Review: Children of Men

        I'm a sucker for long takes. The amount of things that need to go right that risk starting the take over again all the way from the beginning. The most famous is arguably the long tracking shot from Goodfellas which lasts over three minutes. Long takes are a true test for a director because of all the issues that need to be overcome that could otherwise be dealt with in the editing room. Long takes also add a level of realism that gets lost the more that cuts are used. We experience every day as one long take, so seeing long takes in film makes the film more real. Children of Men uses numerous long takes, 62 of them are longer than 20 seconds, 6 of which are longer than 90 seconds. It makes the film feel very gritty and real which is important for science fiction movies as it make the future seem more plausible. This is aspect tantamount to this film. It's the realism that draws us in and makes this movie so powerful.

Review: Sin City

     I've never been a big fan of Frank Miller, so this review might come off slightly biased. Miller's stories are so extremely dark and overly masculine they almost reach the point of self-parody; I often struggle to get behind the motives of the characters. Miller doesn't mess around with moral grey areas (the way, in my opinion, superior comic author Alan Moore frequently does). I think great stories ought to deal with these grey areas because they make the audience more invested in the story. Instead, in Miller's universes morality is very black and white, much like this film based off his series of comics, Sin City. However, I don't think Sin City, tries to be a great movie. I think it means to be a fun movie, filled with sex and violence meant to attract viewers rather than acclaim or awards.