Robert Arnett stated, "Neo-noir has become so amorphous as a genre/movement, any film featuring a detective or crime qualifies." Screenwriter and director Larry Gross, identifies "Alphaville", alongside John Boorman’s "Point Blank" (1967) and Robert Altman’s "The Long Goodbye" (1973), based on Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel, as neo-noir films. Gross believes that they deviate from classic noir in having more of a sociological than a psychological focus. Neo noir features characters who commit violent crimes, but without the motivations and narrative patterns found in film noir.