know if I should call it a classic, but after 20 years I think we are safe. This is a Neo-Noir epic with one of the best casts in a noir film ever.

Michael Mann writes and directs, Mann is a legend of neo-noir film making. He got his start in some great television shows and went on to make some amazing movies. This one may be his best.

Lets start with the cast, this is the first time we see two of the greatest actors of our time on the screen at the same time with each other: Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. There seen together was filmed at a restaurant in Los Angles, one where you can actually sit and have a meal at the same table even today. They did appear in another film before this, a little film called Godfather II, but were never on screen together.

This is almost like two films in one, we are rooting for our brilliant thief and hoping he gets away and lives happily ever after. We are also rooting for our hard nosed cop that has to find the violent criminals before they get away clean. It’s a cat and mouse game that we can not pick a side on. The trip is worth it.

Though this is enough to make any movie big, no need to have anyone else in the cast, but we do. A lot of my favorite crime actors are in this film and I’m just going to list them here:

Val Kilmer plays a gambling addict that earns his money stealing.

Ashley Judd plays his wife and our only real femme fatale.

Jon Voight plays the ring leader of the bad guys, interesting note: his character is based on Edward Bunker, a career criminal that has appeared in many crime films and has written many noir books himself. I plan on reading and reviewing some of his books on the website later.

A young Natalie Portman is in here as the angry step daughter, she already showed some amazing talent in this small role.

We also have an all star supporting cast of crime film regulars: Tom Sizemore, Mykelti Williamson, Wes Studi,Ted Levine, Dennis Haysbert, William Fichtner, Kevin Gage, Hank Azaria, Danny Trejo, Henry Rollins, and Jeremy Piven.

This movie actually is based on a real life cop and his pursuit of a career thief. The real story is about Chuck Adamson, a real life cop in Chicago who meet in a non violent situation with the real Neil McCauley and chased him for part of his career. Adamson also helped write on some of Mann’s T.V. shows and is also the source for one of Mann’s other movies, Thief.

At almost 3 hours long, this is a long film, but worth it.

Underrated Noir: Snake Eyes

March 10, 2015March 10, 2015 bryancyr Movie, Neo-Noir Brian De Palma, Carla Gugino, Gary Sinise, Neo-Noir, Nicolas Cage, Stan Shaw

Snake Eyes is from legendary director Brian De Palma. De Palma was one of the best neo-noir directors through the 1980’s and 90’s. In one of the coolest and most underrated scenes in movies is the first 20 minutes of this film. It looks like it is one continues shot, but it is edited together. There are some other really cool shots in this movie as well, I liked the point of view shots and the hotel room pan shot. Our protagonist is Rick Santoro, played by Nicolas Cage. He is a dirty cop with a gambling issue. He is in his town, Atlantic City, where he has ambitions of local politics after his police career ends. The movie starts with Rick coming to the local casino to watch a Heavy Weight Championship fight with his old classmate, Lincoln Tyler played by Stan Shaw. He has ringside seats with his friend and Commander in the Navy, Kevin Dunne played by Gary Sinise. Dunne is there on protection duty for the Secretary of Defense who is there to watch the big fight. Soon Julia Costello, played by Carla Gugino sits next to Rick at the fight and all hell breaks loose. I like Gugino as our femme fatale, as she changes from a platinum blond in all white to a brunette in a black jacket, our prospective of her also changes.

This has a very intricate plot and is well executed. I’m not really sure why this film has such low ratings with a 5.9 on IMDb, 52 on Metascore, and 40% on Rotten Tomatoes. I watched this in the theater when it first came out and just re-watched it tonight. I don’t think this is a masterpiece by any means but feel it should be a sold 3.5 to 4 stars out of 5. If you are a noir fan give this a second chance.