It’s impossible to define film noir, but you know it when you see it. What even is film noir? Some say it’s a genre, others say it’s a style. The smarter ones don’t get into the debate but acknowledge the consistencies within the films that string them together. There’s usually (but not always) a cynical detective or cop, a femme fatale, a tragic ending, significant use of Dutch angles and shadow to frame the shots, and a feeling of obsession or alienation. There’s an emphasis on the dark corners of the street where the characters typically come from. The dread revolving around World War II and the economic depression seep into the narratives. Really, film noir is Hollywood’s great contribution to the history of filmmaking, that rose and peaked within the 1940s but still greatly influences and informs the work of the masters of today, such as the Coen brothers and Christopher Nolan.

Because of how gray the definition of film noir is, it would be absolutely ridiculous to try and say which movies were the definitive of the movement. Anyway, here’s my Top 20 Films Noir.

20. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

A new, tongue-in-cheek spin on the hardboiled detective story, this film was Shane Black’s directorial debut, and if you’ve ever seen a Shane Black film, you’ll recognize his trademarks: two characters at odds who will eventually become friends, a tangled-up crime story, and set around Christmas. Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) is a former burglar trying to become an actor. He lands a detective role and so shadows “Gay” Perry (Val Kilmer) to get a feel for detective work. While on a stakeout, they witness a car with a body in the trunk being dumped in a lake, and Perry accidentally shoots the body in an attempt to get trunk open. Now, the two of them will have to solve this crime themselves, before Perry gets blamed for it.

19. Chinatown

Personal feelings of Roman Polanski aside, Chinatown is one of those great examples of noir. Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to gather proof of her husband’s infidelity. Instead, Jake unravels much more than he bargained for after finding the husband’s body in a freshwater reservoir with saltwater in his lungs. Evelyn strings Jake along with lie after lie, leading him into danger at every turn before admitting to the truth of her story. In this revelation, it’s revealed that Evelyn is not the biggest threat to Jake’s life nor is she the worst of the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles. Chinatown refuses to let up off the gas until the very end.

18. Touch of Evil

Miguel Vargas (Charlton Heston), through happenstance, involves himself with an investigation run by Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles), a police captain with a game leg and a long list of successes. Though as they work together, Vargas begins to suspect that Quinlan is planting evidence to win his cases. Quinlan decides to get Vargas off his back by working in secret with a local crime boss, Uncle Joe Grandi. However, in the middle of their plan, Quinlan shoots and kills Grandi, but leaves behind his cane at the scene of the crime. Vargas confirms his suspicions of Quinlan’s shady handling of cases and gets his loyal assistant, Menzies, to help bring him down. What happens after that…well, you’ll just have to watch the movie.

17. Miller’s Crossing

The first of several Coen brothers films on this list. Miller’s Crossing is set during the Prohibition era. Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne) is the right-hand man for crime boss, Leo O’Bannon (Albert Finney). Oh, and he’s also sleeping with O’Bannon’s girlfriend, Verna (Marcia Gay Harden). When this news arrives to O’Bannon’s ears courtesy of Tom’s own mouth, Tom is understandably beaten and kicked out of O’Bannon’s outfit. Tom then turns his attention to O’Bannon’s rival, Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito), who demands Tom kill Bernie (John Turturro), Verna’s brother, as a sign of good faith. When Tom looks into his heart and spares Bernie, his act of mercy comes back to bite him big time.

16. Ace in the Hole

Ace in the Hole may be the most cynical film I have ever seen. Billy Wilder is at his sharpest when critiquing his former career: journalism. Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas), the titular “ace”, has been fired from every famous newspaper in America, and winds up as a small-time reporter in Albuquerque. His hunger to get back on top remains unsatiated until Leo Minosa gets trapped in a crumbling cliff side. From here, Tatum starts to sniff a story, and does all he can to prolong the rescue mission for Leo in order to squeeze as much ink as possible from Leo’s misfortune. Tatum’s carnival of self-serving stratagems spiral out of control, but hey, that’s the price for the scoop.

15. Nightmare Alley

Tyrone Power plays against type as the sleazy carnival conman, Stanton Carlisle. Stanton desires to learn the secrets of Mademoiselle Zeena, a supposed psychic in the carnival. He gets his chance when he accidentally kills Zeena’s partner, her alcoholic husband, Pete. Overcome with guilt, Stanton seeks counseling from Lilith Ritter, who records conversations with all her patients. Instead of helping Stanton with his troubles, Lilith and he use those recordings to convince Chicago’s high society that he can talk to the dead. Ambition ruins them both and Stanton crawls back to the carnival and takes on the only role available to him: the geek (not a “geek” in the modern vernacular, but more an oafish brute who eats live chickens for the grotesque entertainment of the carnival patrons).

