10 Greatest Neo-Noir Films Of The 21st Century

Nowadays, Christopher Nolan is one of the most famous directors in the game, with eye watering budgets that allow him to live out his every cinematic daydream. There’s a strong argument to be made, though, that the limitations in which he once worked led to far more interesting films, most notably his 2000 breakthrough.

Memento stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a man unable to form new memories following a mysterious attack. Obsessively hunting for his wife’s killer, he carries around Polaroids and covers himself in tattoos to keep safe information that would otherwise be instantly lost.

Nolan hinges his film around a neat structural gimmick, with twin timelines playing forward (the past) and backward (the present). It allows for an unnerving level of unreliability in its narrator, with Leonard seeming the hero of his own story one minute, the villain the next.

Pearce is brilliant as ever and he’s ably supported by Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano, both tailor made for the noir genre. It’s a simple story built around its formal daring, but the visceral power is quite something.