This century has been a great time for lovers of noir films, with some speculating that neo-noir could be this decade's genre of choice. There were many noir films made, and many more that had a noirish influence. There were noirs in various genres, from horror to action to suspense to brutal dramas. Films as diverse as Sin City and The Batman had a definite influence from the genre, especially the more violent neo-noirs of the '90s and '80s, and appeal to fans of film noir. These are some of the best of the past two decades.
10 John Wick
In John Wick, Keanu Reeves spends the entire film killing people who are after him and who he's hunting down. There is a big war going on and a huge price on his head, all because a group of scumbags kills his dog, which was given to him by his recently deceased wife. As soon as he takes out the people responsible, a group of criminals wages a war against him, but he is such a successful warrior that there just aren’t enough killers on the planet to take down John Wick, who is a seemingly impossible, classic noir loner. It is dark, dreary, and raining in most of the exterior scenes, which gives it an undeniable noir feeling.
9 The Black Dahlia
Brian De Palma gives us his take on the murder in Hollywood of The Black Dahlia, which was never solved. The film is based on the James Ellroy book of the same name, who is certainly influenced by name. Although this is based on a true event, the murder of Elizabeth Short, the film is largely fictional and all speculation. The Black Dahlia herself was found cut in half in a public area. She had been mutilated, and the killer (or killers) carved her face up so that she had a permanent smile that goes from ear to ear (which, some claim, was the factual inspiration for Joker from Batman).
The Black Dahlia tries to solve this infamous and notorious crime, but the film is fiction and not loyal to the actual details of the case and the suspects. There are coverups and deep levels of corruption. Nevertheless, it is a raw and emotional film containing vicious brutality against women. Unless you have read extensively about the case, you will find this a plausible and realistic depiction of what might have happened.
8 Road to Perdition
In Road to Perdition, Tom Hanks takes a hiatus from always playing good heroes to play a villainous hitman in this dark thriller based on a graphic novel by Max Allan Collins. Paul Newman got an Oscar nomination for his performance as John Rooney, a high-ranking mob boss, and the film won an Oscar for its dark, noir-influenced cinematography. Hanks’ performance as Michael Sullivan, Sr. is pure noir, based on his actions more than his words. He inadvertently takes his child, Michael, Jr., with him when he travels to pull off several violent hits, and this just makes the film that much darker.
The son learns the truth about his criminal father and what he really does to earn money, serving as a hitman. What makes the film especially brutal is the role of Harlen Maguire, played brilliantly by Jude Law. Harlen is another hitman, with the difference being that he takes a camera with him to hits and takes all sorts of pictures of his victims as they lay dying for his own sinister fetishistic and voyeuristic purposes. He is much more deranged and savage than Sullivan, and in several scenes really steals the film (the same way Richard Widmark did in the classic '40s film noir Kiss of Death).
Road to Perdition is a dark noir that takes place on rainy nights, the perfect atmosphere for a noir film. There are stylized murders and the film contains a minimum of dialogue, preferring to tell its story through images, which is why it makes for such a great noir film.
7 The Killer Inside Me
The Killer Inside Me is based on the book by Jim Thompson, which terrified Stanley Kubrick so much that the auteur filmmaker collaborated with Thompson for one of his first films, The Killing, one of the many movies Quentin Tarantino takes from artfully. The 2010 film The Killer Inside Me is the second adaptation of the novel to the big screen. Stacey Keach plays the psychotic sheriff protagonist in the first adaptation in 1976, whereas Casey Affleck plays sheriff Lou Ford in the new, markedly more gruesome and brutal version.
The plot involves a small-town sheriff whom everyone believes to be a nice guy. A little slow, maybe, but a standup guy and honest law enforcement officer. In actuality, he is a psychotic serial killer with a prostitute girlfriend (an amazing performance by Jessica Alba) whom he brutally beats (although she is a masochist). Whenever the circumstances are right, the sheriff commits murder. He also gets involved in blackmail schemes and seemingly beats prostitute Joyce Lakeland (Jessica Alba in an extremely erotic role) to death. He commits so many murders that more and more people finally start to suspect him and the tension is turned up.
The apocalyptic ending is a big surprise (and reminiscent of noir masterpiece Kiss Me Deadly), and very much fits in with the violent nature of the film and of Lou Ford. It's also much better than the surreal ending of the 1976 version.
