Noirvember returns for those who can’t kick the habit. This year’s slate takes a deep drag into the void through dreamlike backstreets (AKA cheapo lots), thickened studio fog, & quintessential location photography. We visit some of the most dissonant corners of the canon, the rough edges of the genre’s dimmest flickers, and explore what’s left when the last match burns out.
5pm – *** ******** ********
We open this season’s Noirvember with an ultra low-budget police-procedural that boasts some of the most impressive on-location photography of the era. Our opening selection is a lean and stylish film noir featuring a slew of non-actors in what feels like a time capsule.
630p – **** ***** * ********
Next up, a gloomy coming-of-age film noir disguised as a surrealist folktale. This vastly underrated film noir features photography from the genre’s greatest cameraman working as a gun for hire and features a small role for an accused communist turned Washington hostess.
8pm – *** ********** *****
This year’s prime-time slot goes to our favorite card-slinging auteur and features one of film noir’s greatest mugs in a transgressive tale of corruption and greed.10pm – *** * ***** *******
A deftly-paced romantic comedy disguised as film noir (or perhaps the reverse). Directed by one of the masters of the genre and featuring all the classic tropes, while light-hearted in spirit, this film is an absolute gem with excellent performances and character chemistry.
11:30pm – **** **** ********
We conclude this season of Noirvember with some late-night melancholy. Directed by character actor turned b-film auteur, this melodramatic chamber piece is a fitting late-night finale to sealed fates & waning embers.
