Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) Inferior follow-up to the original
“Death is just like life in Sin City”
Following the recent release of my rambling musings on the original masterpiece in this neo-noir universe from two decades ago, the follow up nine years later continues to disappoint me, but no matter. Marv is back! So is Detective John Hartigan! There are dames to kill for, Nancy to be protected, Gail and Goldie are still roaming the streets where angels fear to tread and as I cautioned you recently, please, whatever you do, don’t fuck with Miho!
This prequel/sequel mix paradoxically still seems more linear than the original film from 2005 and rather than stand alone chapters (with complete and elongated closing credits for each segment) a continuous film welcoming back characters from the first film, introducing new characters through stellar performances from newbies to the universe such as, but not limited to: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lady Gaga, Ray Liotta, Juno Temple, Christopher Lloyd and one of the many unrequited loves of my life at the movies, the goddamn beautiful Eva Green. Add into the mix returning characters such as the equally beautiful “Miho” (now portrayed here by Jamie Chung), Dennis Haybert taking over from the sadly departed Michael Clarke Duncan as “Manute” and Josh Brolin brilliantly stepping into the vacant shoes of Clive Owen as “Dwight McCarthy”, and you have a spoiler free set up of Sin City: a Dame to Kill For, and here are my favourite 11 or so minutes from a black and white gem of an albeit disappointing follow-up that is enlivened and enlightened by Marv’s deadpan wisecracks and desires for other people’s coats, a stream of continuous narrators on the perils of life in Sin City, blonde haired dames with shocking red lips, a wraparound story, lies, deceit, betrayal, vengeance, love, loss, lawlessness, and Eva Green’s eyes…
With “Johnny” (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) duly battered, his fingers broken and robbed of his poker winnings by the despicable and reprehensible “Senator Ethan Roark” (Powers Boothe) we fade to black and now 20 minutes into the film we cut to a close-up of a roll of film being inserted into a camera by “Dwight McCarthy” (Josh Brolin) as he perches unseen on a roof. His narration begins:
“It’s another hot night, dry and windless. The kind that makes people do sweaty, secret things. Things worth money to me”
We cut to Dwight quickly taking pictures of “Sally” (Juno Temple) and “Joey” (Ray Liotta) in a bedroom below his secretive position beside a skylight in the roof:
“She glides out of her coat like it was a Christmas wrapping, playing it for all it’s worth. And it’s worth plenty”
Returning inside the bedroom, despite Sally’s best efforts to lure Joey onto the bed he’s anxious, skittish and adamant their relationship is at an end and tonight has to be the last time they’ll ever be together. His wife is clearly suspicious that he’s cheating on her and as he rants loudly of his fears that he’ll lose everything, Sally slowly unzips her dress as we cut to Dwight on the roof before back to Sally still slowly undressing and Joey, his resolve dissolving as quickly as his rising anger at being caught in a sometime future by a wife who will clean him out financially. The cuts between the three main characters continue in a loop: from Dwight taking a raft of pictures from his rooftop position and quickly back to Sally and Joey before a change of camera angle beautifully frames Sally from above as she mounts the bed, to Joey still angrily bitching about his wife discovering his infidelity and a final close-up of Dwight taking yet more pictures of the older businessman and his much, much younger seductress and mistress. Now partially undressed, his lust rising and unable to resist the beautiful young lady sprawled out on the bed before him, Joey handcuffs Sally to the frame of the bed before quickly, roughly and furiously pounding the young lady as Dwight’s narration continues once more:
“Then she’s saying “Boss” in time with his movements. It’s all over pretty quickly. I get everything I need. The sad thing is, some of the compositions are pretty good”
We cut back inside the bedroom with Sally, despite the rough if brief pounding she’s taken, stating she “feels like a woman”. But her smiles are as fake as Joey responding that he loves her as with his back to the young lady and his anger rising at his infidelity rising once more, he attaches a silencer to the end of his gun. An upward camera shot from Joey shows Dwight still perched by the skylight but no longer taking any pictures and watching a worried Sally beneath him begging to be released from the handcuffs tightly binding her to the bedframe. Circular cuts back and forth once more between the three characters: Dwight, a picture of worry beside the skylight mirroring the rising panic of Sally and the ever rising anger of Joey now pointing his loaded gun at the helpless young lady still bound to the bed and now pleading for her life. Back to Dwight as he mutters “oh my back” before quickly leaping through the glass of the skylight, landing directly on top of a surprised Joey and beating him unconscious. “Kill him!” screams Sally before Dwight responds somewhat calmly “No-one’s killing anybody” as the young lady injects the first distinct colour of the scene by removing her blonde wig to reveal a shocking head of red hair.
“I grab the key and uncuff her. She gives him a goodbye that’ll still hurt when he comes to. I leave the slob handcuffed to the bed for housekeeping to find”
We cut to an elevated shot of the car driving away from the scene of the sexual crime amid more colour: the red of the car’s brake lights and the faint splashes of colour from the lights of the city below:
“I take Redondo over the hill toward Old Town”
The sharpest colours of the film are now resplendent in the neon signs that bathe a busy Old Town as Sally exits the car with a final appreciation for Dwight and “thanks for my life, man”.
