noir

Who Will Be the Next Harry Hole? The 5 Best Norwegian Actors for the Role

Who Will Be the Next Harry Hole? The 5 Best Norwegian Actors for the Role

The complex detective in Norwegian noir writer Jo Nesbø’s novels needs the perfect actor for the upcoming series. Who will be – who can be – the next Harry Hole?

‘Breathing Through the Wound’ Will Leave You Gasping for Air

‘Breathing Through the Wound’ Will Leave You Gasping for Air

As dizzying as Víctor Del Árbol's philosophy of crime may appear, the layering of motifs in Breathing Through the Wound is vertiginous.

Godard’s Sci-fi/Noir Alphaville’ Is Witty and Subversive

Godard’s Sci-fi/Noir Alphaville’ Is Witty and Subversive

Alphaville's pulpy sci-fi plot acts as a warm coat of familiarity as Godard slyly subverts one genre trope after another.

‘Detour’ and ‘The Big Clock’ Cross Noir with Absurdity

‘Detour’ and ‘The Big Clock’ Cross Noir with Absurdity

Like a match made in Purgatory, Detour and The Big Clock are ingenious films with different but self-aware approaches to noir.

Dignity and the Death Penalty: On Borzage’s ‘Moonrise’

Dignity and the Death Penalty: On Borzage’s ‘Moonrise’

In the nearly eight decades since Moonrise‘s release, Borzage’s melodrama-noir-styled meditations on social causality, dignity, and redemption have lost none of their potency.

‘Smoking Kills’ Revels in the Many Joys to Be Found in Death

‘Smoking Kills’ Revels in the Many Joys to Be Found in Death

Antoine Laurain's Smoking Kills is provocative and funny, but its meditations remain consistently mature.

Outrageousness Takes a Holiday in ‘Archer S8: Dreamland’

Outrageousness Takes a Holiday in ‘Archer S8: Dreamland’

This may be a clever homage to classic hard-boiled detective fiction from the '40s, but Archer in Dreamland is not the wild man we've come to love/hate.

Matthew Weiner’s ‘Heather, the Totality’ Is Chillingly Empty

Matthew Weiner’s ‘Heather, the Totality’ Is Chillingly Empty

The Mad Men creator's debut novel has noir roots but plumbs his familiar territory of modernist anxiety with a savage precision.

‘The Best of Richard Matheson’ Is Among the Best of Pop Culture

‘The Best of Richard Matheson’ Is Among the Best of Pop Culture

Richard Matheson's work has so permeated modern pop culture that it can be hard to find works not at least partially indebted to an idea of his or, as is more often the case, someone influenced by him.

‘Gotham: Season 2’ Is a Muddled, Middling, and Messy Fare

‘Gotham: Season 2’ Is a Muddled, Middling, and Messy Fare

Gotham steeps itself in Batman lore without ever becoming too faithful, its piety only extending far enough to communicate its loose ties to the source material.
Moving Pixels Podcast: ‘White Night’, White Noir

Moving Pixels Podcast: ‘White Night’, White Noir

White Night tells the story of a haunted house and a decaying American economy.
Scarcely Seeing: Light as a Limited Resource in Survival-Horror

Scarcely Seeing: Light as a Limited Resource in Survival-Horror

In White Night, it is not a shotgun, but light itself, that is your only ally, and light in in this game is in terrifyingly short supply.