What it also can do for us is make a more informed determination about the quality of neo-noir films in the decades in question. Raftery claims that neo-noir falls off a cliff in 1999 and that its continuing contribution was sporadic at best. The number of films on the top 200 list...or claimed for it by inference via the film being selected for inclusion in a neo-noir series--Criterion (CC) or TCM--does not show a drastic dropoff between the 1990s and the 2000s:
1960s--5
1970s--50
1980s--34
1990s--56
2000s--46
2010s--29
2020s--1
(NOTE: I added Soderbergh's NO SUDDEN MOVE as a Top 200 neo-noir, which is how we get a film from this decade onto the list.)
We can see that the 90s is the strongest decade in terms of quality, but that the 2000s does not show a precipitous dropoff. That happens in the 2010s, partially because resources involving neo-noir material is being diverted more and more into long-form TV (a process that started in the aughts and has mushroomed ever since).
Here's the full list. Films in the second 100 (101-200) are shown with a "200" after the title. Films with an annotation such as "post-noir," "blax," "sci-fi", etc. that have either a CC (Criterion) or TCM appearing with the title are films that we eliminated from consideration for our list but that were selected for a neo-noir series.
The list shows some "quality spikes" in individual years. Here's a list of the years with at least eight films cited as "quality neo-noir": 1971 (8), 1973 (8), 1974 (11), 1981 (8), 1990 (10), 1996 (9), 2007 (9), 2014 (9).
So we can see that after the initial wave of neo-noir in the 70w, there are "waves" where quality work clusters every 7-8-9 years. If that pattern holds, we'd be looking for a spike in '22 or '23; but the 500-pound canary that's likely to quash that, of course, is long-form TV).
Raftery wrote a book about how 1999 was the "Best. Year. Ever." for film (and yes, he used that lexical configuration, demonstrating just how marinated in the Internet he is). 1999 was a solid year for quality neo-noir (six titles on our list), but 2001 also had six.
Finally, you may want to determine for yourself if 90s neo-noir has any real affinity with 40s noir. Certainly a few titles appropriate plot elements from those films; but the level of decadence and psychopathy that emerges in 90s neo-noir has more in common with the more unhinged characters we see in 50s noir.
Year Film
1966 Harper TCM post-noir
1967 Point Blank TCM
1967 Warning Shot TCM post-noir
1968 Bullitt
1968 P.J. 200
1970 The Brotherhood of the Bell 200
1970 Cotton Comes to Harlem CC blax
1971 The Anderson Tapes
1971 Dirty Harry (series)
1971 The French Connection
1971 Klute
1971 Play Misty for Me 200
1971 See the Man Run 200
1971 Shaft 200
1971 Get Carter TCM UK
1972 The Getaway
1972 Hickey & Boggs
1972 Prime Cut 200
1972 Across 110th Street CC blax
1972 Pulp TCM
1973 Badlands
1973 The Friends of Eddie Coyle TCM
1973 The Long Goodbye CC
1973 The Outfit
1973 Serpico
1973 Badge 373 200
1973 Kojak: The Marcus-Nelson Murders 200
1973 The Mad Bomber 200
1974 Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
1974 Chinatown CC TCM
1974 The Conversation
1974 Death Wish (series)
1974 The Gambler
1974 The Parallax View
1974 The Girl on the Late, Late Show 200
1974 The Midnight Man 200
1974 Cat and Mouse aka Mousey 200
1974 Newman’s Law 200
1974 Thunderbolt and Lightfoot 200
1975 Farewell, My Lovely CC
1975 Night Moves CC TCM
1975 Who Is the Black Dahlia? 200
1976 Taxi Driver
1976 The Killing of a Chinese Bookie CC
1976 The Killer Inside Me 200
1976 Mikey and Nicky 200
1977 The Domino Principle 200
1977 Rolling Thunder 200
1977 Sorcerer 200
1977 The American Friend CC
1978 The Driver
1978 Straight Time
1978 Magic 200
