“Sin City:” Sinfully Sensational

Who knew that bright yellow blood could be so aesthetically pleasing? I’ve never seen a black-and-white film so colorful before. Nearly every shot of the newest noir to hit the multiplex, Sin City, is a visually arresting experience. Every typical film noir element is present: dark shadows, voice-over narration, murder, mystery and shoot-outs. The film is so much more though; it’s a violent coloring book aching to intrigue its audience with its striking visuals.

As directed by Robert Rodriquez (or should I say he everthinged it, my jaw dropped when I saw how many times his name appeared in the opening credits), City is all visual-style and circular plot storytelling. I’m not too familiar with Rodriquez’s works (his most recent films include Once Upon a Time in Mexico and the popular Spy Kid franchise), but he has a daringly Tarantino-style to him. And why shouldn’t he? They’re practically best friends, having worked together on several projects and Rodriquez even invited Tarantino to be his “special guest director.” Tarantino’s segment (I won’t spoil it for you) is pretty obvious and brilliantly directed. Nice job Quentin.

Sin City’s screenplay was written by Frank Millar who also wrote the graphic novels this film is based on. Millar has chosen to tell three different stories and doesn’t really connect them in the same ways other films of this nature do. However, there are the typical crossings of paths of the characters as films with multiple plotlines usually have. Millar really just wants to tell three different stories. It is interesting how the film closes in on itself. The film jumps from one story to the other before the story is fully played out and the audience loses interest. Did I ever lose interest? Not necessarily, though I could imagine getting antsy if only one of these stories were stretched to full length. I enjoyed how the film introduces one story, then the next, then the last, and then works backwards and ends with the first. It doesn’t make confusing time jumps ala Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs but that doesn’t matter.

The film’s most interesting story includes comeback star Mickey Rourke, as Marv, who wants to get revenge on the person who killed Goldie, the hooker he was, um, dating. Rourke is completely transformed, physically and psychologically; he’s weeks away from 9 ½ Weeks and although his face is covered in expertly sculpted garish make-up, his emotions surprisingly shine through. His fight scene with villain Kevin (an especially creepy, yet awesome Elijah Wood) is a highlight. Wood’s character could be a double spokesperson for Converse Shoes and Lee Press On Nails; he is in a word, cool. Clive Owen is very good as Dwight, who is hell-bent on clearing his name for a murder he didn’t commit. He joins forces with a bunch of scantily clad hookers who want to help him save the day. And of course, who could forget Bruce Willis as a soon to be retiring cop trying to stop child pedophile Yellow Bastard (that’s his name, I swear!) played by an unrecognizable Nick Stahl. The lead performances are excellent as are those from supporting players Stahl, Benicio Del Toro, Jaime King and Rosario Dawson. Unfortunately not many of the female actors get much to do besides walk around half-naked and really naked. However, in a film world filled with crime, corruption and Mickey Rouke, would you expect anything else?
How about dialogue, what does Millar make these characters say? Funny lines abound, but not in the typical forceful type of way. In a comic book world, you can’t expect lines to be any less comical than Dwight quipping, “She doesn't quite chop his head off. She makes a Pez dispenser out of him.” And Rodriquez gives credit where credit is due. Millar gets a co-directing recognition because this film is so close to his original works. Nearly every shot is right out of his pages. And why shouldn’t he receive credit? It was his concept from his imagination and it is all there, perfectly translated to film and he was right next to Rodriquez on set everyday.

This film is all about visual style. The way it was filmed is of particular interest. I’ve seen clips from magazines and production photos online, showing how the film was shot mostly in front of a green screen. Green Band-Aids on Rourke’s faced become neon white, dresses become the color of blood, and eyes are piercingly green and blue. For a film shot in black in white, I’ve never seen so much amazing use of primary colors. The art directors must have had a ball with this one. The film, even when gritty and violent, is a visually arresting experience. It’s amazing how the film can make disgusting images beautiful. I haven’t been this awed by a film’s images since the electrically colorful Finding Nemo, as strange as that sounds. I could literally turn off the sound and watch both films and be awe-inspired.

I’m interested to see how the film turns out financially. The studio reportedly only spent $45 million. Not bad for a film that looks like it cost $100 million. So is the film artsy enough for the independent crowd but commercially viable for the popcorn crowd? I believe so, just like Pulp Fiction was nearly ten years ago. Every ten years or so a film comes along that breaks all the rules and starts a trend. Will Sin City do the same for postmodern film noir? If it doesn’t, that would be a sin. GRADE: A-

Home Run: Catch “Fever Pitch”

Steven Spielberg showed us what it was like to be on that beach in Normandy in Saving Private Ryan. Darren Aronofsky gave us a glimpse into the lives of people who become addicted to drugs in Requiem for a Dream. And now Bobby and Peter Farrelly show us the ins and outs of being… a Red Sox fan. Jimmy Fallon (who definitely let’s us forget that he was ever in Taxi) and Drew Barrymore (who practically pours out so much charm she could bottle it and sell it) are absolutely delightful in Fever Pitch, which is truly a film 86 years in the making. Anyone who loves baseball or romances or films in general will get a kick (or should I say hit?) out of this fantastic film.

