Rain-slicked streets, hard-boiled protagonists, femmes fatales—it's easy to assume one knows the hallmarks of film noir without coming close to plumbing its depths. A mood rather than a genre, noir is a rich but elusive category. Even those who coined the term were shortsighted, seeing only Hollywood as the source of a gloomy new tone in moviemaking that emerged around World War II and spread, shadowy and glittering, into the cinema of the 1950s and early '60s.

MOTHER JOHN MAGAZINE-Okay, I won't lie. The prospect of talking with John Cusack was almost as exciting at 40 as it would have been as a teen. After all, he has embodied every phase of angst of those of us who grew up in the '80s, from teen dating dilemmas, to horrific high school reunions, to making lifetime commitments (which he hasn't, at least publicly). But War, Inc., which he cowrote and produced, is a different kind of film. True, he plays a nihilistic hit man (slash trade-show promoter) struggling with love and morality, just as he did in Grosse Pointe Blank.

By A. O. SCOTT-Li Ying’s “Yasukuni” begins with a visit to the workshop of Naoji Kariya, a 90-year-old swordsmith with a handsome, finely etched face and powerful, graceful hands. Mr. Li, a Chinese-born filmmaker who has lived in Japan for much of the past 20 years, intersperses visits with Mr. Kariya throughout this long, engrossing documentary; the swords this venerable craftsman makes are beautiful, and the skill and tradition that go into their manufacture are inspiring.

By Taylor Wiles / What happened after an Afghan TV network launched an American Idol-style contest.

By Brooks Barnes / Despite the best efforts of Universal Pictures and Sacha Baron Cohen to will their gay-themed “Brüno” into a cultural and financial juggernaut akin to Mr. Baron Cohen’s “Borat,” the new film’s so-so opening over the weekend indicates it will fall short of the goal.