Neo-Noir

BREATHLESS (1983)

January 21, 2021

(hoopla/kanopy) I last watched Jim McBride’s (DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY, GREAT BALLS OF FIRE) remake of BREATHLESS many moons ago, back when I could walk down the street to my cult video store and rent a VHS copy. Despite not thinking much of it at the time, I have vivid memories of the film’s neon spills, as well as one terrible joke:

“You know Frank Lloyd Wright? This is Frank Lloyd Wrong.”

Watching it recently, after years of scrutinizing adaptations, I realized I was far too tough on it.

Structurally, McBride’s film is the same as Godard’s, he just inverts the locale and the protagonists’ countries of origin; instead of taking place in France with a French cad (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and American love interest (Jean Seberg), it’s an American cad (Richard Gere) with a French love interest (Valérie Kaprisky).

McBride, and screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson (TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSCRE 2 -and- PARIS, TEXAS) are aware that trying to recreate the verve of 60’s BREATHLESS would be futile, so they ramp matters up a bit. Their BREATHLESS is a sleek, neon-soaked affair that wants nothing to do with jump cuts. Gere’s no longer an admirer of Bogart, but instead idolizes Jerry Lee Lewis. He doesn’t have the cool collected air of Belmondo, but instead is a ball of energy, constantly moving. As opposed to the erotic tête-à-tête between Belmondo & Seberg, they lean into full-blown sex scenes.

Is it a good film? Arguably, yes, it’s a gripping erotic thriller. Is it on par with Godard’s BREATHLESS? Oh, no, please. Godard’s BREATHLESS is a genre masterpiece, stitched together by sheer reactionary inventiveness and the vibrant performances from the leads. McBride’s BREATHLESS is a fascinating flip side, shining a spotlight on American appetites that falters mostly because both Gere and Kaprisky, and American culture in general, lack the enigmatic allure that makes the original film work.

One last note: BREATHLESS (1983) leaves Hulu on February 28th!

BLOOD ON HER NAME (2020)

January 6, 2021

(hoopla/Prime/tubi/VOD) This is one hell of a neo-noir thriller. In the wrong hands, this story of mother accidentally murdering a man could have been Lifetime movie, but director/writer Matthew Pope, along with lead Bethany Anne Lind, shape it into a wickedly ruthless tale, then punctuate it with a gut-punch of an ending.

ANDY BARKER, P.I. (2007)

November 21, 2020

(VOD/DVD) A comedic neo-noir from Jonathan Groff (LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O’BRIEN, SCRUBS, HAPPY ENDINGS) where most of the major players are fools, out-of-touch with reality, or a combination of both.

Andy (Andy Richter) is a wide-eyed suburban accountant who, within five minutes of opening his private practice in a mall court, is duped into the world of investigating underground crime. Joining him is Simon (perfectly annoyingly played by Tony Hale) as Andy’s partner/video store owner whose store resides a floor under Andy’s practice, Wally (Marshall Manesh), as the tech guy/the middle-eastern restauranteur in the same mall court, and grizzled ex-private investigator Lew Staziak (Harve Presnell), who often drags Andy into as many cases as he drags him out of.

While it pokes fun at the genre (it was naming each episode after a noir film a decade before RIVERDALE was), it’s shot with the luster of a Barry Sonnefeld film, and the plotting is as tight as a drum. While the show is silly, the jokes are either sneakily smart, or the stupidity of them are so well-crafted that you don’t care. Also, it never goes as broad as say other genre parodies, like POLICE STORY! or ANGIE TRIBECA.

The series was unceremonious cancelled after four episodes — despite only having a six-ep order — which I’m oddly okay with. While I’m sure they could have sustained this level of quality for another six episodes, what we have here is more than enough.

One caveat: while the pilot is about as perfect of an initial episode of a comedy — this show hit the ground running — the second episode, despite being co-written by BUFFY alum Jane Espenson, leans far too heavily on the premise that folks can find a larger person attractive. I don’t mean there are a few jokes here and there — the episode starts with them and fires off about one or two gags a minute until the ep closes with one more joke. Maybe circle back to it, because it’s one of the rare misfires for the show.

A few out-of-context jokes for you:

“The man’s crazy! He’s throwing babies at us!”

“Gene Kelly’s 50th was a big night. Buddy Hackett took off his pants and sat down on the cake! That was comedy back then: it wasn’t funny, but they committed.”

“Someone’s moving in! I wonder who… said the owl.”

“What do you known about the chicken business?” “Oh, that’s bad news. Like the pork business without the conscience.”

(I swear, the show’s better than this trailer makes it look.)

JOHN FROM CINCINNATI (2007)

November 18, 2020

(HBO MAX) Sadly, JOHN FROM CINCINNATI has been mired in controversy due to many DEADWOOD fans blaming it for their favorite show being canceled, as DEADWOOD creator David Milch put it on pause to pursue this oddity, and then HBO canceled both shows. While they’re probably not wrong — it’s complicated — JOHN FROM CINCINNATI deserves a better legacy than that.

JOHN was the creation of David Milch and renowned ‘surf noir’ author Kem Nunn, and I believe it’s best described as a quintessentially American spiritual surf journey. It’s focused around a being who speaks in riddles, who inserts himself into a surfing dynasty family (Mitch, Cissy, Butchie, and Shaun Yost), and the quirky characters drawn into the family’s orbit.

