Category Archive: noir

Neo-Noir in the Post-Suburban City: ‘Thief’ and ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’

No film genre in Hollywood’s golden age was more urban to its core than noir. The word conjures […]

Noiring L.A.: Double Indemnity, Black Dahlia, and the Fears of Postwar America

Last night marked the second season debut of HBO’s True Detective. If last year’s Woody Harrelson and Matthew […]

California Triangulation: Science, Religion, Industry, and the Birth of the Research Park

Last April HBO launched one of its newest series, the Mike Judge-produced “Silicon Valley,” documenting the “wacky” experiences of […]

Noiring LA: Mildred Pierce, The Reckless Moment, and Reinforcing Postwar Suburban Gender Roles

“Often like a ghost in the shadows, the mother haunts film noir,” observed Kelly Oliver and Benigno Trigo […]

Noiring L.A.: The Crimson Kimono and Asian American Sexuality in the Age of the Cold War

“Crimson Kimono is really just a reversal of the old GI concept: ‘Let’s change our luck,’” Director Sam […]

Retail California: Ralphs, the Big Lebowski, and Shaping the American Shopping Experience

[Editor’s note: This article originally ran on March 21, 2013 under the Intersections column for KCET Departures. It […]

Living on Noir Borders: Race, Sexuality, and Law Enforcement in Touch of Evil and Crimson Kimono

“It has been argued that Touch of Evil is not so much the end of film noir as […]

Nazis, Boxers and Fish Dicks: Ned Beauman’s Noir

I am a bit of a sucker for “first” novels. There is something about the unbridled sense of […]