-Modern Noir -
Noir is in. In deep. In black and white, and the drab browns and grays in between.
If life comes off as fact and fantasy mixed together in noir - a little bit Bogey, and a whole lotta Dashiell Hamitt - one could find opportunities in the fast-paced career of anti-hero side-kicks. Hardboiled private dicks always have that friend on the force, the ole buddy from way back. Usually, it's a balding, pudgy, ineffectual family man who gripes about his freelance pal's frequent call for favors and defends his absent wife's atrocious (always) cooking.
Hardly modern material, I know.
In the modern version, the sidekick is played by a Hispanic actress, or at least by Jeaneane Garafalo. The detective is still target-audience-WASP, though irreligious, a heavy smoker and a functional alcoholic. Studios insist that Ving Rhames counter-balance the tainted wasp as an improbable best friend with an impossible devotion to a quasi-Baptist religious leaning, in spite of the fact that both men will break the law in pursuit of the bad guy, visit opulant strip joints for clues, and very likely kill 20 people in the last 20 minutes.
There may be a sucker born every minute, and in Cinecitta, the population always stays the same. Why else would the cafe help sport top-notch gams?
Noir is in. In deep. In black and white, and the drab browns and grays in between.
If life comes off as fact and fantasy mixed together in noir - a little bit Bogey, and a whole lotta Dashiell Hamitt - one could find opportunities in the fast-paced career of anti-hero side-kicks. Hardboiled private dicks always have that friend on the force, the ole buddy from way back. Usually, it's a balding, pudgy, ineffectual family man who gripes about his freelance pal's frequent call for favors and defends his absent wife's atrocious (always) cooking.
Hardly modern material, I know.
In the modern version, the sidekick is played by a Hispanic actress, or at least by Jeaneane Garafalo. The detective is still target-audience-WASP, though irreligious, a heavy smoker and a functional alcoholic. Studios insist that Ving Rhames counter-balance the tainted wasp as an improbable best friend with an impossible devotion to a quasi-Baptist religious leaning, in spite of the fact that both men will break the law in pursuit of the bad guy, visit opulant strip joints for clues, and very likely kill 20 people in the last 20 minutes.
There may be a sucker born every minute, and in Cinecitta, the population always stays the same. Why else would the cafe help sport top-notch gams?
posted by Benedict | 5:15 AM
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