6 Shutter Island
Shutter Island is a Martin Scorsese film, based on the book by Boston native Dennis Lehane, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, who has frequently collaborated with the director on many films such as The Aviator and The Departed. Shutter Island is a rare Scorsese horror film with noir roots firmly in place. On an island off the coast of Massachusetts, there is a prison for criminally insane individuals. As in The Wicker Man, DiCaprio’s character and the character of his partner, played by Mark Ruffalo, are lured out to the island on a false pretense, and we soon learn that nothing is as it seems.
The film explores the depths of the mind of DiCaprio's character, and the traumatic reality that he cannot accept. The film is intrinsically tied up to World War 2, which was arguably the largest influence on film noir as the genre asked questions about society and the world following the war. As Roger Ebert wrote in his review of Shutter Island, "These kinds of questions are at the heart of film noir. The hero is always flawed. Scorsese showed his actors the great 1947 noir Out of the Past, whose very title is a noir theme: Characters never arrive at a story without baggage."
5 Prisoners
Prisoners is a dark film from Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Blade Runner 2049, Dune) about a man whose child is abducted. He thinks he knows who is responsible, a man with intellectual disabilities, and he enlists his friend to help him find out where his son is by, among other things, brutally torturing the suspect in a cruel fashion. It’s a surprise when we learn who the real criminal is and why they are motivated to abduct children. Prisoners is an agonizingly intense film with a morbid storyline, but nothing will prepare the viewer for the film’s pessimistic, tragic, and shocking ending, tying it into the nihilistic themes of film noirs.
4 The Departed
Martin Scorsese directed The Departed, about the Boston mob and corrupt FBI agents working for the mob. This film is loosely based on the true-crime case of Whitey Bulger, who got away with many murders because he was a snitch and provided information to the FBI, who went out of their way to protect him. It's ultimately a remake of the classic Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. Corruption is rampant throughout the film, something you will find in many classic film noirs such as Chinatown.
The two main characters are on different sides of the law, but they are both moles. Matt Damon’s Massachusetts State Police Agent character is loyal to the film’s major criminal, played by Jack Nicholson, who is like a father to Damon’s character. Leonardo DiCaprio, on the other hand, is an honest cop who is sent undercover into the mob in order to get information on Jack Nicholson’s character. Nicholson’s character takes a liking to DiCaprio’s character, who is soon knee-deep in crime. The two characters are both state police agents, but they are enemies as one is a traitor working for underworld figures. Mark Wahlberg gives a tremendous performance here in this twisty noir-inflected film.
3 Mystic River
Mystic River, like The Departed, is a Boston film noir, based on the novel by Boston native Dennis Lehane, who also wrote Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, the aforementioned film with strong noir sensibilities. Clint Eastwood did a fabulous job directing, and Sean Penn in particular gives one of the best performances of his career as the father of a young murder victim. The film revolves around the investigation into her death, with Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne as police officers trying to solve a brutal crime, which they strongly believe was committed by Tim Robbins.
All of this relates to the emotional baggage of the past, connected to a horrific childhood incident involving the characters played by Bacon, Penn, and Robbins. Eastwood’s direction is incredible, and it is hard to take your eyes off the screen, especially with such great A-list actors giving the best performances of their careers. This film is a masterpiece, and touches on issues such as revenge, pedophilia, crime, insanity, doubt, forgiveness, family, and more.
2 Joker
Joker is a dark film influenced by The King of Comedy and a number of other Martin Scorsese movies such as Taxi Driver. Joaquin Phoenix is a clown, and he just wants to make people happy by entertaining them. But in the dark and hostile world of Gotham (always heavily influenced by film noir), he is looked down upon and met with suspicion and fear. He is horribly mistreated, and this results in Joker committing violence to get his angry point across.
The isolation makes him an unhappy clown, who resorts to radical action to get revenge on the system and, more importantly, inspire other disillusioned individuals to dress up as clowns and commit acts of violence and terrorism, turning him from a victim into a legend of mayhem and destruction, almost a martyr for those who feel ignored and betrayed by the system. It is fitting that his co-star, Robert DeNiro, has starred in several of the Scorsese films that heavily influenced Joker.
1 Nightmare Alley
Nightmare Alley is a remake that came out in 2021 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Guillermo Del Toro's noir thriller stars Bradley Cooper, who is simply amazing as a con man who works at a carnival. It’s the story of a man who starts with nothing, makes a good deal of money, then hits rock bottom and loses everything including his dignity, a familiar noir trope. The ending of this film has a pessimistic, almost nihilistic feel to it, and is one of the most shocking of recent years. This epic film noir has amazing acting, and Cate Blanchett is absolutely phenomenal as an evil femme fatale, which is one of the major hallmarks of a film noir.