Sin City

US (c) 2005 Miramax. EX: Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein. P: Elizabeth Avellán. Shot and cut by: Robert Rodriguez. D: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez. Special Guest Director: Quentin Tarantino. Based on the Sin City graphic novels by Frank Miller. AD: Jeanette Scott, Steve Joyner. FX: Troublemaker Studios, Hybride, Cafe FX, The Orphanage. M: Rodriguez, John Debney, Graeme Revell. Location: Austin, Texas. Starring Jessica Alba (Nancy Callahan), Devon Aoki (Miho), Powers Boothe (Senator Roark), Rosario Dawson (Gail), Benicio Del Toro (Jackie Boy), Josh Hartnett (The Man), Rutger Hauer (Cardinal Roark), Jaime King (Goldie/Wendy), Michael Madsen (Bob), Brittany Murphy (Shellie), Clive Owen (Dwight), Mickey Rourke (Marv), Nick Stahl (Roark, Jr. / Yellow Bastard), Bruce Willis (John Hartigan), Elijah Wood (Kevin). MPAA 41611. 125'. Extra heavy digital look. Rated 18. A FS Film release with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Janne Mökkönen / Patrik Edman. Viewed on Sunday 31 July 2005 at Kinopalatsi 1, Helsinki. Kim Newman writes in Sight & Sound that few comic-book adaptations have actually tried to look like comic books, with exceptions like Diabolik and Dick Tracy, and this is the most successful attempt. He remarks that the film is less a heir to Spillane paperback covers as to the Girl Hunt Ballet parody in The Band Wagon. - I would like to add that the overwhelming content of the film is gratuitous violence and extreme sado-masochism. The film is structured as a series of excessive acts of violence, which are horribly revenged. Even the characters who act nobly at first are finally reduced to sadistic monsters. We are in a world of horror without a redeeming character; everybody is highly corrupt, only some even more incredibly so than others. We are in a world of nightmare. The film belongs to the tradition of Expressionistic horror, and in its emphatic graphic quality it is also a direct heir to Caligari. Nominally, there are women as main characters (all prostitutes to some degree except one nude Lesbian parole officer), but the force of action belongs to the men, who are all killers. - It's an important exercise in digital art, but it's stone cold dead inside.