3 Examples of Neo-Noir

Brick – was released in 2005 and fits the genre of neo-noir perfectly. The basic storyline is that a teenage loner pushies his way into the high school crime ring to investigate the disapeance of his ex-girlfriend. The film has all the traits of classic film noir; odd-ball characters, dark and gloomy setting right down to the very smart and quick paced dialogue of a 30s/40s hard boiled detective thriller. The twist that lifts it above parody and even a mere homage is the presentation of these elements with high school kids. The director’s way of telling the story makes the audience feel like they are being taken along smooth and quick editing. Along with skewed and distorted camera angles. He manages to maintain suspense throughout the film. And the narrative follows tat of typical noir with the good guy not winning. It has all the traits of a noir but with a younger cast and a more up-to-date setting and scenario.
Sin City – again was released in 2005 and features 3 volumes of stories by ‘Frank Miller’ who originally wrote the story on a comic book series. The first part is called ‘the hard goodbye’ Sin City is famous for its artwork, which draws heavily from film noir, including its use of shadow and stark backgrounds. Black and white are the sole colors most of the time with exception of red, yellow and blue in some stories. Partial color usage is designed to draw attention to a certain character in the story. The writing style also draws heavily on detective and crime pulp fiction. Strange metaphors and similes are often used. This gives the narration a very unnerving feel. The story is set in Basin City fictional town in the American west. With strange climate it has deserts, farmland, tar pits and also it snows their part of the year most of these settings are considered dark and gloomy


Sky Captain and the world of tomorrow – this film was released in 2004 and it crosses into many genres. Sci-fi mystery thriller with action adventure, but i belive that this film uses alot of noir traits in it and should be considered as a neo-noir. “The film is set in an alternative 1939 and follows the adventures of Polly Perkins, a newspaper reporter for The Chronicle, and Harry Joseph "Joe" Sullivan, known as "Sky Captain", as they track down the mysterious "Dr. Totenkopf" who is seeking to build the 'World of Tomorrow'”(Reference from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Captain_and_the_World_of_Tomorrow ) so to give the film its 1939 feel i believe that the film has been decolorized in the edit to make colours dull and cool. But because there is still colour in the film I believe that it appeals to a younger audience than most noir films. Most neo-noirs are aimed at 15+ male and females but I believe that this film appeals to people as low as 8 years due to the narrative and the characters. Which may get more people interested in noir films.