I don't have the fondest memories of college. I mean, it was a torture or anything like that, but I didn't get along with the soul-searching hippies and the Jean-Luc Godard worshipping aesthetes in my program, so my social life was limited to hitting on my dorms neighbor (who I eventually dated for a short period of time) and indulging in unhealthy binges of cinema. I do have great memories of discovering Jim Jarmusch's cinema, though. I've become obsessed with his films after seeing his immortal western DEAD MAN and he's been pretty consistantly blowing my mind and nourishing my puny need for intellectual validation ever since. I've finally had the opportunity to watch his latest ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE and the streak is alive, folks. The streak is alive and well.
The narrative of Jim Jarmsch movies (he usually writes his own screenplays alone) is not as important as his willingness to bend and twist, and explore the boundaries of the genre he's chosen. So I guess you could say that ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE is a vampire movie. Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eye (Tilda Swinton) have been together for centuries, yet have been living apart for an unspecified amount of time, stranded in opposite end of the world. When Eve notices that Adam is getting depressed after a phone call that she decides to travel from Tangier to Detroit to be with her man, but she drags her wayward little sister Ava (the lovely and talented Mia Wasikowska), which complicated the life of the timeless lovers immensely.
Jim Jarmusch is deconstructing several concepts in ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE. First is the vampire movie genre. Jarmusch has this well-documented obsession with deconstructing genres, sometimes at the expense of his own viewer. What he does is very accessible, yet intellectually stimulating: what does remain if you pull everything that's not necessary out of vampire movies? There's the night. The hunger. The remoteness from human beings. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE is the closest thing to what would happen if rather normal people would turn into vampire and would be hell-bent on staying normal. The contrast between Adam & Eve's condition and their desire to be a normal couple is uproarious. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE is a couple flat historical jokes away from being the best deadpan comedy I've ever watched.
It's a beautifull shot movie that understand the aesthetic beauty of the night, but I didn't have to tell you that, did I?
Another target of ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE is romance movies and I suspect that despite that Jim Jarmusch concealed the idea within the confines of a genre movie, it's what he was really aiming at, with this movie. I've been really critical of Hollywood romance before, because I think the movies are mainly about desire more than they are about love, and Jarmusch explores what there is to love stripped of desire. Adam and Eve have conquered each other a long time ago. They've been crazy about one another for centuries, it's an established fact. Jim Jarmusch explores their wordless bond, their nourishing silence and their need for a kinetic fusion in ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE. Maybe I was in a good position to understand this movie right off the bat (I've recently celebrated my 8 years with Josie), but I thought it was a particularly deep and moving film in Jim Jarmusch's wordless ways.
I don't think Jim Jarmusch is inventing new ways of making cinema. He's more of a guardian of authenticity. His movies are obsessed with finding what is real in Hollywoodian constructions and to weed out the emotional white noise and the easy formulas from the equation. I find his movies to be zen and intellectually nourishing experiences, but I have to say that ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE hit a couple more notes in the right tone than Jarmusch movies usually do. Such a fundamentally positive movie about vampire sure is of an ironic nature, but whatever. I can take irony when it truly goes against the grain and it has a higher purpose than just wallowing in itself. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE is probably in my top 3 Jim Jarmusch movies along with DEAD MAN and BROKEN FLOWERS. It's also the perfect movie to sell one of the sharpest, funniest and yet most accessible American arthouse director to your heathen friends. If you don't have time for it, make some.
I don't think Jim Jarmusch is inventing new ways of making cinema. He's more of a guardian of authenticity. His movies are obsessed with finding what is real in Hollywoodian constructions and to weed out the emotional white noise and the easy formulas from the equation. I find his movies to be zen and intellectually nourishing experiences, but I have to say that ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE hit a couple more notes in the right tone than Jarmusch movies usually do. Such a fundamentally positive movie about vampire sure is of an ironic nature, but whatever. I can take irony when it truly goes against the grain and it has a higher purpose than just wallowing in itself. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE is probably in my top 3 Jim Jarmusch movies along with DEAD MAN and BROKEN FLOWERS. It's also the perfect movie to sell one of the sharpest, funniest and yet most accessible American arthouse director to your heathen friends. If you don't have time for it, make some.