Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)

[Boner M]

http://d1oi7t5trwfj5d.cloudfront.net/ac/d9/328f9f1940fb9e2ce0727513fa25/only-lovers-left-alive-poster.jpg

[Boner M]

Liked this a lot more on second viewing; first time around it felt a bit too OG-hipster-lament-ish.

Mia Wasikowska wtfiu.

[Pop Trash]

first time around it felt a bit too OG-hipster-lament-ish.


haha so it's the movie adaptation of dangerousminds.net?

[Boner M]

haha so it's the movie adaptation of dangerousminds.net?
Never heard of that site, enlighten me?

Anyway, I wrote a review (http://oystermag.com/review-giveaway-only-lovers-left-alive) of the film for Oyster, who I'm now writing for (lol)

[Pop Trash]

Never heard of that site, enlighten me?

It's basically aginghipster.net. Right now their front page has articles about Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, Phillip Roth, John Updike, and some random photos of Hippos vs. Crocodiles.


Anyway, I wrote a review (http://oystermag.com/review-giveaway-only-lovers-left-alive) of the film for Oyster, who I'm now writing for (lol)

Nice review. I dug this. The cheeky name dropping humor didn't bother me since at its heart (w/ a wooden stake) it's a vampire comedy. I forgot how slower paced Jarmusch's films are compared to other American films (even other Am-indie films) and at times the middle third started to loose me. It did have a nice ending, I liked the allusions to Burroughs with John Hurt's character strung out in Tangier complete with a local gay boytoy, and it's a nice little love letter to Detroit too.

[number8]

Heh. I like this take on the Marlowe-Shakespeare conspiracy thing.

Probably my favorite Jarmusch film since Ghost Dog. Feels old school like his 90s films, despite his visual style having evolved. There's that droll humor that really knows when to hit to be funny, and everyone in it are made to look effortlessly cool in their own ways. The only problem is that, with the film taking so long to finance, so many vampire projects have come out in the interim, and you can tell that some of the vampire lore subversion in modern life in this are meant to be clever and interesting, but they are just not anymore.

[Stay Puft]

This was so fucking cool. And yeah, it manages to feel of a piece of Jarmusch's older films, but it also works great as a genre picture: the cluttered set of Adam's house, the dark and dreamy cinematography (loved those shots of Adam looking out his window), the floating camera shots of Tangier and the ethereal rock soundscapes... it's all so dark and melancholy and classy and stylish. And the final scene! I saw the film with a sizeable audience, and they were generally quiet, just a few people laughing every now and then at some of the lighter and funny scenes, but everybody screamed and cheered at that final shot. So good.

I didn't care so much to see the film perpetuating the Shakespeare conspiracy nonsense but I suppose that's also a bit of a nitpick in a story about vampires, especially when it's partly played for laughs ("illiterate zombie philistine!").

[eternity]

Pretty good. Pretty, pretty good.

[dreamdead]

Wonderfully intoxicating, and the first hour or so -- right until Mia Wasikowska shows up and sets plot wheels a'spinnin'- -- is pretty much perfect, given to a drawling pace and luxuriating aesthetic. After Mia's appearance, the film loses some of its cool and becomes just a teensy bit more rote, though I was pleased that the Jarmusch avoids some of the more boring tangents of cop searches and the like. I should, on the other hand, mention that Mia looks amazing and handles the bitchiness of her character quite well.

Some of the Shakespeare stuff was similarly silly to me, but the overall double-down on literary or music appreciation was well done. Hadn't thought of Jarmusch being a fan of Buster Keaton, but that pairing makes so much sense now.

Swinton owns this film. Hiddleston is good and probably a more interesting choice than Fassbender for the lead role, but I suspect the latter (who dropped out during the finance campaigns) would have delivered a more wide-ranging performance.

[Irish]

I voted nay out of spite, because I'm pissed. I think dreamdead nailed it-- the beginning is altogether beautiful & melancholic & languid in all the right ways. Jarmusch delivers two interesting characters and all I wanted to do was spend time with them. Maybe that would have been Anne Rice meets Before Sunrise (haha, get it? Sunrise!) but even still--

And then he completely shits the bed with an obvious and dull plot turn. The second half feels like the incomplete draft of another movie.

