if jean-luc godard directed a crime action film, but for real, no Alphaville hijinks. it’s quite refreshing to watch a movie like this that is not at any moment played for laughs. a serious genre movie, for adults, trying to be genuinely badass without undercutting itself, and which is also formally experimental. the premise of the film is inherently comedic: Payback plays it for laughs, while also trying (and succeeding, imo) to present mel gibson as a serious badass. but that came out in the 90s, when the culture had already become suffused with irony. this is from a different era, when it was possible for someone like lee marvin to play to his strengths. do they still make film noir anymore?