SIN CITY : Fascinating Visuals, Great Ensemble, & Overall Cool...

Rating: 9/10 (7 April 2006)

SIN CITY
Is it possible for a movie to be great simply b/c of how f-ing cool it is...? The answer, for me at least, is yes. SIN CITY, directed by Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller, is an adaptation of Frank Miller's classic Gothic comics. It tells three stories, chosen from a large list, all set in Basin City. Basin City is a rundown, crime-infested town where thugs, murderers, and whores are all fighting for their own right to survive... and it's a fascinating movie.
A big deal was made about the visual style back when the film came out... and it damn well deserved the attention. The stylization Rodriguez uses here is stunning... it's a black and white tableau that utilizes splashes of vibrant color to emphasize different things. Whether the color is used to emphasize beauty (Goldie), evil (Yellow Bastard), or the simple elegance of a woman's red lips it is always stunning to behold. But what makes SIN CITY so stunning is the way it takes grime, evil, and violence and somehow makes it seem like an artistic mural.
But SIN CITY has a lot more then stunning visuals going for it, it's also got some incredibly engrossing performances. The entire cast does what they are supposed to do... whether it means fully conveying a torn character of brute strength (like Mickey Rourke's Marv) or whether it simply means be hot as all hell (like Jessica Alba's Nancy). No actors here really dig into nuances, but it's not necessary in a film so purposefully extravagant. Instead, the actors seem to embrace the outer extravagances of their characters and build a character through that. It all makes for an incredibly stylized ensemble.
What's also so refreshing about the movie is that, while it easily could have solely depended on it's style to make a good film, it opts not to. The three individual stories told are incredibly fascinating and exciting... and while they do act as three separate pieces, they are integrated together very smoothly into one package.
It is truly a wonderfully directed film overall. Though Frank Miller got Co-Director billing and Quentin Tarantino was brought in as a Guest Director... I think most of the praise belongs to Rodriguez. He has managed to edit together a moving comic book. The voice-overs from the actors work perfectly with the visuals and the pacing. Instead of using camera tricks to mask a boring scene... he only enhances scenes that are already wonderful with his visual touch.
It's hard to really pin-point what it is that makes a film like SIN CITY so damn good. It's the kind of movie that perhaps you should just sit back and soak up the "coolness" for what it is. It's a popcorn flick without anything to say that will change the world... although it's visual styling re-defines what film can accomplish when it comes to visuals.
If there was a deep message I was supposed to get out of SIN CITY for some reason it was lost on me... but I sure as hell enjoyed the film enough to watch it again and again to find out if there is one. And if I never find one, SIN CITY will still be one of the coolest and most artistically interesting films I've ever seen.
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