Classic Noir and Neo-Noir Films Streaming Now

One of our favorite genres has a bunch of great movies available to stream

Jul 24, 2020

Film noir can be a tough genre to define. The classics of film noir first appeared in 1940s Hollywood, with The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, and Double Indemnity held up as some of the titans of the era. These were twisty hardboiled crime stories that thrilled audiences. Most of the film noirs of the time shared a few key elements: shadowy lighting, a morally ambivalent main character, a seductive femme fatale, and, usually, a gloomy ending.

The genre transformed into neo-noir sometime around the 1960s when it started to grow outside of the United States. Now you can find neo-noir influence in movies as different as Blade Runner, Gone Girl, and Mulholland Drive (read this for more on the neo-noir). Today we are recommending a mix of both classic film noir and neo-noir movies streaming now. Grab your fedora, light up a cigarette, and enjoy the show.

Drew recommends…

Sunset Boulevard (streaming on Amazon Prime)

Seventy years ago, Hollywood painted a dark masterpiece about itself. It’s a minor miracle that in 1950 a major studio (Paramount Pictures) would choose to produce Sunset Boulevard, an unvarnished and brutally honest portrayal of Hollywood moviemaking. Thank the movie gods they did, because Sunset Boulevard is not only one of the stone-cold classic film noirs and one of the best movies about Hollywood, it’s also one of the greatest movies ever made, full stop.

This is a movie that mirrors real life in an almost surreal way. The plot of Sunset Boulevard revolves around down-and-out screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) and Norma Desmond, a washed-up former silent film star. Joe starts working on a script for Norma, one that will be her big return to the silver screen, although it’s easy to see that the movie business has long passed her by. The eerie part of the making of Sunset Boulevard is that Norma is played by Gloria Swanson, an actual star of the silent film era. Like her character in the movie, Swanson was also forgotten by Hollywood once “talkies” replaced the silent movies of her day. Making things even stranger, Norma’s butler Max, who used to be her director, is played by director Erich von Stroheim, who also used to direct Swanson’s films. It’s a fascinating tangled web of art imitating life. Even famous Old Hollywood filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille makes an appearance as… Cecil B. DeMille.

Swanson’s performance is an iconic concoction of delusion, misery, and menace. She’s nothing short of brilliant in a role that might as well have been tailor-made for her, minus the self-destructive insanity. Her line readings (“I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.”), melodramatic facial expressions, and theatrical body language fully embodies the has-been movie star desperate to return to her former glory. Her performance almost turns Sunset Boulevard into a horror movie at times. She’s that creepy and terrifying and unpredictable.

Despite its cynical take on the movie industry, Sunset Boulevard is super watchable and entertaining. Co-writers Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett provide some surprising (and much-needed) humor to their noir story. Wilder, who also directed the movie, is most known for his witty comedies like Some Like It Hot and The Apartment, as well as more serious noir films like Double Indemnity. His blend of drama and levity is perfectly calibrated in most of his work, but Sunset Boulevard especially.

I’ve seen this movie a few times now, and the final few minutes never cease to shoot a shiver down my spine. I won’t spoil it, but it features the famous “I’m ready for my close up” line and can easily be counted among the best and most unsettling closing scenes in cinema history. The movie’s legacy, seventy years on, remains an uncompromising picture of the dark side of fame and how we as an audience enable this tragic cycle.

Blood Simple (streaming on HBO)

The following has been re-published from an April 2019 newsletter

The Coen brothers are responsible for some of the best films of the past 35 years, and they got their start in 1984 with Blood Simple, a Texas crime story where a jealous husband hires a private investigator to kill his cheating wife and her new partner. This is where the Coens began to develop their trademark style with its distinct mix of dark comedy, irony, violence, and profundity.

A young Frances McDormand, in her first on screen role, plays the cheating wife. She’s so remarkable you’d never guess this was her film debut. After shooting Blood Simple, she would marry Joel Coen in 1984 and then go on to star in several more of the Coens’ movies, most memorably winning the Best Actress Oscar for Fargo in 1996.

What’s most impressive about Blood Simple is how amazing it looks on such a small budget. Made for just $1.5 million, the Coens already had a sense of how they wanted their films to look. In Blood Simple, they created a noir set during hot Texas nights at neon-lit bars. Plus, it’s just a blast to watch this story of greed and loyalty (or lack thereof) unfold.

Billy recommends…

The Long Goodbye (streaming on Amazon Prime)

Is it possible to say that a director is your favorite director despite only seeing one of his movies? I am ready to say that about Robert Altman. Okay, I understand how insane that sounds, but The Long Goodbye is one of those movies that shows the timelessness of the noir genre because of its origins. Noir started with a simple crime atmosphere, but the popularity of this genre allowed auteur filmmakers to create the constant themes of menace and pessimism that is so evident in the genre today.

The Long Goodbye opens up with a beautiful opening shot where our main character almost seems happy. A semi-tortured type of happy, but his cat seems to humanize him a bit, which is rare for the noir style. Elliot Gould plays private detective Philip Marlowe who normally takes small “cases.” Like a missing spouse who is on a bender, but this time he has a connection to almost everyone involved and the story goes deeper than he had anticipated, allowing this suave character to be vulnerable in a way he doesn’t want to be. Marlowe lives at the top of an apartment building that has a bridge connected to a group of beautiful hippies, while also having a lot of good friends who are incredibly wealthy. A perfect life for a simple man with a simple life who has a knack for the details, allowing him to be wary of all people's intentions. Until there is a case that entangles one of his only close companions.

There is a primary goal of this case and that is to find why his friend went missing, but what Robert Altman does with his camera and direction is truly magnificent. Each character has a demon that Marlowe is purposefully latching on to to get the information he needs. Giving the actors in the smallest role an opportunity to bring something extra to the audience. The Long Goodbye is a journey to a time where noir went from black and white to color. Showing that the aesthetic is not the only thing defining a noir film.

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (streaming on HBO)

Most of the time I want directors to give me a linear structure. A story that is simple from beginning to end while having powerful subtext to power me through. Director Sidney Lumet with his last film does the exact opposite and it shows that I need to allow for jumbled filmmaking. By jumbled, I mean crossing story lines that are running towards the same conclusion. Clearly each scene is meticulously planned out, but this style shows how uncertain each character is with their future.

Lumet splits the timeline into a direction that is all going towards a bank robbery and its aftermath. Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke are brothers who are trying to get out of their rotten lives. Their brilliant idea is to rob their mom and dad's jewelry shop. A place they know, but do not love and are willing to exploit. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead does such an amazing job portraying uncertainty, menace, and pessimism. A trio that screams desperation in characters who are were once not horrible, but allowed their uncertainty to make their situation worse.

Ethan Hawke (Hank) is the younger brother of Philip Seymour Hoffman (Andy). Andy is the alpha of the family who uses his own desperation to manipulate Hank’s desperation. Hank brings the emotion to the story with the relationship to his daughter. All of that hope of a better life is slowly stripped away as each character comes closer and closer to the climax of this movie.

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead encapsulates the tropes of the noir genre in all the best ways, but in a mood that is not fun unless the direction and performances give you a rise like it does for me. Without that I hope that the emotion, while tense, bleak, and sad, can grab you from beginning to end. Lumet gives each of the main characters a wonderful chance to shine in their grief and desperation. These themes create wonderful movie experiences even when they are not easy to visit.

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