A Poor Man's 'Chinatown'

Agreed.
I also must say that while I think Chinatown is a good film, it somehow doesn't strike me with the same "cult" greatness that it does with some. It's obviously a subjective component.

i see that. making it koreatown?





Oh, and remember, next Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.

I thought it was trying to have some of the look of Chinatown, design-wise, but beyond appearance I didn't see much in common. In fact, by the the time I got to the end, I was surprised that I had heard this referred to as neo-noir. What originally appeared to be a noir/mystery turned out, after all, to be a character study of Adrien Brody as he learns from the cautionary tale of Gerorge Reeve's life--one which, in the end, seems to have turned out to have no mystery at all.

That isn't a criticism; I think it was a fairly interesting framework in which to couch the story, and interesting how the director &writer created what seemed to be a mystery, which turned out to be in our heads.

Totally agree. And Brody is trying way too hard in this film to be jaded, diffident and Gittesesque.

If it is not in the frame, it does not exist!

I said this about Brody's performance: seemed like he was channeling Jack Nicholson in "Chinatown." But, he came up wayyyy short. Nicholson made it look effortless; Brody was trying too hard.

"Hollywoodland" is a neo-noir film same as "Chinatown" it's just that Allen Coulter ain't no Roman Polanski, Brody ain't no Jack, and Paul Bernbaum ain't no Robert Towne.