14. Gaslight

After her famous opera-singing aunt is murdered, Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman) inherits her estate and follows in her footsteps. She falls in love and quickly marries her accompanist, Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), and they move into the estate. Soon after, Paula finds a letter addressed to her late aunt from a Sergis Bauer and encounters several strange incidents – there are haunting noises coming from the attic and the gaslights outside of the house seem to dim and brighten. Gregory convinces Paula that it’s all in her imagination and that she’s a kleptomaniac. However, when Inspector Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten) starts snooping around, he helps Paula discover that, not only is she not crazy, but her husband might be gaslighting her.

13. The Big Heat

Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is a detective investigating the suicide of police officer, Tom Duncan. However, he’s not getting a straight answer from anybody – not the cop’s wife, his mistress, nor the chief of police. The deeper Bannion dives in, the more dangerous it gets. Bannion is resilient. Even after the threat of a car bomb, he is undeterred. He follows lead at a nightclub owned by a mob boss named Mike Lagana. There, he sees Lagana’s second-in-command, Vince Stone (Lee Marvin), and Stone’s girlfriend, Debby Marsh (Gloria Grahame), as he works on expanding his case. Obsessive detectives, corrupt police forces, a dangerous pot of hot coffee – The Big Heat has it all in spades.

12. Devil in a Blue Dress

Easy Rawlins (Denzel Washington) is a World War II vet in need of a job to keep his house. Opportunity knocks when he is introduced to DeWitt Albright (Tom Sizemore). Albright’s a white P.I. searching for the missing fiance of mayoral hopeful Todd Carter, Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals), who supposedly is hiding out in the Black neighborhood’s juke joints. Albright hires Rawlins because he figures Rawlins can snoop around the area without raising suspicion. Things get dicey when one of Rawlins’ and Daphne’s mutual acquaintances is murdered, and Rawlins calls in his old buddy, Mouse (Don Cheadle). Mouse is a trigger-happy sort, itching to go out, literally, guns blazing. As they continue their investigation, they unlock more hidden secrets about Daphne, her ethnicity, the mayoral candidate race, and the dead acquaintance, while getting caught up in a web of deceit.

11. Laura

Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) has his work cut out for him. He’s investigating the murder of Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) and no one is cooperating. McPherson interviews the old newspaper columnist and stuffed shirt, Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), who claims to have been something of a mentor to Laura and helping to advance her career, and Laura’s fiance, Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price). He also gets more than he bargained for from a chat with Laura’s maid, Bessie. Everyone seems totally infatuated with Laura, and soon, so is McPherson. All four of them are in for quite a shock when Laura returns to her apartment, unaware that her murder is being investigated. Laura is mesmerizing and awe-inspiring, much like her portrait on the wall of her apartment.

10. The Maltese Falcon

Most consider The Maltese Falcon to be the first noir, and it’s hard to deny it. The movie follows Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) as he navigates the schemers and dreamers of San Francisco. When Ruth Wonderly (Mary Astor) walks through his door, Spade gets more than he bargained for. She asks for help in finding her missing sister, and Spade’s partner, Miles Archer readily agrees. The next day, Spade is visited by the cops. Archer is dead, and Spade is suspected to be involved. Spade runs into Wonderly again, only now he discovers her real name is Brigid O’Shaughnessy and Spade suspects she had a hand in Archer’s death. To make matters worse, Spade is offered $50,000 from a greedy pair, Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet) and Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre), to find a rare artifact, the Maltese Falcon – possibly a more dangerous job than dealing with O’Shaughnessy. Spade has to keep himself afloat and not wind up dead in the gutter.

9. Fargo

Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) is in deep, financially. He’s been fudging the numbers of vehicles sold at the car dealership he works at. His solution is to bring a real estate deal to his father-in-law, hoping he’ll finance it for him. His backup plan, however, is to hire a couple of guys, Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare), to kidnap his wife so his father-in-law will pay the ransom and Jerry, Carl and Gaear can split it. Carl and Gaear do their part and kidnap Jerry’s wife, but as they make their escape to Moose Lake, they kill a Highway Patrolman and a couple of witnesses. This puts Brainerd police chief, Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), who is seven months pregnant, on the case. Unfortunately for Jerry, Carl and Gaear, Marge is the best there is, and fate is against them every step of the way. One of the most beautifully-shot films of all time, Fargo is another must-watch from the Coen brothers.

8. Leave Her to Heaven

Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) is a writer who arrives in a New Mexico town to get away and work on his next book. There, he meets Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney), who is visiting the area to spread the ashes of her deceased father, and they fall for each other instantly. Richard loves her spirited personality, and Ellen loves him because he reminds her of her father. After a whirlwind romance, the two get married and both get more than they bargained for. Ellen is obsessive about keeping Richard all to herself, and no one is going to interfere with that – not his teenage brother, Danny, or her cousin, Ruth. What was originally a happy love affair quickly sours into torment for Richard Harland. The question eventually becomes: how far is Ellen willing to go to hang on to Richard?

