SIN CITY

I saw "Frank Miller's Sin City" the other day. If you don't already know the fascinating background story, here it is in a nutshell: Frank Miller made a critically acclaimed graphic novel series called Sin City. He shopped it around Hollywood, but nobody wanted to make it the way Frank wanted it. Then one day, for a goof, director Robert Rodriguez made a 5 minute short out of one of the stories in Sin City, using the comic as a storyboard. He sent it to Miller, who loved it. Rodriguez hired Miller to co-direct the film. The directors' guild said that Miller wasn't a card-carrying member, so he couldn't direct the film. Rodriguez responded by dropping out of the union and letting Miller co-direct. The film is not an adaptation, it is a translation. That is, it looks exactly like the original comic.

Anyway, I was disappointed. I never read the original novels, so I was watching it as if it was just a film, not another version of the books. Like Kill Bill, there are moments of ingenious storytelling, excellent cinematography and fun action galore. But I felt it just went over the top...WAY over the top in terms of violence and overall unpleasentness. I know that's the point of the atmosphere of the movie, but it got a bit much. This is especially true since the "story" is pretty much non-existent. It's a bunch of loosly-related vignettes based on revenge, torture and corruption. It was a real treat for the eyes, but stale chewing gum for the mind (i just made that up and I'm really proud of myself!). If I see it on cable in a few months, I may keep it on while I'm washing dishes or something, but I can't say I recommend it. Oh, and who keeps hiring Brittany Murphy? The girl couldn''t act her way out of a wet paper bag!

COMPANY by MAX BARRY

Several months ago, I praised the works of a new author named Max Barry, who did Jennifer Government and Syrup. Anyway, his new book, Company is almost done and is due for a 2006 release! Look for it! Also, someone has thrown some money at Max to write a screenplay for a potential film version of Syrup! Speaking of Syrup...there's a plotline in that book involving a bold new concept in advertising: full-length feature commercials. What a far-out concept! Meanwhile, what arrives in my Entertainment Weekly last week? A DVD! What's on it? A seven minute commercial for Volkswagen starring Joe Pantaliano! Only 7 minutes, but getting closer to what Max envisioned. Creepy.

EXPLOITATION: A CURRENT AFFAIR

Remember that super-sensational "news" show from the 80's, "A Current Affair"? If not, it was a news magazine show that liked to show video of people getting hurt and real morbidly curious things like that.
I was flipping through the channels today and heard someone talking about "posing dead bodies in the name of art" and I stopped on the channel. I had heard of an interesting artist who replaced the blood in donated dead bodies with plastic and then posed them. I thought this might be related. In fact, this artist, Thomas Condon, snuck into a morgue and posed the bodies there with objects and photographed them. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail. I was horrified at what this man did. I am all for fringe artists like Andres Serrano and Damien Hirst, but this seemed illegal and just flat out wrong. The reporter told us all how horrible this was, and how exploitative it was, not to mention "the worst form of invasion of privacy."
For the next 10 minutes, we are treated to video of the families identifying their dead loved ones from photographs. We are then shown interviews in which the living relatives tell about how they found out their loved ones were dead. We linger on their contorted, crying faces. Exploitation, indeed.
When the piece was over, the host was standing there with a sour face on and he says, "I hope he STAYS in jail, along with anyone who helped him...that's just....anyway..." What a professional!
Then, A Current Affiar tackled the Michael Jackson case, by telling us all about the little kid at the center of the first molestation case. We are told he's in hiding and doesn't talk about the case. We are then shown video of the kid, now 20 or so, skiing and hanging out with his friends. We are told what college he went to and what he majored in. Invasion of privacy, indeed.