Batman Returns (Tim Burton, 1992)

 

Well imagine comparing that wonderful darkish and atmospheric superhero movie with The Avengers. It's like comparing The Beatles with lounge music played in fancy bars in Ibiza. The first one shines like a star and the second is the fucking travesty of art. Batman Returns directed by the major talent Tim Burton is a movie that relies heavily on its villains. And by the gods what memorable villains that movie has. Danny DeVito as Penguin, Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman and Christopher Walken as Max Shreck. All of them giving the performance of their life, all of them adding to the movie a cynical, dark tone that fits most perfectly to the atmosphere of the movie. 

Tim Burton knows better than anyone to make a movie that is, gorgeously, balancing between the action piece, the comic and the neo-noir film with the nihilism and the bleakness. Batman Returns is a pure dark piece, a dark piece that has its roots in the cinema that came here to mesmerize the spectator, to make him follow its tone like a hypnotized creature. That was a time that superhero films had still cinema art inside of them, instead of moronic noisy action and boring, useless dialogues only to fill the gap. That was a time that superhero films relied mostly in style and form, instead of hot fucking air. Batman Returns makes use of some of the most charming and appealing aesthetical technics of cinema. It's most of all a movie that came here to take you by the hand and show you another dimension, another reality, another world, another universe. And boy what kind of alluring universe is that, that our dear friend Tim has manufactured.  

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (Chad Stahelski, 2019)

Punches, kicks, knives, axes and tons of guns, the third part of John Wick has everything you need in order to have a thrilling action neo-noir movie. With a fantasizing and most exquisite decor, with memorable action scenes that last a lifetime and with an attidute of the ellegant and the dirty coming together, John Wick: Chapter 3 wins the bet and delivers one of the most satisfying and entertaining sequels that we have ever seen. With a rainy and most insecure atmosphere, with prettiness and ugliness blending in a refreshing and cold as the razor cocktail Mr. Wick is taking us for a ride inside his dangerous and thrilling life and we feel nothing less but astonished. It's quite a thing to watch a movie that is practically a never ending battle and not be bored. The creativity of the fights is such that you feel that there is an window opened for you and you are able to see all there is hidden in mysterious alleys and eccentric hotels.

John Wick: Chapter 3 is a movie that cannot be appreciated by the narrow minded, by those that think that action is made for brainless people. John Wick: Chapter 3 is a movie that combines the beauty and the atmosphere of the set with the vulgarity of the action. Never before have we seen so many action scenes packed in one movie, never before have we felt that the line between a dance and bloodbath is so damn close. There is that sense while you watching the film that the people and the set are part of something bigger, a wild feast of adrenaline and violence and we are participants in that feast and we are watching the arena. There is so much pathos in that movie, there is so much ellegance in that film, there is so much rawness in there. The third part of John Wick is a movie that you will find yourself wanting to watch again and again and you will see that there will be something inside you that will want to take that crazy and powerful ride inside the beauty of the moment that is been raped by the ugliness of the image.

Motherless Brooklyn (Edward Norton, 2019)

A typical old school neo-noir with a not so typical storyline. There is a clear social comment that derives from the movie and it's been mixed with the virtues of the mystery of a pure and authentic neo-noir. A lot of jazz, a lot of secrets, a lot of searching, a lot of detective cliches and a lot of charm in a film that speaks the language of old cinema but with a voice so clear and so fresh that hits you right in your sensitive parts. Edward Norton makes a typical American movie from the ones that are not afraid to speak the truth about the American way and the scandals that come under the table and harm people in a movie that doesn't go for the word masterpiece but for the phrase "honest movie". Edward Norton is, as always, incredible in his acting and here his character, with the strange syndrome that he has, is a true bliss for the eye and a real lesson for all actors out there. Motherless Brooklyn might not have the imaginative artistic direction that will steal your breath away, but it's a movie that runs like the river, although 144 minutes long you feel that you saw a half hour film and that is due to the plot and the trip of the detective to find the clues. The movie very quickly wraps its arms around you and you forget time, you forget that you are in a theatre, you forget that you are watching a movie and you become one with the 50s era.

Motherless Brooklyn like I said is an honest movie,  a movie that speaks the truth, a movie that has undeniable quality and a movie that makes you clearly and authentically identify with the main character, it makes you love him, it makes you wanna follow him, it makes you simply one of his best friends making the trip even more exciting. There is definitely something highly idiosyncratic about the main character, there is definitely a certain kind of pathos and charm in him, there is definitely a strange allure in his loneliness and there is definitely a whole world of characteristics in his persona that make him a truly lovable guy to the eyes of the audience and finally a character who came to write his own story and mythos in the neo-noir family of our civilization. Motherless Brooklyn is a movie that came not to stir the waters but to make them look crystal clear and to shed light to the dirtiness of the world by showing the deeds of a character who goes down as one of the most imaginative fictional creations that we have seen in a neo-noir film.

Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)

As you watch the shadows of Blade Runner you think of deep emotions. Deeper than hell and you fantasize that the world will turn dark someday and you are scared, totally. There is something about Blade Runner that takes out the most guilty emotions from you. The ones that hide beneath the surface of yourself. There is this thing about Blade Runner and the touching story that is unravels. That love, that pain, that hate, that undeniable truth, that once you are born a slave you are always a slave. This is a movie that you long to get inside of it. You long to touch the screen and be swept inside the world of Blade Runner. There is this ultimate fear that you get once you think of that world, but again there is this ultimate charm, this ultimate beauty that comes from everything ugly that touches you.

Blade Runner can only be felt. It's not a movie that comes with words. There are numerous scenes that you find yourself utterly touched. There are numerous scenes that you want to let the air from your lungs to fill the room that you are in. There is this beauty, this dark and uncertain pathos that comes around like a python and squeezes everything that it's inside you so after some time you are left only with a memory and a feeling. But that feeling it's so strong that can move mountains and shake oceans. Blade Runner is a movie that works like a psychedelic drug, the more you let yourself loose, the bigger will be the trip that you will have.

The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)

Dark atmosphere and exquisite filmmaking is not enough to fill the gap that The Dark Knight leaves behind. So much heroism, so many big, pompous words, so much melodrama, why all this, we all know that this recipe leads to no man's land. Regardless the fact that Christopher Nolan put all his talent in the process of this film its childish screenplay with the tearful and filled with melodrama dialogues can't maintain a certain, respectable position for that movie. We all know that The Dark Knight became an incredible hit with lists putting inside the 500 best films of all time, but the sad truth tells us that is a movie filled with plastic morality and full of hot air big words. It's disturbing Hollywood agenda along with the realistic and dramatic power that Nolan has inflicted in the movie make it one of those films that the atmospheric tone and the suspenseful agenda are lost inside a waterfall of "honorable" bullshit and crappy made, looking like the huge truth of life, lines. Batman is a comic and it needs that taste and flavor of that comic thing, it's not a thing that can be humanized completely, Nolan tried to bring the realism in the Batman mythology and instead of that he made a cheesy drama, that causes the viewer to really rebel against the pomposity that runs through the film. It's inevitable that after some point you are tired of listening to supposedly idealistic conversations that have the morality of a five-year-old child and the brains of a nun that is forgotten by time and space. Drama needs real depth and questions and answers that are intriguing, stimulating and thought-provoking, not the childish mumbling that this movie has to offer.  

L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997)

Violent, bloody, sinister, classy and raw is the old school neo-noir made by Curtis Hanson. Where there is beauty on the outside there is filth and dirt on the inside. Los Angeles in the early 50s is the place where everything happens, opportunity flies and if you are at the right place at the right time it might work for you. But L.A. Confidential provides us with a more dark and sinister of view of the city of Angels. Crime, dope, prostitution, corruption inside the police, you name it. A highly morbid and pessimistic movie about the city of Angels that comes and hits us with a black glove in the face and tells us that what you see isn't what you 'll get. The shiny, glossy lights of Hollywood may shine but underneath there is mayhem, fear and pain that comes up on the surface like a bomb ready to explode. Curtis Hanson wears to his movie its best dress and takes it for a ride in the depths of the darkest, most horrible and terrifying avenues of the city, with the images of beauty being disrupted by blood, murder and corruption. America looking nice, looking vibrant and looking bad at the same time in a movie that has that polished, exquisite touch that blends together with the morbidness of the story and the characters. A proud member of the neo-noir family, L.A. Confidential talks about the other side of America, the other side of luxury and big fancy cars and great parties with tons of booze and takes the viewer on a trip to "the bad neighborhood" where the lies and secrets are the only law among the police business. A movie for higher taste that has that malicious thirst for the ugly, the deformed, the deranged.

Black Rain (Ridley Scott, 1989)

Covered in blackness and the neon blinking lights of Japan Black Rain is a touching and aggressive neo-noir that came to make our dreams a little more darker than they are. Depending a lot on its bewildering atmosphere and its punctual rhythm the film has that deep touch, a touch that is been set by its black heart and bloody taste. There is a sense throughout the film that you are watching some kind of an epic movie set with the laws of the neo-noir family, that trembling lights and the powerful, captivating dark forces of the absence of light. The film has a distinctive touch, a mesmerizing cinematography, funny and hard-boiled lines and a general atmosphere that talks about a movie that has the power to bewitch you and take you to another world, the world of chaos and murder. There is a high emotion coming from the screen, the moments where you see Japan at night raining and that emotion is set by the power of the image and together they form an alliance that takes you deep in the heart of the story. There is darkness, blackness, horror and murder coming from all directions and the insecurity of the story lifts up your adrenaline. I have to say that Black Rain is a movie that is mostly worthy for its style, it's the style that makes everything look so unique, because there aren't many action thrillers that you can find that have so much understood the laws of darkness and atmosphere when it comes in filming a big city at the late hours or some rainy day or some hidden subterranean place. Black Rain understands all that and that's why is a movie that is celebrating its neo-noir identity so thoroughly.