7. Double Indemnity

Another Billy Wilder classic. Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) is an insurance salesman who meets the wife of one of his clients, Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck). When she brings up the idea of getting a life insurance policy for her husband without his knowledge, Neff agrees to help her get one, finding himself attracted to Phyllis’ calculating nature. Together, they hatch a plot to get the policy and then killing her husband. If they can make it look like an accident, they can invoke the double indemnity clause, which means double the payout. However, Neff’s boss, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), is not taken for a fool, and tries to investigate the nature of Mr. Dietrichson’s death and Phyllis’ role in it. As things play out, Walter and Phyllis lose faith and trust in each other, and their relationship deteriorates. All the while, Keyes gets closer and closer to discovering the truth.

6. Out of the Past

This movie is so full of twists, that I don’t feel comfortable describing any plot points for fear of giving something away. There’s a reason it is considered the quintessential noir. You can’t trust any of the characters, not even a mute and dumb kid. Everybody lies. The performances are stellar, particularly the leads: Robert Mitchum as former detective, Jeff Bailey, Kirk Douglas as crime boss Whit Sterling, and Jane Greer as Whit’s venomous girlfriend, Kathie Moffat. The bodies pile up amidst the multiple double-crosses, Jane Greer’s femme fatale is as devious as Ellen in Leave Her to Heaven, if not more so. The best thing about the film, however, is how it looks. Jacques Tourneur and his cameraman, Nicholas Musuraca, are masters of moody lighting.

5. Mildred Pierce

Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford) is a self-made woman. When her husband loses his job, it’s up to Mildred to keep the family afloat by selling baked goods. Instead of being grateful or doing anything to help, her husband leaves. Left alone with two daughters, Mildred works as a waitress to make extra money to buy her eldest daughter, Veda (Ann Blyth), who is a brat and high-society wannabe, the material things that will supposedly make her happy. Mildred is wooed by Monte Beragon, and through hiss dwindling inheritance, Mildred buys her own restaurant. She throws herself into her work, but nothing makes Veda happiness. Mildred decides to marry Monte in order to give Veda the status that she wants, but even that is not enough to make anybody happy. Ann Blyth’s Veda is perhaps the ultimate femme fatale, without even being intentional about it.

4. The Night of the Hunter

Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) is a traveling preacher who marries lonely widows and then kills them for their fortunes. While in prison, Powell shares a cell with Ben Harper (Peter Graves), who reveals that he was arrested for a big bank robbery and that he left the money with his wife, Willa (Shelley Winters). Powell is released and Ben Harper is sent to hang, so Powell travels to see Willa, wooing her and the entire town with his charm and demonstration of the continuous war between “love” and “hate”. John, Willa’s eldest child, remains skeptical of Powell, and refuses to tell him where the money is when Willa’s not around. Powell becomes increasingly erratic, and so John and his little sister, Pearl, steal away in the middle of the night to escape, but Powell is on their trail, and he won’t stop without getting what he wants.

3. Sunset Boulevard

Joe Gillis (William Holden) is a struggling screenwriter in Hollywood who stumbles across the dilapidated mansion of former silent-film star, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Desmond lives there alone with her devoted butler, Max (Erich von Stroheim), and she hides away, dwelling on her past career and itching to return to the spotlight. She’s written a screenplay for what she wants to be her big return, and Gillis offers to doctor it up for her. He moves in at her request, and is there to witness Desmond’s slow descent into madness. Not only is she convinced she’s still as beloved and famous as she was in her heyday, but Desmond is also convinced that Gillis loves her and is happy being a kept man. Wanting to breakout of her confines, Gillis begins writing an original script with a script reader named Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson), but he must be careful. What is Norma Desmond capable of if she finds out?

2. No Country for Old Men

For those keeping score, this makes three films on this list for both the Coen brothers and Billy Wilder now. Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men may just be the brothers’ best film. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles across the results of a bad drug deal and finds two million dollars in a briefcase. Feeling his luck has changed, Moss takes the money home, but little does he know that Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a ruthless and nihilistic assassin is hot on his trail and leaving bodies in his wake (depending on how they call a coin toss). Meanwhile, Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is following after Chigurh, and investigating Chigurh’s break-in at Moss’s house. Moss finds a tracking device in the briefcase, but as he goes to get rid of it, realizes that it’s too late. Chigurh has found him. It’s an intense game of cat-and-mouse that is sure to end up terribly for all parties involved.

1. The Third Man

Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), a Western author, travels to Vienna after receiving a job offer from his friend Harry Lime. Only trouble is, once Martins arrives, he learns that Lime is dead. At the funeral, he hears of two men who witnessed Lime’s death – he was run over by a car while crossing the street – who carted his body to the side of the road. Martins seeks out Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli), Lime’s girlfriend, to console her and discuss how neither of them believe the stories they hear of Harry’s death. In fact, as they talk, they realize there are conflicting accounts of the incident and Martins is convinced that there was a third man to help transport the body. In order to find out what really happened to his friend, Martins decides to investigate and find out who could possibly be the third man. The chase sequence in the sewers alone probably gives this film the top spot on this list, but there’s much here to be witnessed. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie.