"walk down the right back alley in sin city and you can find anything..."

it is a scintillating promise and one which had me jazzed for two years as i waited and followed the production of frank miller's sin city like a sick puppy. the film doesn't disappoint... even though i've read and loved the comic books and nursed an unreasonably lofty expectation. and it's no wonder for frank miller himself (terribly territorial over his baby) co-directed. robert rodriguez, who was determined to get miller credited, had to go as far as to resign from the director's guild of america.

frank miller's sin city is a homage to classic pulp noir with a pop-postmodern twist delivering a healthy dose of crooked cops, femme fatales, pathological baddies, slick dialogue and hyperbolic violence. the film is a meta-narrative following the misadventures of some key characters such as marv (a freakishly big thug with a mean mug), dwight (a wannabe good guy sociopath who underwent plastic surgery and keeps good company with the prostitues of old town) and hartigan (an old cop hanging on to the last threads of life as he guards over his charge, nancy). although the plot is not the exact adaptation of the original material from the comic books, the spirit of miller's work as well as its unique visual style are successfully portrayed on film. the most outstanding aspect of the film is, of course, its stunning visuals: shot in all of noir's black-n-white glory with specific objects in colour... like a pair of red sneakers, a pair of blue eyes and a red dress. another very interesting visual conceit miller and rodriguez adopted is the striking play of black shadows and white illumination which is a direct immitation of miller's graphic artwork and characteristic of other black and white graphic novels.

i love it for all its visual aesthetics and its trademark sharp, noirish soliloqueys (lifted faitfully from miller's fantastic dialogue) which endowed the characters with a melodramatic depth. the movie has joined the ranks of some of the very best i've caught in 2005 so far. catch it or i'll get marv to knock yer lights out...


some of the smashing visuals from sin city.
images courtesy of movieweb.com
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something to look forward to for sin city fans: the plot of the theatrical release of the film is considerably different from the original material because the directors hacked it down so they were able to fit as much into a limited amount of time. apparently they have filmed the movie in its entirety and the original director's cut will be available on dvd to be released in august. hurrah!