First things first, I love the look of this film. It is imbued with reds and blues, those darn Red Sox colors that so vibrantly go with the film’s detailed mise-en-scene. Am I crazy? Perhaps just a little, but there’s no denying the heart and detail put into the film. The camera is placed right where the action is. We get a nice mix of traditional camerawork with a little documentary shakiness to put us right there. You can almost smell the peanuts and crackerjacks.

What we have here is a love story, or as the directors call it, a “love triangle.” You see we have a girl (Barrymore), a guy (Fallon) and baseball. Who will win Fallon’s heart? See the movie to find out. What is so special here isn’t the fact that this film has romance for women and sports for men, it evokes things within all of us. All of us are passionate about something in life. What’s my passion, you ask? You’re reading it. It’s about loving and desiring something so much that you’re willing to do anything. Even sign away your box seats at Fenway Park. Crazy right? Not to a Yankees fan.

A long haul away from gross-out gags, filmmakers the Farrelly brothers are definitely in a league of there own here. They establish characters who are charming and charismatic and they have perfect comedic timing as proven in their hits Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary. Their other ones? Let’s not go there. They work from a great script from the guys who wrote another baseball winner, A League of their Own, and there are plenty of great echoes of that wonderful script here. They have a knack for creating great supporting characters and employ funny, exciting dialogue.

We are introduced to Ben, a school teacher, as played by Fallon who has always been a huge Red Sox fan ever since his uncle took him to Fenway Park for the first time. And I just don’t mean a fan; I mean an obsessed freak whose apartment truly does look like souvenir shop. He meets Lindsay, an up there career-aholic, played sweetly by Barrymore. She truly has never been more likable in a film role. You root for these two to get together. And then we find out how truly into the Red Sox and baseball Ben really is (His uncle leaves him two box seats, he has attended every game, and makes his buddies dance around like fools to get to join him). And there you have it. Very simple and straightforward yet it’s a hell of a good time.

The filmmakers actually never planned on the Red Sox actually winning the World Series while filming last fall and you can catch real footage from their victory at the end of the film. You can feel the high energy come right out of the screen. It seriously gave me chills. This is a film that just makes you happy. Allow me one corny cliché; everyone involved truly hit it out of the park. GRADE: A-

Woody Allen’s “Anything Else” Could Have Been Something More, Something Else

You know something is up when Stockard Channing tells her on-screen daughter Christina Ricci it’s okay to do a line of cocaine. The one drug scene in Woody Allen’s latest movie Anything Else nearly steals the best laughs in the film. In fact, in a scene involving the same drug in his earlier film Annie Hall, Allen receives the funniest laugh when he delivers probably the best onscreen sneeze in all of American cinema. Mr. Allen is there something you’re not telling America? Yeah, the scene in his new film is funny, but almost everything else in Anything Else should have garnered the same amount of laughs.

The story centers on Jerry Falk a neurotic (surprise, surprise) twenty-something comedy writer who is to put it simply, afraid. He can’t say the word no, especially to his manager played by Danny DeVito or to his therapist who ignores him during their sessions. Jerry shares an apartment with his nearly neurotic girlfriend Amanda, played charmingly by Ricci. Their love seems to be going nowhere as Amanda can’t “perform” with Jerry as well as she can with what seems like half a dozen other guys in the movie. As Jerry puts it, “The doctor had better sex examining her than I’ve had in six months.” He’s scared to admit that Amanda just isn’t as committed to their relationship as he is, although she wishes she were. It’s great when Amanda shows up for their anniversary dinner confessing to Jerry that she already ate. “You ate the whole Sarah Lee cream cheese cake?” Jerry replies in surprise.

We get to see their relationship as it seems to be untangling, but not before we get a nice long flashback to when they first met. Amanda tells Jerry that she liked him since they first met. “Couldn’t you tell by the way I was ignoring you?” she informs him. The film goes along like any other romantic comedy, but what sets it apart from the others is Allen’s witty dialogue, which compared to his other films, just isn’t as fresh or, most importantly, as funny. This entire flashback segment treads way too familiar ground. Is this supposed to be a remake of Annie Hall or an original concept?

