Sin City **** Reviewed by Mike Smith (4/13)

On an occasion, you will hear people or critics define a movie as a “cult classic”, but some aren’t very sure of what the term means. The definition varies, but some of those films include A Clockwork Orange, Pulp Fiction, and most recently, Donnie Darko. They usually reflect a sense of style, that with an edge, that can be found in only a select group of films. The newest film in Robert Rodriguez’s interesting stock pile is Sin City, the most enjoyable movie I’ve seen in nearly a year. Sin City is an example of how to create a film noir with style, style that is of the best you can possibly see in modern film.

The film is about three different men and their experiences in the crime flooded “Sin City”. And for my readers, no, they’re not talking about Las Vegas, but rather an imaginary “Basin City”, in which the crime wave is totally established- there are the cops, the criminals, the hookers, and anyone else, and the “anyone else” people seem to be in anywhere else except this movie. The stories are unalike the ones in Pulp Fiction, or Go, where the main characters in each one somehow wind up or become important in the other ones. The three protagonists are entirely unaware of one another, which works out for the best, because it gives us the chance to become intrigued in each story, rather than wait to find out what’s happened in the next.

The first story involves a cop named Hartigan (Bruce Willis), in what could be his best role since Die Hard. There’s very little of John McClane here (that could be much due to his aging), as in this movie he plays a cop at near retirement, who wants to solve one last case before resting away. The case is of a pedophile (Nick Stahl), who has kidnapped an 11 year old girl, who Hartigan knows will die if he doesn’t rescue her.

Elsewhere in the city is the most intriguing (and most violent one at that) story of Marv (Mickey Rourke), who begins the story slowly falling in love with a stranger named Goldie (Jamie King). When he finds her dead the next story and realizes he’s being framed for the murder, the rest of his story is his search for the killers, and how he’ll do nothing until he’s able to avenge it. The story leads to many of the film’s supporting characters, including a villain (Elijah Wood) and Marv’s parole officer (Carla Cugino, who is responsible for about 90% of the film’s nudity).

The third story involves an wanted murderer Dwight (Clive Oven, freshly off his very popular performances in Closer), who perhaps truly gives meaning to the phrase “wrong place at the wrong time”. He is given probably the most screen time, in a story involving his would-be-girlfriend (Brittany Murphy), her one-time ex boyfriend Jack (Benicio Del Torro), and the head of the hookers (Rosario Dawson). After Dwight and Jack have a few words, the scene moves to the part of the city that is run by the prostitutes. They have an agreement with the police officers and the mobsters “You don’t mess with us, we don’t mess with you”. That is changed though when something terrible happens to one of their own (which “their” I won’t spoil), and all hell breaks loose which leaves Dwight in the middle of all of the action.

Sin City gets most of its attention from its visuals, rather than the characters or the plot, which makes it all the more better. Because of this, we’re able to actually see the characters rather than the actors who inhabit them. The film has many special effects, of course, but in a style which isn’t seen in anything modern. To give you an example, think of RHCP’s music video “Otherside” and multiply that ten times over. What is noticeable most about the movie is its occasional choice of color, whether it be red lipstick, blonde hair, or yellow skin. The black-and-white makes us appreciate the film noir aspect of it, and the color only magnifies what it wants us to see.

The movie is filled with plenty of stars, some of which are only featured in a bit more than a cameo (Michael Madsen’s is undoubtedly my favorite), but all of them hold their own, including the ones with little film experience, such as Jessica Alba, who has grown a long way since her performance in “Honey” only 2 years ago.

For any of you that don’t know, Sin City is based on a comic by Frank Miller, who was credited with co-director, and by the looks of this film, he was done rightfully so. The film isn’t from any single era, as it rings with styles from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and even 90’s. It is unique in almost every aspect, from the performances to the direction to the script. Mickey Rourke gives what would probably be the best performance, as his role is entirely the types of role we would love to see Mickey Rourke in. Quentin Tarantino also jumps along for the ride, as he is credited with directing one of the scenes (I found out which one it is, and if you think of the strangest scene in the movie, that’s it). It’s amazing that a film with this much violence, nudity, and language can be loved by almost everyone (fans and critics alike), but Rodriquez has managed to pull it off. Sin City is and will likely stand with the title of the best movie of 2005.