It really doesn't get much better than this, folks

Rating: 10/10 (4 April 2005)

I am a big fan of the comic and of the early Rodriguez film El Mariachi (which I thought was a better film than the bigger-budget Desperado), and watching this film was amazing. It isn't a movie of a comic book, it's a comic book on the movie screen.
Uncompromising, gritty, rough, brutal, hardcore: both Sin City the place and Sin City the movie are all these things and more. This film transcends not one but two mediums, bringing film-making as an art back into the public consciousness and, like American Splendor did last year, showing that comic books can be ART.
No tired re-hash of a Hollywood hit from yesteryear, Sin City is so fresh, so different, so goddamn exciting that I could scarcely stand to glance away. Frank Miller is an exceptionally talented artist whose visual acumen has fascinated me for years (since his Batman days), and Robert Rodriguez proves himself an equally formidable director, not just for conceiving how this film should be brought to the cinema, but for executing it so brilliantly.
A series of short stories, intertwined and criss-crossing pulp fictions, seemingly unrelated at first, until we discover, like the characters in the film, more and more details about each situation. Through excellent writing and choice of narrative structure, Miller and Rodriguez engage the viewer to become a detective as well, tracking leads, gathering information right alongside our protagonists, putting the pieces together with them. In the end, though, we are richer because we have more details and more questions, and our imaginations allow us to continue to explore the stories we have just seen after the projector stops. A good film, a good comic, all good art should engage the viewer's imagination, force them to fill in gaps, to think about what they are seeing, and Sin City certainly has that.
Amazing performances (Michael Madsen's terse, first-grader-reading-aloud delivery excepting), captivating images, and multiple intertwined cross-crossing story lines kept me entranced for more than 2 hours. I know that repeated viewings will bring more out of this film too; there is no way to have seen all the details in these compositions in one viewing.
My only dread would be the dilution of this work thru repetition. If sequels should occur, I hope that Mr. Miller and Mr. Rodriguez remain as demanding and uncompromising as Sin City itself, and that future works expand on the vision and possibilities which they have presented to us.
Good job, guys.
Bo