I think people tend to binge-watch--whether it be a particular genre or filmmaker or TV show--because we find comfort in the familiar. We want to know what to expect, to have a frame of reference to hold onto, even while we desire a "new" story every night. The characters we come to recognize become something like old friends--but we're also pleased when they take us by surprise and do something unexpected.

A few months ago, I went through a phase where every day after I came home from work, I would watch a film noir. Film noir (literally "dark film") describes a style of work shot during the 40s and 50s, often dealing with darkish subject matter, and featuring striking, hard lit black-and-white photography. The femme fatale and the "hard-boiled detective" are familiar stock characters, and stories tend to revolve around criminal themes.

Another thing they are famous for is convoluted plots. I remember asking myself when I was watching The Big Sleep, "Am I just stupid? Why don't I understand what's going on here?" Later I read that even the director apparently didn't know what was going on and had to make a call to ask whether one of the characters was supposed to be dead or not.

Though several film noirs, for example Casablanca, are now considered among the greatest movies ever made, it's interesting to note that at the time, they were often in the low-budget B-movie category, cousins to the pulp crime fiction they stemmed from. Oddly enough, this sometimes allowed directors to fly under the radar of the tough, moralistic Hollywood Code and to have more creative freedom to shoot the films as they wished.

I probably watched about 20 film noirs during my binge. I'd like to share with you my 8 favorites. I hope you'll check them out too and enjoy them as much as I did.

Sorry, Wrong Number

An invalid woman all alone at home accidentally overhears a murder plot in a crossed phone call. As she tries to notify someone to do something about it, she becomes dragged into the plot and discovers it involves people she knows...

D.O.A

"I want to report a murder."
"Sit down. Where was this murder committed?"
"San Francisco, last night."
"Who was murdered?"
"I was."

Gilda

Rita Hayworth enters the movie with the famous playful toss of her hair, but things are a lot more complicated than they seem in this story of intrigue in old Rio...

In a Lonely Place

The girlfriend and muse of a depressed and violent screenwriter finds her world closing in on her as she feels unable to escape a man who may or may not have just committed murder...

Mildred Pierce

A mother sacrifices everything so that her daughter can have a better life than she had. But is there a line even a mother can't cross?

Sweet Smell of Success

Can you get your press agent to do anything for you? Even break up your sister's relationship with her boyfriend? Follow a desperate man through the dizzying streets of New York as he stoops lower and lower to get his lucky break.

Sunset Boulevard

An out-of-luck screenwriter discovers a one-time silent film star rotting away her life in her Sunset Boulevard mansion. One of the greatest movies about movies ever made.

The Third Man

One of my favorite movies of all time. An American writer visits post-war Vienna to see a friend, only to find out the friend has died. But as he tries to piece the story together, an extra character keeps showing up... Ending with a terrific chase through the sewers and unusually scored with zither music, this classic outshines even Citizen Kane in my opinion.

Have you seen any of these movies? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below!