I watched Luther: The Fallen Sun and I fucking hated it
why do i do this to myself
5 Likes
Do you have any recommendations?
You bet I do, but most of them arenât movies.
the BBC Poirot radio dramas are all wonderful. Agatha Christie stuff is always fun because itâs rich people killing each other, which i approve of, so thereâs less moral heavy-handedness. i also like that Poirot is not a cop, he just canât help himself when it comes to solving mysteries.
that link goes to archive so you can just download them all. the Poirot tv show is also really good but i prefer these because i like to listen while i do dishes or whatever. honestly just do both.
i highly recommend the early Spenser novels by Robert B Parker, particularly Promised Land and Looking for Rachel Wallace. theyâre more noir-ish, and like any good noir theyâre very concerned with politics. theyâre not progressive by todayâs standards but i love Spenser as this very masculine character trying to grapple with issues he doesnât understand very well. you can tell that the author Talked To His Wife when writing women characters because theyâre much closer to, uh, real characters.
you will have to overlook how perennially horny Spenser is though. but theyâre breezy reads and a ton of fun, and a real great insight into like, late 70âs early 80âs masculinity, and also Boston.
i do not recommend later Spenser novels - mostly because theyâre boring.
I just finished a book called A Rip Through Time which was pretty good - itâs a time travel murder mystery where a modern woman gets sent back to Victorian Scotland to solve her own murder, sort of. Itâs not anything mind-blowing but itâs a neat premise and a thoughtfully crafted mystery. It is the most copaganda recommendation on this list though.
Oh, lastly Iâll shout out all of the Frogwares Sherlock Holmes games, but particularly Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper. I had a lot of fun co-oping that one with Alicia.
Okay now for movies:
Knives Out and Glass Onion are obvious recommendations if you havenât seen them yet. But as a fan of the genre, theyâre genuinely really good and well constructed.
If you havenât seen Clue you have to watch it. Itâs got Tim Curry and itâs very funny and stupid. The ending is really incredible too, I wonât spoil it.
The Nice Guys is great, a real noir-comedy-murder-mystery joint. Ryan Gosling as the incompetent private detective is such a fun inversion of his role in Drive.
I remember liking the movie Sherlock Holmesâ Younger Brother but it wasnât a great mystery, it was just a goofy comedy with Gene Wilder. But it was fun!
Murder on the Orient Express (the newest one) is actually pretty good! Itâs extremely melodramatic in a way that doesnât necessarily suit Poirot but itâs Christie so the mystery is extremely solid andâŚyeah, itâs fun.
I really like Sleepy Hollow even though it has Johnny Depp, and usually I would discount any stories with supernatural elements. I dunno, it reads as a murder mystery to me. Iâm not sure this is a real recommendation tbh
The Pale Blue Eye is dope even if itâs, uh, weird fan fiction about Edgar Allan Poe. I really dug it.
Uhhhhhhh thatâs all i can come up with off the top of my head.
Movies I disrecommend:
-
The Snowman (holy fuck this movie is bad)
-
7 Women and a Murder (italian locked room murder mystery ostensibly about 7 women but itâs really about their relationship with a dude, and also the mystery isnât very good)
-
Luther: The Fallen Sun (see above)
-
Enola Holmes 1 and 2 (they are cute movies but not well constructed mysteries. a bit of fluff, basically, so not as much a disrecommend as a long âehhhhhhhâ noise)
-
the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movies (these movies kick ass but nobody in their right mind should watch them)
-
Death on the Nile (the new one) (holy fuck this movie is bad. i made a joke that this was gonna be Poirot: Mustache Origins but it turns out i was fucking correct!! terrible movie. also it has a real real nasty dude in it)
-
Spenser Confidential (it just sucks)
4 Likes
Oh this is interesting. As a mystery fan where do you draw the noir line? Most noirs are also mysteries, Chinatown, the Parker stories etc. Find the girl.
i guess like, the noir line is when it goes from âah, this jaunty stranger is here to solve our mystery!â to âthis dirty borderline alcoholic is about to get beat up by four dudes, but learn a lot in the processâ.
itâs really about the main character and how they see the world in my book. Spenser is cynical and dogged, and he solves mysteries primarily through the application of force and tenacity. versus Poirot who does a lot of sitting and thinking until he has an epiphany, which he dramatically reveals.
also, like, the explicitness of its politics. Looking for Rachel Wallace is explicitly about anti-gay sentiments in the 80âs and how thatâs tied to the KKK and conservatism in general. The mystery is a spotlight on a larger subject instead of just being, like, some rich people killing each other.