1978 The Eyes of Laura Mars CC
1979 The Onion Field CC
1980 Dressed to Kill 200
1981 Blow Out CC
1981 Body Heat CC TCM
1981 Cutter’s Way CC TCM
1981 Prince of the City
1981 Thief
1981 True Confessions
1981 Absence of Malice 200
1981 Ms. 45 200
1982 48 Hrs. 200
1982 Blade Runner final cut TCM sci-fi
1983 A Killer in the Family 200
1983 Scarface 200
1984 Blood Simple CC TCM
1984 Flashpoint 200
1984 Body Double CC
1984 The Hit CC
1985 Runaway Train
1985 To Live and Die in L.A. TCM
1985 Trouble in Mind CC
1986 Manhunter CC
1986 Round Midnight
1986 A Killing Affair 200
1986 Blue Velvet 200
1986 No Mercy 200
1986 Positive I.D. 200
1986 Mona Lisa CC UK
1987 The Bedroom Window CC
1988 Cohen and Tate 200
1988 Cop 200
1988 Frantic 200
1988 Tequila Sunrise TCM
1989 Dead Bang 200
1989 The Kill-Off 200
1990 Goodfellas
1990 The Hot Spot
1990 Internal Affairs
1990 Miller's Crossing
1990 Q & A
1990 The Two Jakes
1990 After Dark, My Sweet 200
1990 Horseplayer 200
1990 Miami Blues 200
1990 Presumed Innocent 200
1991 Liebestraum
1991 Homicide 200 CC
1991 The Silence of the Lambs 200
1991 This Gun for Hire 200
1991 Under Suspicion 200
1992 Deep Cover
1992 One False Move
1992 Basic Instinct 200
1992 White Sands 200
1992 Swoon CC
1993 A Perfect World
1993 Carlito’s Way
1993 Falling Down
1993 Red Rock West
1993 Kalifornia 200
1993 Romeo Is Bleeding 200
1993 Suture CC
1994 The Last Seduction CC
1994 Natural Born Killers
1994 Fresh 200
1995 Devil in a Blue Dress
1995 The Underneath 200
1996 Mulholland Falls
1996 Normal Life
1996 2 Days in the Valley 200
1996 Blood and Wine 200
1996 Eye for an Eye 200
1996 Fargo 200
1996 Freeway 200
1996 The Juror 200
1996 Sling Blade 200
1997 City of Industry
1997 L.A. Confidential
1997 Lost Highway
1997 U-Turn
1998 Enemy of the State
1998 Ronin
1998 Gunshy 200
1998 Montana 200
1998 Palmetto 200
1999 Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
1999 The Limey
1999 Simpatico
1999 8MM 200
1999 Double Jeopardy 200
1999 Fight Club 200
2000 American Psycho
2000 Memento
2001 In the Bedroom
2001 The Man Who Wasn’t There
2001 Training Day
2001 Brigham City 200
2001 Lantana 200
2001 Mulholland Drive 200
2002 Road to Perdition
2002 The Salton Sea 200
2002 Trapped 200
2003 Monster
2003 Tough Luck
2003 Fear X 200 200
2003 Mystic River 200
2003 Wonderland 200
2004 The Assassination of Richard Nixon
2004 Man on Fire
2004 Collateral 200
2004 Kill Bill: Vol. 2 200
2005 A Little Trip to Heaven
2005 Lord of War
2005 A History of Violence 200
2005 Match Point 200
2005 Brick 200 CC
2006 Alone with Her
2006 Payback: Straight Up
2006 The Departed 200
2007 Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
2007 Mr. Brooks
2007 There Will Be Blood
2007 Trade
2007 Zodiac
2007 Fracture 200
2007 The Lookout 200
2007 Michael Clayton 200
2007 The Walker 200
2008 Frozen River
2008 Transsiberian
2008 The Wrestler
2008 The Last Lullaby 200
2008 The Minus Man 200
2009 Julia
2009 Wrong Turn at Tahoe
2009 Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans 200
2009 State of Play 200
2010 Winter’s Bone
2010 Ca$h 200
2010 Faster 200
2010 Shutter Island 200
2011 Drive 200
2011 Killer Joe 200
2011 Rampart 200
2011 Seeking Justice 200
2012 The Place Beyond the Pines 200
2013 Blue Ruin 200
2013 Cold Comes the Night 200
2013 Prisoners 200
2014 A Walk Among the Tombstones
2014 3 Days to Kill
2014 Cold in July
2014 The Drop
2014 Inherent Vice
2014 Joe
2014 The Two Faces of January
2014 Before I Go to Sleep 200
2014 Nightcrawler 200
2015 Lost in the Sun 200
2015 Run All Night 200
2016 Hell or High Water
2016 Transpecos
2017 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MO
2017 Wind River
2017 You Were Never Really Here
2018 Bad Times at the El Royale
2021 No Sudden Move 200
Responses