10 Gripping Neo-Noirs You Must See Before You Die

10. The Long Goodbye

Released just a year before the genre-defining Chinatown, The Long Goodbye could be argued to be more of an anti-noir than a neo-noir. Directed by maverick filmmaker Robert Altman and adapted from Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel of the same name, Altman seems to take great pleasure in tearing down every genre convention and cliché that had become stale in film noir over the last 40 years.

Here, Chandler's iconic gumshoe Phillip Marlowe is reimagined as a man seemingly out of time. A dishevelled, shambling anachronism, he feels like a man of the 1950s exhaustedly navigating a decadent, self-obsessed Hollywood. He's not without his wit and brilliant investigative skills, however, solving what seems like the primary case before the day is out and effortlessly snarking at gangsters and their goons even when he's on the back foot.

Upon the film's release, critics were horrified by what they saw as an attack by Altman on an author and a beloved character. Over time, however, the film has been recognised as a seminal deconstructive work, de-romanticising the detective genre and paving the way for film noir's evolution into neo-noir. Its gorgeous cinematography, blackly comic tone and endearing central performance from Elliott Gould make it an infinitely watchable satire.