The centerpiece of the issue is an exclusive interview with Guillermo Del Toro and Kim Morgan about their bold new reimagining of Nightmare Alley, currently in theaters. FNF honcho, TCM host, and man about town Eddie Muller weighs in on the film. And we also have a feature on the long, twisted history of carnivals in film noir.
Next up, a dazzler of a conversation between Eddie and his favorite living author, Paul Auster. Pour yourself a drink and pull up a chair to listen in as they go long on noir, art, and life.
Also in this issue—
Imogen Sara Smith considers the doppelganger in film noir, with a special focus on Joseph Losey’s harrowing masterpiece Mr. Klein (1976).
Get behind the wheel with the cabdrivers of noir, courtesy of Jake Hinkson.
Danilo Castro sizes up the “frontier trilogy” of Taylor Sheridan—Sicario, Hell or High Water, Wind River—that maps the territory where noir meets the west.
Actor Brent Spiner is best known for playing Lt. Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation. His new book Fan Fiction is a wildly inventive “mem-noir” about his time on the show, blending autobiography with a crime plot. He kindly agreed to drop by and name his five favorite classic noir films.
I talk to writer/musician Willy Vlautin, whose The Night Always Comes is hands down my favorite novel of 2021. Compassionate and chilling, this noir odyssey is the book for our political moment. Read the interview, but more importantly read Willy’s book.
Plus my column, my review of what could easily end up my favorite book of 2022—Isaac Butler’s ambitious and compelling The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act—and so much more, all of it spectacularly laid out by ace designer Michael Kronenberg. I mean, just look at that cover.
You can buy the print edition at Amazon, or contribute at least twenty dollars to the FNF’s campaign to preserve and restore classic film noir to receive the bells-and-whistles digital version. You want my advice? Do both. You won’t regret it.
