The Unseen Movie Review

Sin City

Whether over-the-top violence is your cup of tea may well affect your approach to this movie, but the thing which will remain most striking is the highly unusual look. This is almost entirely unlike anything you will have seen onscreen before.

In terms of structure, Pulp Fiction will probably be the comparison most often bandied about – and not merely because Quentin Tarantino directed one of the scenes and Bruce Willis co-stars. Following three loosely-connected storylines, the emphasis is on brutal violence and confusion amongst corrupt and criminal lowlife, centred around a tough streetfighter, an accidental murderer and a wrongly imprisoned cop, it is not the storylines which will first strike anyone.

Co-directed by Robert Rodriguez of Once Upon a Time in Mexico fame, a close friend and follower of Trantino’s, you may think you’d know what to expect. But the real impetus for the directorial style comes not from him, but from first-timer Frank Miller – the veteran cult writer/artist of innumerable comics and graphic novels, and the creator of the original comic book series of which this film is an adaptation. Miller’s harsh, idiosyncratic drawing style has here been recreated just about as faithfully as it possibly can be for the big screen without being an animated movie.

The harsh blacks and whites, brief flashes of primary colour, and all-pervading sense of shadow and decay help make this one of the most beautifully horrid films noir in years. This is the Gotham City of Tim Burton’s Batman movies blended with the gloomy metropolis of Blade Runner and the grimy late 1940s urban landscapes among which Philip Marlow might hunt for clues, heightened and made yet more surreal by crisp monochromes which indicate a visual inventiveness never before hinted at in Rodriguez’s prior work. It all comes straight from the original comics – shots set up as similarly to the original drawings as is physically possible while working in three dimensions rather than two.

So, it should keep the fans happy, at any rate – but what is there for the non-geeks? Well, there are the wonderfully perverse performances from the incredibly talented ensemble cast for one. Alongside Willis are Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, Rosario Dawson, Rutger Hauer, Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke Brittany Murphy, Michael Clarke Duncan, Michael Madsen and even Frodo himself, Elijah Wood, turning in one of the most sinister performances of the year – so unsettling as to be almost certain of shaking off his wimpy image of The Lord of the Rings.

Then there’s the violence – almost insane levels of frequently highly unpleasant violence. Enough almost to make Tarantino’s flicks look like family movies, and stylised to an extent that even the most gruesome become artistic vignettes in their own right. It is, simply, stunningly beautiful – while being simultaneously revolting.

While certainly not being one to take your grandmother to, if you have ever enjoyed an old Humphrey Bogart movie or revelled in the ultraviolence of a Kill Bill, this has to be one not to miss.

posted by Nosemonkey @ 12:00 AM