Review of Detour (1992) by Kenneth L — 22 May 2013

Most of the time when people say "B movie" these days, they are referring metaphorically to an actual category of movie that no longer exists. The "B movie" used to be the second half of a double-feature, and would typically be a lower-budget genre picture that didn't have to draw in as many people as did the first movie. They were made quickly and cheaply. Today when we say "B movie," the connotations about budget and genre remain, but not the idea of the film being the filler after the "A movie." Detour, however, is an actual, legitimate example of the B movie, and it's widely reputed to be one of the best (I haven't actually seen all that many true B movies and so can't say for sure). It's a gritty little film noir that seems to distill the genre down to its bare essentials, which of course I loved.

Tom Neal, who looks like just the saddest man I've ever seen in a movie, plays Al Roberts, a down-on-his-luck piano player who begins the movie by walking disheveled into a diner in Nevada in the middle of the night. He then narrates directly to the audience the story of how he got to where he was, which of course involves a dead man, a stolen car, and an absolutely vicious femme fatale (Ann Savage). Some of the movie's narration sounds like a thesis statement for noir itself - "Fate, or some mysterious force, can put the finger on you or me for no good reason at all.".

The movie only has like three sets, but then it's a small, quickly told story. Tom Neal and Ann Savage's performances are both pretty one-note, but they each perfectly embody a noir type - the sad-sack victim of circumstance and the incredibly cold-hearted femme fatale on the other. But the movie's narrative structure hints at other possibilities, actually - could Al be a textbook unreliable narrator? He's talking directly to us, but do we trust him? The movie gives no definitive answer, but leaves the questions to simply sit in your mind.

Fate might put the finger on you or me, but it also picked this movie to be one of the few B-movie noirs to survive indefinitely. While it lacks the star power or plot complexity of some of the better known examples of the genre, it has the gritty cynicism to make up for it.