Mystery
Noah’s Barks pages relating to the mystery genre.
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Blue Velvet
Blue Velvet is the purest distillation of David Lynch‘s talent as a director/writer. Everything he’s made, while often great, has his ideas clash. In Blue Velvet his oddities perfectly complement each other: the uncanny valley’s wandering dream world mirroring the idyllic American town people want to believe in that doesn’t exist, and the dark reality… (read more)
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The Wicker Man
The Wicker Man is instinctually disturbing and aided by an amazing folk soundtrack that’s alluring to the ear but conveys dark desire when contextually examined. It’s a perfect allusion for the clandestine nature of Summerisle. The Wicker Man potentially comments on how some may react to the West’s particularly sexualized culture and their anxieties from… (read more)
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The Tenant
The last of Polanski’s claustrophobic “apartment trilogy.” The themes start to run thin this time around. The mental deterioration is stronger in Repulsion, and the paranoia is much more real and sensible in Rosemary’s Baby. Though Roman Polanski does a fantastic job as the lead, the story is ridiculous and not remotely believable. To say… (read more)
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Mulholland Drive
Mulholland Drive works because David Lynch finally bends his surrealism around a storyline instead of shoving the storyline into the surrealism. Because Mulholland Drive is fairly straightforward, it provides the audience a tangible mystery and characters to motivate the deciphering of its plot. Amidst the chilling confusion are several memorable scenes that keep attention throughout… (read more)
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Lost Highway
Lost Highway is the worst kind of surrealist film in that it challenges the audience to find meaning in it without a hint that any actually exists. Another David Lynch movie, Mulholland Drive, supplies actual characters and a mystery to motivate the deciphering, but Lost Highway is all too content to just be deliriously confusing.… (read more)
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Rear Window
One of those movies that just has to be good. Out of all of Alfred Hitchcock‘s movies, Rear Window bears a huge advantage of still being the most unique conceptually. The cramped, single room setting and voyeuristic, gossipy take on all of the events. It’s like a story written specifically for Hitchcock, and thus it’s… (read more)
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Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut is a Stanley Kubrick take on the original story of loyalty and natural temptation featuring the director’s usual crystal clear, beautiful cinematography (despite not being shot in New York City) and some intriguing symbolism, but is hurt immensely by the mediocre performances of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Kidman believes constantly speaking… (read more)
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Oldboy
Park Chan-wook‘s mixed influences have never been so fine a solution: a neo-noir that finds absurd dreamlike fantasies in the isolated, manic delusions of its central characters, where it prunes the most desperate motivations of the subconscious to mine intense hatred and brutality rarely seen in a revenge plot. Dae-su’s alienation and confusion come to… (read more)
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Famicom Detective Club Part II
Nintendo’s long-exclusive visual novel series receives its first remake for the Super Famicom, ‘Famicom Detective Club Part II.’ (read more)
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Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
Ah, Persona 4. I have a lot to say about it. Persona 3 is one of all-time favorite games, and a contender for my favorite RPG. When a follow-up game was announced, I snatched that shit up faster than the sigh of relief from soccer moms all around the world upon realizing the characters no… (read more)