One thing mainly: That the devil has taken a slice. That we have become aware of the sadistic executioner that we have within us. The reason for the murders is increasingly closer to senselessness and psychotic pleasure. The game of predictable ladies of yesteryear is now materialized in more complex scripts. But rarely, the bad guys win. Let them be forgiven for being murderers, if they do the crime creatively – we have long since started to empathize with thieves.

Abandon those bad geniuses

Black cinema is more generous than conventional with the physiognomy of male actors; not so much with that of women. They say our unconscious is looking for symmetry when it comes to finding a mate, and Hollywood producers are also choosing symmetry. Cruise, Pitt, Clooney, Damon… This type of beauty is preferred. It was the good son-in-law. But black cinema, breaking the rules and kneading the fermented cistern (crack, pipe or automatic), allows and rewards asymmetry, nose and curved teeth, scarce hair or immovable hair: The trajectory of Steve Buscemi, Nicholas Cage, Adrien Brody, Michael Imperioli or Tim Roth, among others, would be different without the options given to them by black cinema. The visage is embedded to express torment, genius, neurosis and criminal alcoholic fate. Coen's brothers did well with Fargon Buscemi or John Dahl with Nicholas Cage in Red Rock West. It may be advisable to watch the two films sequentially to match the irony of the end: what happens to the money that is the engine of the film.

However, the dark side call is powerful, and some “symmetrical” actors have been left to kill because of American black film. In The Amerian by Anton Corbijn, for example, George Clooney gets into the skin of a lone assassin in a story where the armory is equated with craftsmanship. Tom Cruise will also play Collateral's unscrupulous murderers, as will Denzel Washington in Training Day, making corrupt policemen – whoever wants more corrupt policemen, see Pride and Glory. The moral conjuncture is always close: the suspicious film researcher knows that between doing justice by jumping the law or respecting the law and not reaching justice is frequent to choose. What is the right decision? This permanent impasse is the one that gives strength to many films.

If the bones are not broken

Has the sublimation of violence changed in relation to classic black cinema? We've gotten used to talking about calibre guns being like talking about time. We soon learned that the Los Angeles police use 9mm Beretta and that the serial killer prefers the 44th caliber. The appearance of blood has been explained. The lessons of the old wild porn and the esthetics snuff movie have been gathered, giving a sustainable measure to these two and bringing benefits to the B series, although it is clear that in the United States they have more limitations when shooting sexual scenes than when shooting violent scenes, which in Europe is the other way round. Two examples: Michael Madsen Reservoir Dogs speaking to the cut ear, or Robert Downey Junior's cut finger on the ice in the self-referential black humor film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which has the same problem as many of those in this section, which starts so high, that then you can't hold the category.

In most movies, let's not fool ourselves, the character that passes through some borders will be punished in the end. Not always, of course, and perhaps that is the charm and contribution of many evil men of the past twenty years. Remember the ice punch below the bed in Basic Instinct, or, above all, the phrase we hear in Bryan Singer's memorable The Usual Suspects in Kevin Spacey's mouth: “Believing that this doesn’t exist is the Devil’s best trick.”

What about shitty girls?

In this world of men, we should separate Sharon Stone and Kathryn Bigelow. The first, because it became a sexual myth of the 1990s thanks to Basic Instinct, Uma Thurman took over in the league of deadly malignant arts. The one who was Mikel Garmendia left us a nice reformed slogan: “The next man and Sharon Stone.” Director Bigelow, for his part, has been nominated for the ambitious animated film Strange Days. A project powered by James Cameron that moves away from the topics with a proposal that stands at the end of the millennium: virtual reality, police corruption and the apocalyptic environment mingle in the burning OT suburban night. Let it be too long, a pity.

Beyond sexual tension, it is inevitable to mention the struggles between groups: not only the internal conflicts that police and criminals have, but also the confrontations between black, Latin and Italian communities. The main language is English, of course, but the couple is rebuked in Spanish and the favors are requested in Italian or Russian. “If you don’t know Spanish you’re dead here,” says Denzel Washington at Training Day to Ethan Hawke.

Boogie Nights

It highlights the weight that the 1970s has in the filmography of many of these directors, surely because it coincides with the youth of most of them. The racial protests of the late 1960s, the famous blackout of New York and the citations of the newspapers of the time are often part of the landscape. The music of the time at the Bourbon is also inserted into the atmosphere of these films: disc music and groovie or funk sounds help rhythms perfectly. Although this achievement has joined Tarantino, it has not been the only one, as the musical review by Spike Lee in the great Summer of Sam is impressive: Roy Ayers, Heatwave, Thelma Houston, Chic, First Choice, Marvin Gaye. Almost all of them are part of the script, as they will be involved in a conflict with the punk life of the character of Adrien Brody.

The scenarios, on the other hand, apart from the exceptions that want to show us the sense of emptiness of Deep America, whether in the desert or in the ice, are almost always LA and New York, the first as the embodiment of a freeway or labyrinthine circumvalations and the second as the labyrinth of hives or branch of hell. The agoraphobic version of hell (LA) and the claustrophobic variable (NYC) of the same hell. America is a territory full of opportunities. Even for criminals.

Parking is also licensed

We would hardly understand this film without considering cars: taxis, Chevrolet Monte Carlo with low-rider shock absorber, Cadillac, red striped corvette, Lexus tuned, Nissan cars stolen on order... They're able to bring real performance to the boot. Over the crystals of the car fall the neons, the shots and the corpses of the city. The characters live in cars. They're places of decision making and confession. Diner with wheels. They touch leather in cars, they die in the coches.No there is more to remember Zodiac and The Zodiac: two different versions of a real inquisitive fact, including a serial killer who kills young couples in cars.

In short, in the American Way Of Death cycle we will find everything: seamless classics (Goodfellas, Miller’s Crossing, Mystic River), commercial films that were once successful (LA Confidential, in Se7 – the world of credit cards is turned over and we look at them as Kyle Cooper in a cult film). There are also movies that have aged quite badly: New Jack City, a kitsch movie that shatters the crack blossom of the Bronx in the 1980s, starring Wesley Snipes (preferably more engulfed in the same environment is the Menace II Society), but there are also round films: Memento, Ghost Dog, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

The one who enjoys the most is the one who likes the rules of black film. Maxima: sometimes almost anything is allowed, if that allows you to come alive the next morning. But beware, the thing is getting more and more complicated... As a corrupt cop says to a young rookie: “This is chess, not a game of checkers.”