Sin City
We weren’t really in the mood for clubbing on Friday evening, so after gorging ourselves on pizza and pasta at the Musgrave Mimmos (where I had my fave- the Rustica with its marinated chicken, bacon, onions and jalapenos), we headed upstairs to the cinema to see Sin City.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 was the coolest film of 2004. Sin City is the coolest film of 2005.
Essentially Sin City, based on the graphic novel series by Frank Miller, is the Pulp Fiction of comics (unsurprisingly, Quentin Tarantino is a guest director here, alongside Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller). Sin City is a gritty retro look at urban corruption, chronicling the seediness of life in Basin City, a metropolis that exists in perpetual darkness. It’s also known as Sin City. There are prostitutes in bondage gear dishing out vengeance, hitmen, strippers, serial killers, paedophiles, crooked and straight cops, evil clergy, as well as a healthy does of gun fights, beatings, hand-to-hand combat, cannibalism and dismemberment. Needless to say, the film is extremely violent, and the violence is intense and graphic.
Sin City works on multiple levels. Visually it is stunning. Shot in black in white, with digitally introduced samplings of colour, the film duplicates the graphic novels’ visual film noir style. Sin City looks and feels like a crime comic. Although CGI has played a large role in creating the Sin City world, it doesn’t distract you from the assorted story segments that make up the film.
The weakest of the film’s segments is in fact one of the first, starring Bruce Willis as a good cop on the verge of retirement, trying to end a child rapist’s reign of terror. The dialogue, voice-over and acting is horribly stilted.
After that, however, things fall into place perfectly. The second major storyline is the most involving of the film. Mickey Rourke, unrecognisable under heavy make-up, plays Marv, a thuggish but likeable ex-con, who sets out to avenge the murder of prostitute Goldie, one of the only women to ever show him kindness. Marv’s voice-over commentary is full of self-referential humour, and he emerges as an off-centred, almost superheroic vigilante figure.
Marv, in fact, bears many similarities to Frank Miller’s take on Batman. If filmmakers could ever attempt to bring Miller’s Return of the Dark Knight or his Batman: Year One to cinemas in the exact same style and tone as Sin City, I would be the happiest Bat fan in the world.
In an all-star cast, including Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Josh Hartnett, Jessica Alba and Brittany Murphy, Rourke is a stand-out. His is one of the best performances, and easily the best come-back, of the year. Benicio Del Toro, Rosario Dawson, Alexis Bledel, Elijah Wood, and especially Nick Stahl, are also excellent in playing against type.
Sin City is one of the most gratifying, dark film experiences of the year.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 was the coolest film of 2004. Sin City is the coolest film of 2005.
Essentially Sin City, based on the graphic novel series by Frank Miller, is the Pulp Fiction of comics (unsurprisingly, Quentin Tarantino is a guest director here, alongside Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller). Sin City is a gritty retro look at urban corruption, chronicling the seediness of life in Basin City, a metropolis that exists in perpetual darkness. It’s also known as Sin City. There are prostitutes in bondage gear dishing out vengeance, hitmen, strippers, serial killers, paedophiles, crooked and straight cops, evil clergy, as well as a healthy does of gun fights, beatings, hand-to-hand combat, cannibalism and dismemberment. Needless to say, the film is extremely violent, and the violence is intense and graphic.
Sin City works on multiple levels. Visually it is stunning. Shot in black in white, with digitally introduced samplings of colour, the film duplicates the graphic novels’ visual film noir style. Sin City looks and feels like a crime comic. Although CGI has played a large role in creating the Sin City world, it doesn’t distract you from the assorted story segments that make up the film.
The weakest of the film’s segments is in fact one of the first, starring Bruce Willis as a good cop on the verge of retirement, trying to end a child rapist’s reign of terror. The dialogue, voice-over and acting is horribly stilted.
After that, however, things fall into place perfectly. The second major storyline is the most involving of the film. Mickey Rourke, unrecognisable under heavy make-up, plays Marv, a thuggish but likeable ex-con, who sets out to avenge the murder of prostitute Goldie, one of the only women to ever show him kindness. Marv’s voice-over commentary is full of self-referential humour, and he emerges as an off-centred, almost superheroic vigilante figure.
Marv, in fact, bears many similarities to Frank Miller’s take on Batman. If filmmakers could ever attempt to bring Miller’s Return of the Dark Knight or his Batman: Year One to cinemas in the exact same style and tone as Sin City, I would be the happiest Bat fan in the world.
In an all-star cast, including Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Josh Hartnett, Jessica Alba and Brittany Murphy, Rourke is a stand-out. His is one of the best performances, and easily the best come-back, of the year. Benicio Del Toro, Rosario Dawson, Alexis Bledel, Elijah Wood, and especially Nick Stahl, are also excellent in playing against type.
Sin City is one of the most gratifying, dark film experiences of the year.
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