10 Greatest Neo-Noir Films Of The 21st Century
6. The Man Who Wasn’t There
Joel and Ethan Coen had dipped into noir before with Blood Simple and Fargo, but they’ve never embraced the genre so wholeheartedly as in their severely undersung 2001 film The Man Who Wasn’t There.
A ‘40s set black and white slow burner, it stars man out of time Billy Bob Thornton as taciturn barber Ed Crane. He has a stumbling business and an unfaithful wife, Doris, so when the chance comes to pull himself up in the world, he resorts to blackmailing Doris’ boss, a moral event horizon that leads to all manner of mayhem.
The film sings with the idiosyncrasy of the Coens’ finest work, but came at a time in which they were mostly distracted by increasingly light comedies. The pitch black heart of The Man Who Wasn’t There previews the golden period they’d soon enter. Thornton is a fantastic leading man for the genre, tackling his role with intense subtlety, maintaining real humanity even as he dives down a rabbit hole of bad decisions.
This is a film that certainly deserves rediscovery, both as a modern noir and part of the Coens’ lauded canon.