“Sally blends into the sea of flesh that is Old Town. They all come back. The damn Old Town memories. Drunken mornings and sweaty sex and stupid, bloody brawls. And that thing I did. You can’t just pick and choose. You can’t take the good without the bad. Not once you let the monster out. I can’t let it out. Never again. I drive ten blocks out of my way for gas I don’t need, avoiding the worst of this job”
We cut to Dwight viewing printed images of the photos he captured earlier and a meeting with a male and female he explains as his narration continues:
“My employer. The wife. This one’s got a lawyer to pay the tab, so it’s easier”
Driving once more, and a return to Dwight’s narration:
“The Mustang shudders, begging to cut loose and show what it can do. It wants to take me all the way. I don’t let it. I think about all the ways I’ve screwed up and what I’d give for one clear chance to wipe the slate clean. I’d give anything just to cut loose, just to feel the fire. One more time”
The car screeches to a dangerous, spinning stop on a steep road overhanging the city below. Bitterly angry, Dwight continues his narration:
“Never lose control, not for a second. Never let the monster out. Remember when you did. Remember what you did”
With his hands on his knees on the wet tarmac, Dwight looks to the heavens (think *that* scene in The Shawshank Redemption) as the scene fades to black and quickly we find Dwight in his office, a ringing telephone, and after picking up the call, a close-up on a lady’s lips resplendent in bright red lipstick. The lady in question is “Ava Lord” (Eva Green) framed in a telephone booth pleading with Dwight not to hang up her call and “I need to see you”. Dwight’s narration continues once more:
“She keeps talking. Like a dick, I keep listening. Ava. Damn. I should tell her to go to hell”
We cut, late at night, to the parking lot outside Kadie’s Bar:
“Instead, I show up twenty minutes early. What the hell could she want with me now? You can’t drive two blocks in Sin City without coming across a saloon. The bad kind. Why here, Ava? With you, everything always had to be first class. And when I couldn’t foot the bill, you sure as hell found somebody who could. I order up a ginger ale and stare at it for the better part of an hour. She’s late, like she always was. And like always, she’s worth the wait”
We cut first to a long black shadow before a slow zoom upward reveals Ava in all her feminine glory in the doorway entrance of Kadie’s, her beautiful flowing blue dress as striking against the black and white tone of the film as the ethereal beauty now walking into the bar. Close-ups follow on both estranged lovers, Ava far more happier and at peace seeing Dwight than he is of her. It’s been four years since they last met, four long years that have taken their toll on Dwight but not on the beautiful lady beside him instantly lighting a cigarette and chuckling as she deliberately blows smoke in his direction. Ava laments that she’s wanted to call him, wanted to see him, he’s never been far from her thoughts. Dwight, with not a smile to be had or a warm greeting to share urges his lost love to get to the point of their meeting in such a public place in this city full of sin.
“Don’t be so cold” Ava urges him before pleading that “You must still care?” and surely she still means something to him? “Sure” he begins, “You called and I came running” and whilst she will always have a hold on him, he still has “no reason to be nice” to her. Ava is seeking only thing from their meeting: forgiveness, as she laments earnestly “I’m a selfish slut who threw away the only man I ever loved” before resting her head on Dwight’s shoulder and moving ever closer to him, constantly begging for forgiveness. Even with her hands around his neck, Dwight remains cold and distant to Ava’s obvious desperate affections as he sternly whispers “no” as they eventually kiss. Breaking off from a kiss he reluctantly enjoyed, Dwight cautions the lost love of his life “You do that again and I swear to hell I’ll kill you”. From forgiveness, Ava has moved to wanting Dwight to remember her, puzzling him as to what she means as she continues with a mournful “They say you never really die as long as somebody remembers you”.
Confused, Dwight cannot get a grasp on their meeting now, what does their meeting signify after all these years, and what does Ava mean about dying and wanting to be remembered? A large and shadowy figure approaches their table in the form of “Manute” (Dennis Raysbert) and “You’re due at home, Mrs Lord”. A squabble ensues as Dwight stands between Ava and the family security guard and as he refuses to let her leave his life once more, here comes Marv! Forever the defender of a dame in Sin City “Marv” (Mickey Rourke) cannot help but see and overhear the commotion nearby as he offers his services to both Ava and her beau: “Hey buddy. Is that dickhead giving you a hard time?”. Ava defuses the situation as she tells Dwight “it’s too late” and confused and angry at what this means he demands to know why and “too late for what, Ava?”.
“Everything” she replies. “Just remember me, my love, remember me” before Manute forcibly walks her out of the bar and out of Dwight’s life once more.
Following Ava out of the bar and sharing a final lingering glance at the beautiful lady now being driven away from him, and Sin City, at high speed, Dwight’s narration returns:
“The night air hasn’t gotten any colder. It just feels that way”
Approaching Dwight from behind, Marv brings an electric 11 minutes of movie magic to a close with…
“Buddy, I don’t mean to poke my nose where it don’t belong, but, that there is a dame to kill for”.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon