Bad cities, worse luck, and people who keep asking questions.
the zither, the sewers, the Ferris wheel
one room, one window, perfect construction
the opening take, and Welles' last studio film
routinely called the greatest film ever made
Altman dismantling Chandler
the best screenplay ever written, by common consent
De Palma's best, and that ending
the neo-noir revival starts here
the Coens' debut, mean and precise
Verhoeven's biggest hit, still argued about
the great forgotten LA noir
Wong Kar-wai's neon companion to *Chungking Express*
the Coens' warmest and coldest film at once
the best studio noir since the originals
Nolan's £6,000 debut
Soderbergh's most formally aggressive
Minghella's cruelest
the Coens in black and white
panned on release; De Palma's last great formal exercise
Bong's finest
Eastwood's heaviest
Almodóvar's noir
nobody saw it; the best-written comedy of its decade
the comic panel as film grammar, imitated instantly
high school as hardboiled noir
misunderstood on release; a digital-era landmark
Affleck's debut, better than expected
Korean serial-killer thriller with no comfort in it
Bong's most underrated
the Oscar winner with the impossible stadium shot
a teacher's revenge, told coldly and beautifully
dismissed as pulp, and a genuinely sad film
a very long night, worth every minute
Fincher's meanest
PTA's funniest and most confusing
a flop, and the funniest thing Black has written
the Safdies' breakthrough
the whodunnit revived
alienating by design, and very funny
Park's most romantic
Soderbergh's spy film, well reviewed and unseen
the third Benoit Blanc, and the darkest