Knives Out and Glass Onion were both very explicit political commentaries, no? Despite being very comfy ânice funny man figures out which rich guy killed everybodyâ stories.
I think it is extremely important to both genres that the heroes are not cops. Then you donât have a mystery, you have a procedural.
1 Like
thatâs fair. i guess that Mystery encompasses anything where someone dies and a non-cop figures it out, and Noir is more about the grittiness of the setting/protagonist.
weirdly, non-cops can be procedural too: Elementary (was cop-heavy tho), House. and Columbo isnât
1 Like
Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.
2 Likes
just because i was thinking about it today as a mystery i recommend The Mighty Quinn, starring Denzel Washington doing a questionable caribbean accent. Written by Hampton Fancher, who afaik is otherwise only known as the screen writer for Blade Runner and its sequel, and also another movie Iâm kind of fascinated by called The Minus Man
Mood
I mostly liked the general mood and investigation, charmingly silly, personal take-away was âsheesh, loses it at the end thereâ whichâŚI guess you gotta be willing to endure in this here game.
Agreed.
You know, not in love with them, but I did like the main guy, who could resist his charms? Etc. I liked the the first one better. Iâll tune in again for the third.
Tbh, the whole Agatha Christie/Agatha Christie-ismsâŚthing is not my personal fave but then again in that general soup I did like See How They Run that one was fun, to me.
One time I tried to watch Evil Under the Sun (1982) but I gave up pretty early on. You ever see Why Didnât They Ask Evans? (2022)? Have that one on the list of potentials, for whatever reason.
Maybe Iâll try this one next, seem to keep tip toeing around it. Guess thereâs a bright future for this new dynasty of classic whoduâŚ
OhâŚnm.
Hmm. Ok. Iâm listening. Iâm willing to hear it.
I can feel the dark hidden resonances between, from deep below.
The Ninth Gate is a masterpiece that deserves the place in history it has thus-far been denied.
Also, Cop/Non-Cop is a red herring, imo.
1 Like
I love this movie
2 Likes
you should watch cutters way
IâŚjust started trying to watch this last night and had even wrote up a deleted post about how I had to turn it off after it slowly dawned on me that Denzâs whole insane âI and I donât tink gâwan cutta man tonight den?â accent was not just a funny bit for the intro.
1 Like
oh my god the minus man with owen wilson??? NO ONE HAS HAD LESS ON SCREEN CHEMISTRY THAN HIM AND JANEANE GAROFOLO. holy shit every single scene with them trying to touch eachother made my bowtie spin!!! ALSO THAT ENDING?? i always wrote off the mighty quinn becuase it was one of the ten movies on my moms vhs shelf (with like 9 1/2 weeks and fried green tomatoes) but minus man was so baffling i kinda wanna watch mighty quinn now
5 Likes
if someone told you the person who wrote blade runner and wrote and directed the minus man also made a mystery movie starring denzel washington, The Mighty Quinn is EXACTLY the opposite of whatever you think that would look like. I can only imagine⌠other writers did some work on the script before the movie was made? Itâs such a weird thing
1 Like
i like minus man more than blade runner so weâll see
1 Like
in the murder/crime type noirs, itâs kind of annoying how entertaining it is seeing a good scheme unravel, that they all take place in some karmic crime universe that punishes these dumb people trying to get away with whatever etc. are all the billionaires and presidents also suffering greatly in the noir universe or is karma just an instrument of the ruling class to keep you from getting any ideas about taking some of the life deluxe for yourself? thatâs also why the mystery noirs where they trace the whole thing to some rich scumbag pulling the strings and instead of shrugging âthatâs lifeâ and trying to eke out what little small victory they can, they just dig out the guns and vests and go execute the guy are the best.
5 Likes
Assault on Wall Street is an underrated movie