I'm not sure what everyone is grumbling about. There are plenty of excellent films being made today with hard-boiled or noir elements. Many of them are popular, too.
Crime movies win Oscars. Just look at the winners of the last three years. "Slumdog Millionaire" "No Country for Old Men" and "The Departed."
"Slumdog Millionaire" has elements of noir and hard-boiled. It's not exactly a noir film but it has a lot of great elements: A police detective looking to get to the bottom of the mystery (and using torture), a story told in flashback, gangsters, prostitutes. It's about children growing up in abject poverty and making the decision to stay honest or to devolve into crime. That's a pretty noirish situation. Sure it's got wacky editing and loud Bollywood music, but it's also a great film.
"The Wrestler" also from 2008 was a pretty great sports-noir story. Right up there with "Fat City" and "Night and the City", it's about small-time dreams getting crushed by reality and a once great athlete's downward spiral. The story starts off with the Wrestler pretty low, and then he falls even lower. That sounds pretty noir to me.
2007 Oscar winner "No Country For Old Man" is a pretty good crime thriller with noir and hard-boiled elements.
2006 Oscar winner "The Departed" is a fantastic police/gangster film. With double and triple-crosses, deception at every turn. Strong sense of place.
Just a quick look at the top grossing Crime Thrillers include "The Departed", "American Gangster" "Pulp Fiction", "Collateral" "Mystic River" "Payback", "Heat" and "Goodfellas." All of those were released in the past 10-15 years, and they're all good to excellent movies and successful financially, too.
Best wishes,
Channing
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 18 Mar 2009 EDT