Three examples of contemporary film noir

1. Brick, 2005, Rian Johnson

This is A realistic film with no flashly special effects but still manages to appeal to the mainstream audience. i think the reason this is such a popular film is because of the simplistic style and the enigma of the film, also because the main characters are high school age its reaches a young audience because its easy for them to relate to. The main charater is a lonely teenager Brendan. who finds his former girlfriend Emily dead in the entrance of a tunnel of sewage and recalls her phone call two days ago, when she said to him that she was in trouble. Brendan, who still loved Emily, met bad elements of his high-school trying to contact her, and when he succeeded, she told him that she was OK. He hides her body in the tunnel and decides to investigate the meaning and connection of four words, including "brick" and "pin", that Emily told him to find who killed her. Using the support of his nerd friend Brain, he successively meets the small time drug dealers Kara, Dode, Brad Bramish, Laura and Tugger, to reach the teenager powerful drug dealer The Pin. Slowly, Brendan unravels the motives why Emily was killed and plots revenge.

2. Sin city, 2005, Frank Miller
"Sin City" is the opposite of Brick with its sleek style. This may be because it's an almost hybrid of two genres although that depends on wether you think film noir is a genre or not. This is because "Sin city" is a comic book adaption which most people would say is a genre. This film is full of special effects which draws a younger age despite the age rating of 18. This film is also effective of drawing in an older audience because of its use of the older style of film noir, with its voice over's and enigma in the narrative. Creating pleasure in the old and excitment in the new. "Sin city" is four stories of crime adapted from Frank Miller’s popular comics telling tales of corruption in Basin City. The first story (The Customer is always right) is short, and is based on the depression of women that they need to pay a man to feel loved when they commit suicide. The next story is Part 1 of "That Yellow Bastard" about a cop who needs to save a young girl from being raped. The third story (The Hard Goodbye) features a man taking revenge on a heartless killer who murdered his one-night stand. The fourth story (The Big, Fat Kill) stars a man who must dispatch a cop's body, but it will be a tough ride to do it. Following that are two conclusions to Sin City, the ending of "That Yellow Bastard" which is set 8 years later, and a short story that ends Sin City.

The Departed, 2006, Martin Scorsese

This film could be debated that it is more a crime or gangsta film but i think because of its narrative and with taglines like "Cops or Criminals. When you're facing a loaded gun what's the difference?" and "Lies. Betrayal. Sacrifice. How far will you take it?". The narrative of the film In South Boston, the state police force is waging war on Irish-American organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Frank Costello. While Billy quickly gains Costello's confidence, Colin Sullivan, a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the state police as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit. Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the mob and the police that there's a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy-and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself. But is either willing to turn on the friends and comrades they've made during their long stints undercover?