It has come to my attention that almost no one is voting on my film noir poll. Normally I’d consider this a personal affront and ample cause for a profanity-laced rant on how nobody cares anymore, nobody. But my wife Tess has pointed out it’s probably because I didn’t include her personal favorite neo-noir: The Grifters, from 1990.
OK, it was a glaring omission. Any film that has somebody beating up on Angelica Huston with a sack of oranges — that’s some serious noir. And if it’s based on a novel by Jim Thompson, with a screenplay by Donald E. Westlake, it definitely has the street cred. In hindsight, maybe I should have killed Memento and added The Grifters.
Too late now, though. All I can do at this point is drink cheap whiskey and, later this evening, probably decide to quit blogging forever. Hope you’re happy.
Limit the Oscar nominees to those I’ve seen
No movie for cockeyed optimists
Summer movies: One in 33 ain’t bad
As the Oscars go by
An uninformed look at the Oscars
Well, your poll plays into a number of vexed or at least wide-open questions. What’s noir? What’s neo-noir, and can a color film even be noir? (All three have come up on the Web in recent months.) Perhaps this is one poll you should have conducted exclusively as a write-in.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Well, I tried to vote – for LA Confidential – but I got a message up saying “Cannot process vote”.
Maybe the same thing happened to millions of other visitors?
Heh. Millions, yes. But you might be onto something here.