Milch retains his standard ‘every episode encapsulates a day’ structure and leans even more heavily into his lyrical prose, often in an intentionally obtuse way that can either delight or frustrate. Here’s an excerpt of a lengthy monologue delivered by John from a scene near the end of the sixth episode:

“If my words are yours, can you hear my father? Can Bill know my father keeping his eye on me? Can I bone Kai and Butchie know my father instead? My father’s shy doing his business. Kai helps my father dump out. Bill takes a shot! Shaunie is much improved. Joe is a doubting Thomas. Joe will not say Aleman. Joe will bring his buddies home. This is how Freddie relaxes. Cup of joe and Winchell’s variety dozen. Mitch catches a good wave. Mitch wipes out. Mitch wipes out Cissy. Cissy shows Butchie how to do that. Cissy wipes Butchie out. Butchie hurts Barry’s hand. Mr. Rollins comes in Barry’s face. My father runs the Mega Millions.”*

If you rolled your eyes at the exposition-dump above, this is not the show for you. It’s an incredibly idiosyncratic, overly theatrical, dark but not bleak show about people struggling to find hope, or at least that’s my read on it. I hesitate to say this, since it seems obvious, but the closest parallel is TWIN PEAKS, although it doesn’t lean so much on heightened melodrama and lacks a lot of PEAKS’ humor, but it’s just as thoughtful and a rich mine, if you’re willing to dig into it.

The cast is a murderers’ row of Hollywood talent and long-lasting character actors: Rebecca De Mornay, Bruce Greenwood, Luis Guzmán, Ed O’Neill (doing some MVP work acting alongside a number of birds), Garret Dillahunt, Jim Beaver, Stephen Tobolowsky, Dayton Callie — the list goes on.

Yes, DEADWOOD is a fucking masterpiece, but if you’re not afraid of some strange, JOHN FROM CINCINNATI will reward you.

  • There’s behind-the-scenes footage of the filming of that scene, which is a rare glimpse into Milch’s directing style:

There’s also a music video shaped from the monologue, which is actually not nearly as weird as the closing scenes themselves.

KAREN SISCO (2003-2004)

November 13, 2020

(N/A) In 1998, OUT OF SIGHT was released, directed by Steven Soderbergh and based on Elmore Leonard’s (RIP) novel of the same name, and featured Jennifer Lopez as detective Karen Sisco hunting down escaped bank robber George Clooney.

While OUT OF SIGHT is a fantastic film, perhaps one of the best film adaptations of an Elmore Leonard novel, ABC decided to pull the trigger on a Karen Sisco TV series five years later which, as you might guess, plays as an early version of JUSTIFIED, which itself was adapted from a collection of Leonard’s short stories, including FIRE IN THE HOLE. (In fact, Michael Dinner, the director of KAREN SISCO’s pilot also directed JUSTIFIED’s pilot, and he executive produced both shows.)

KAREN SISCO is extraordinarily pulpy and Carla Gugino is fantastic as Sisco, Robert Forrester (RIP) is her father, and yes, it’s basically JUSTIFIED but with a woman lead, but don’t we deserve a woman-led JUSTIFIED and all of the smartass quips and cooky cast of criminal characters that entails?

I’ll be repeating this phrase all month, but it’s a crime that this series is practically impossible to find. Only seven of the ten filmed episodes were aired on ABC. (The final ep was directed by Katheryn Bigelow!). It was never released on physical media, and isn’t available to stream anywhere — I imagine because of music rights — so get it whichever way you can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KERCjmJyUC4

TERRIERS (2010)

November 8, 2020

(Hulu/VOD) TERRIERS deserves a mention simply for having one of the catchiest theme songs, and one of the least-helpful titles, in recent memory:

The 30-second version:

The full song:

Setting aside the theme song (which cites a sally forth punk! I love it so much!), it’s a gorgeously sun-soaked California private dick neo-noir. The core of the show is the camaraderie between the two private detectives, in-recovery Hank (Donal Logue) and the overly earnest fuck-up Britt (Michael Raymond-James). TERRIERS was a collective effort from THE SHIELD show runner Shawn Ryan and screenwriter Ted Griffin (OCEAN’S ELEVEN, WOLF OF WALL STREET), and I remember the exact moment that the show grabbed me: thirty seconds before the credits roll in the third episode, there’s a background motion that explains everything set up in the prior episodes, and I laughed for a minute straight at how perfectly executed the script and shot was. To say more would rob you of the delight of your own realization.

While I wish TERRIERS had managed to have a long, long life, the single season we received is a perfect single season of TV. If you’re a fan of THE ROCKFORD FILES, noir in general, or heartfelt platonic relationships, this is a show for you.

GOOD BEHAVIOR (2016-2017)

November 7, 2020

(Hulu/hoopla/TNT) The closest thing to misfit neo-noir TV has seen in years. While the show is loosely based on Blake Crouch’s* Letty Raines series of heist novellas, it improves on it in every way: the show sees Letty (played with gusto and a wavering American accent by DOWNTON ABBEY’s Michelle Dockery) as a conflicted, stubborn addict slowly trying to improve herself and her life, but keeps making terrible life decisions, including falling for a hitman (handsomely played Juan Diego Botto).

It’s a surprisingly emotionally grounded show that balances conflicted romance with pulpy plotting. Also, the chemistry between Dockery & Botto is off the goddamn charts.

The second season becomes a tad too convoluted and ends on a a major cliffhanger, and then the show was canceled so, if you’re the type easily frustrated by open endings, this probably isn’t the series for you. There’s been talk of a TV movie to give closure but, given the world nowadays, that’s unlikely to happen.

S1 trailer:

S2 trailer:

“Can I give you a bit of relationship advice? The only thing you can change about a man is his hair.” “…I like his hair.”

  • Blake Crouch is also responsible for the WAYWARD PINES trilogy. Similarly, the show improved on the source material.

STRAY DOLLS (2020)

July 23, 2020

Kind of a mess, a bit like THE FLORIDA PROJECT if it were a thriller, but it has style, the lead is fantastic, and (small spoiler) Cynthia Nixon shredding the lead’s passport is one of the most violent scenes I’ve seen in some time.