Allen steps into teen movie territory by casting Biggs in the lead role. Allen not being the center character in the film is the whole problem. By shifting the lead role to Biggs, Allen seems to alienate himself from his own film, coming in to give advice to Jerry. Given the guy is in his late sixties, he sure can be pretty darn funny when it comes to delivering comedic lines. Allen’s films are almost always dialogue driven and in this case Allen doesn’t have enough lines to fill the nearly two hour running time (which was too long for this film’s story). That’s not to say that some of Allen’s lines aren’t hysterical, oh they are. It’s a pure Woody moment when he delivers his witty view of life, “I would commit suicide but I realized that wouldn’t solve all my problems.”

Biggs in the lead role does well enough with the material Allen has written. I’m afraid that with an actor coming from the American Pie films, the teenage audience is expecting raunchy toilet jokes from an R-rated movie. In fact, the movie trailer doesn’t even give one glimpse of Allen’s presence in the film. If you’re expecting to see someone getting walked in on or naked co-eds, look elsewhere. This isn’t about the sight gags but actually about the characters and what motivates them. Biggs does neurosis well as we’ve come to learn from his Pie flicks and his screen time with fellow star Ricci is literally magical. However, there are too many lulls and not enough well timed puns that make up for them.

The film generally works when it’s funny, but seems to drag on and off when it’s not. The film can’t decide whether it strives to be Annie Hall or Manhattan. We care for the characters because they are pretty much pathetic and occasionally funny. Having popular teen movie actors in the lead rolls doesn’t hurt the film, and I definitely commend Allen for not turning the film into American Pie 4 (enough already!). What it all boils down to is this: Allen is a funny guy in a movie that could have been something more, something else. GRADE: C+

Cheesy “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!” Worth Winning and Watching

Okay, I have to admit that nothing is more of a guilty pleasure than a cheesy romantic comedy. The newest one, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! is the eponymy of cheese. In fact, I would have to say this film invented cheese. Am I losing you yet? I hope not. Stay with me, cause the plot is simple, but the payoff is a rather amusing little film that will eventually fade away until its spectacular 2-disc ultimate extreme special limited edition uncut DVD release.

The story gets off the ground when a single, cute Piggly Wiggly checkout girl, Rosalee (charming Kate Bosworth) enters an internet contest to win a date with Tad Hamilton, a fictitious Hollywood hunk (Josh Duhamel) who’s priorities are all messed up. He had been caught drinking and driving by the Paparazzi. His manager and agent (Sean Hayes of TV’s “Will & Grace” and Nathan Lane) advise him that his clean-cut Hollywood image needs some sprucing up. “Congratulations. You're actually drinking, driving, smoking, leering and groping at the same time,” one of them informs him. The online contest, which benefits starving, sick children or something like that (how’s that for image improvement), “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton” gets underway. And wouldn’t you know it that lonely little Rosalee just so happens to win the contest and she’s off to L.A. to have the date of her dreams. The night goes well with only minor mishaps, such as her getting car sick in front of her dreamy beau. Rosalee goes back home to her normal life, but low and behold Mr. Hamilton follows his heart and wants more than just a date with this everyday sweet girl.

To make things worse, Rosalee’s boss and best guy friend Pete (a non-shaggy Topher Grace from TV’s “That 70s Show”) is secretly in love with her, but he can’t bring himself to let out his feelings. How will Rosalee be able to choose between her fantastic Hollywood leading man and the nice boy who has been there her whole life? Wipe your eyes, please. The rest of the movie is devoted to Pete complaining about how Tad’s not the guy for Rosalee but he is and Tad trying desperately to charm his way into her life. How is this really any different from all the other romantic cheese-fests out there in your local Blockbuster? I actually cared about these characters and was amused by what motivated each one. I felt the emotional instability Rosalee experienced and even laughed along the way. Pete’s attempts to prove to Rosalee that he’s the man for her are no less than comical. In one scene, I guess Pete proves size does matter. The humor is clean and doesn’t make you want to revisit your lunch. There aren’t any overflowing toilets, bodily fluids or fart jokes. I believe the film to be a small-scale 21st century version of the romance films from the 40s and 50s.

Many aspects of Tad Hamilton really made me enjoy it as much as I did. The film in-jokes were pretty amusing such as Rosalee’s dad’s (Gary Cole, of Office Space fame) attempts to become more “Hollywoodized” by researching Tad’s filmography and donning a Project Greenlight shirt. The film’s conclusion is out of a classic Hollywood romance and, in fact, out of one of Tad Hamilton’s own films, which was exciting nonetheless.

Overall, I enjoyed what was happening onscreen and was caught up in the world of Tad Hamilton. The actors do their best of portraying their appealing, albeit thinly written characters. Grace’s biting wit entertains, Duhamel’s Tad is charming (what girl wouldn’t want to win a date with him?) and Bosworth is delightful. She really carries the film. She will hopefully move on to more serious film projects. With any luck she won’t be doomed to spend her career in guilty pleasure cheese like this, but like any good actress she needs to start somewhere, and besides, who doesn’t like cheese? GRADE: B