Two things, no-- three, no, wait-- four:

-- My lizard-sized McKee brain is severely annoyed that he left the wooden bullet subplot dangling. I knew he wasn't going to resolve it because hey! pomo auteur and all that. But still. Jesus dude.

-- The movie fetishizes objects, and the collection of objects, from different characters at different points in time. There's repeated callbacks to this, and even one in the last 15 minutes of the film. Because of that, I found it completely unbelievable that Adam would leave a house full of stuff that he's carefully gathered around himself without so much as a shrug. In an effort to turn the plot, Jarmusch spurned one of the movie's few themes.

-- Sad to note that the men are serious creative forces but the women? Not so much. What exactly have they done through the centuries? We never find out. Slightly annoyed that the script sets up Adam to be the mansplainer ("Oh Adam, my love, tell me again about Einstein's theory of...") and puts a lot of the focus on Adam's life. Of Eve and Eva, we know little to nothing. Apparently, vampire men have interesting lives but vampire women don't.

-- The historical name dropping annoyed, I think, because it was such a vastly unimaginative choice. I was stunned that someone of Jarmusch's caliber did that. It was like something out of a freshman writing seminar. Cheap, really cheap, and insulting to the audience.

[Pop Trash]

The more time passes, the more I like this. Which makes total sense.

[baby doll]

I liked it but then I like all of Jim Jarmusch's movies.

[kuehnepips]

The more time passes, the more I like this.

Same here. Esp. the music.

[DSNT]

I voted nay out of spite, because I'm pissed. I think dreamdead nailed it-- the beginning is altogether beautiful & melancholic & languid in all the right ways. Jarmusch delivers two interesting characters and all I wanted to do was spend time with them. Maybe that would have been Anne Rice meets Before Sunrise (haha, get it? Sunrise!) but even still--

And then he completely shits the bed with an obvious and dull plot turn. The second half feels like the incomplete draft of another movie.

All of this. I voted Yay in the poll and gave it a mixed, but it was still disappointing. There was a lot to like (music, performances, look and feel), but I think they dropped the ball with the last act, losing all the momentum they had gained to that point.


-- The historical name dropping annoyed, I think, because it was such a vastly unimaginative choice. I was stunned that someone of Jarmusch's caliber did that. It was like something out of a freshman writing seminar. Cheap, really cheap, and insulting to the audience.

This drove me insane! Okay, we got it, they have lived for hundreds of years, seen many things and met many people. They can read with their fingers and pretty much know all the most brilliant artists and scientists that have existed. Would they really drop a famous name in every conversation? They hammered the cultural, historical and scientific references into our brains. I think they could have left it at Hamlet (because of Marlow/Shakespeare, yo!) and Tesla.

[Pop Trash]

On the other hand, I think that is one of the most interesting things about the movie. I love the idea that vampires are the ultimate surrogate for aging intellectuals/hipsters/bohemians/whatever (and consequently Adam is a surrogate for Jim Jarmusch himself). In fact, I'm downright surprised that no other vampire lore as really explored this idea. Or at least not quite to the extent that this has.

[Yxklyx]

A mild yeah. I wish it had had more of a plot.

[baby doll]

A mild yeah. I wish it had had more of a plot.Really, dude? Criticizing a Jarmusch film for not having much of a plot is like criticizing a cake for not having more meat in it.

[Yxklyx]

His other movies (Mystery Train, Dead Man, Night on Earth) have told interesting stories - for me, this one didn't.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Dug this one's rock and roll disaffectation, even if it means the film moves at a snail's pace. Frankly, I'm glad Wasikowska popped in and disrupted things (if only for a while). Nothing wrong with shaking things up a bit. Swinton was born to play a vampire with her sharp angles and oversized eyes. I can't imagine ever wanted to rewatch it, but I appreciate it. If I passed it on the street, I'd nod significantly.