: a type of crime film featuring cynical malevolent characters in a sleazy setting and an ominous atmosphere that is conveyed by shadowy photography and foreboding background music
also: a film of this type
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebWhile unusual for a 21st-century TV drama, the rich contrast gives it the feel of a classic film noir. Barbara Vandenburgh, USA TODAY, 16 Aug. 2022 Think femme fatale: a dramatic, intriguing, film noir style. Hannah Oh, Seventeen, 12 Apr. 2017 With this slangy, sleazy, politicized adaptation of a Mickey Spillane novel, Aldrich pushed the style, the tone, and the mythology of film noir to apocalyptic extremes. Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 23 July 2022 Borrowing from 1940s film noir, Lasky played with light and shadow to add a grittier feel, remove background details and achieve a cinematic effect. Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 20 June 2022 Poitier got his first Hollywood break playing the only Black intern in a white urban hospital who has to treat a racist criminal (Richard Widmark) in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's liberal message movie/film noir hybrid. Mark Harris, EW.com, 7 Jan. 2022 What Tarantino is to adolescent-male film noir, Dunham is to post-feminist comedy — her private fantasies modernize narrative conventions. Armond White, National Review, 17 Aug. 2022 Every Day are not true film noir or true genre films. Erik Morse, Vogue, 9 July 2022 Odie Henderson is a film critic who loves film noir, musicals, Blaxploitation, bad art, and good trash. Odie Henderson, BostonGlobe.com, 20 July 2022 See More