THRILLER SCHOOL
(NOIR IN A NUTSHELL)
THE EXORCIST (1973)
Let’s start with my favourite movie. Noir? Yup. From the compromised ex-boxer priest to the plodding, sardonic detective, the budding evil gives purpose to their wearying lives of quiet desperation. Also, it’s got banter. As in wisecracks. Yes, The Exorcist.
DIRTY HARRY (1971)
Simple premise, yet a tour de force of cinematic set-pieces. You can pluck any of a half-dozen sequences and teach them in film class. Workaday heroes, check. Great banter, check.
NIGHT MOVES (1975)
If The Big Sleep was the quintessential evocation of Raymond Chandler, this ’70s thriller is surely birthed from his successor, Ross Macdonald. Sad, wrenching, poignant.
A hero who knows not what he does — or rather: WHY.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007)
Crime as literature, pure and simple. Violence that is clumsy, erratic, shocking — even comical. Look and learn.
THE HANDMAIDEN (2016)
As Hitchcockian as it gets. A stunning, often infuriating look at depravity, and the brilliant women who conquer it.
Someone will doubtless miss the point and call for its cancellation.
THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975)
A bleak Christmas adds colour to Sydney Pollack’s story of a frightened loner on the CIA’S kill list. Quirky, awkward, REAL. A good primer for thriller fans.
THE LIVES OF OTHERS (2006)
A story about the East German Stasi that practically drags you up onto the screen with the characters. So engaging that when I screened it (blind) at my house, my guests offered reverent thanks. They’d been changed.
EASTERN PROMISES (2007)
People like to point to Cronenberg’s A History Of Violence as his triumph, but I was much more impressed with this diamond-crafted gem. The steam-bath sequence is SWEET.
PHONE (2002)
On the surface, an easily overlooked Korean ghost thriller… but so much more. It aspires, by the end, to a level of sadness that isn’t just surprising — it’s a powerful lesson for horror filmmakers.
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957)
The Holy Grail. In Barry Levinson’s Diner, that character who keeps popping his head in? He’s quoting this movie. Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman on screenplay — say no more.