An aesthetic of its own

Rating: 8/10 (22 April 2006)

That certain noir feel, tweaked so perfectly, keeps all the richness of noir and loses the period specific dialog that makes classic noir films often feel like cultural artifacts rather than immediately engaging stories that entertain on their own intrinsic merits. Death by sin: gluttonous guy eats too much, lustful guy sexes one too many times, and so on and so on. It's noir without being simply a movie about movies, without simply being an homage to other moviesit stands on its own, it has its own aesthetic, it's just that that aesthetic captures the spirit of luxurious mystery that is associated by film lovers with film noir. Death by sin: gluttonous guy eats too much, lustful guy sexes one too many times, and so on and so on.