hell yes
after years of aridness he finally wrote a good script and cast it shrewdly
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:36 (nine years ago) link
It's on the very short list of JJ movies I'd ever be inclined to revisit, and that includes the ones I respect very much.
― a guy named Christian White who represents the typical white Christian (Eric H.), Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:36 (nine years ago) link
it's about vinyl geekdom, so surprise surprise
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:42 (nine years ago) link
ha I forgot that was even in the movie
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:51 (nine years ago) link
alfred i hope it is in some sense reassuring to know that seeing a terrible opinion with your name underneath at least feels fresh, unfamiliar, unsettling to me.
i liked this fine, & thought it had some very sweet passages, but it compares pretty unfavourably with a couple of the films he made like ... twenty, thirty years ago, according to very similar templates, with a better kinda gestalt-y cohesion of elements. the sober variety of mystery train, say - inhabiting dilapidated urban plazas at night, mapping lovers' trajectories while zigzagging into these little offshoot, genre-y subplots - just feels so much stronger (admittedly, with the benefit of some distance), more convincing & panoramic & unique. jarmusch still hasn't totally figured out working inside digital, yet, i don't think, & there's something just so concrete & strong about the grammar of those earlier films. the deadpan tone feels real. there's a kind of awkward, echoing lack of consideration to some of this film, i think - the sincerity of one of the character's deaths, late in the film, of fully celebrating Guys In Shades, of slipping into kinda brash concert footage at the show they visit - that makes me miss his evenness. it's a lovely film, & its romantic peaks are really memorable, but i can't see how it beats like, dead man in detuned originality, mystery train in singularity, down by law in fun, &c.
― schlump, Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:54 (nine years ago) link
schlump otm
also we have a goddamn general Jarmusch thread
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:56 (nine years ago) link
i can't see how it beats like, dead man in detuned originality, mystery train in singularity, down by law in fun, &c.
I think it does, especially in precisely what you said – beautifully – inhabiting dilapidated urban plazas at night, mapping lovers' trajectories.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:57 (nine years ago) link
but i can't see how it beats like, dead man in detuned originality, mystery train in singularity, down by law in fun, &c.
yeah these are top 3 for me, perplexed at prospect of him bettering any of those this late in his career but I guess its possible
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 18 September 2014 16:02 (nine years ago) link
feelin kinda Jarmusch-y lately, Limits of Control is the only one I haven't seen so far, I should get on that
Watched Ghost Dog last night for the first time in eons - it's pretty good but a bit clunky in places and feels like a step down (or an awkward sidestep?) from Dead Man, which I unabashedly adore. That Rosenbaum book is worth getting? I didn't even know there was one.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 5 June 2015 16:02 (nine years ago) link
yeah it's really interesting, & nerdily kinda really added layers to my understanding/appreciation of the film. lots of just very satisfying dialogue w/ JJ, too, cool stories & stuff.
i remember having that experience rewatching ghost dog, thinking the broad mafia humour was kind of almost televisionish, & sometimes couldn't quite hold the weight of its like ... flava fav dialogue, while still being fun nonetheless. so many other satisfying strands of the film, though -- isaach de bankole, the little girl, gratuitious rza cameo & beautiful rza score, cool mysterious woman watching cartoons in limo, devestatingly probably the most recent use of forest whitaker's meditative quietness, &c&c&c
― tender is the late-night daypart (schlump), Friday, 5 June 2015 16:43 (nine years ago) link
there's enough little bits in it to make it worthwhile, many of which I'd forgotten - the guy building a boat on his roof, for example. Or Forrest coming across the rednecks who have killed a bear. Gangsters always watching cartoons. All the stuff between de Bankole and Whittaker is classic Jarmusch.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 5 June 2015 16:46 (nine years ago) link
my heart is warmed just remembering bankole/whittaker exchanges in that movie
― tender is the late-night daypart (schlump), Friday, 5 June 2015 17:01 (nine years ago) link
haha yes all the repeated dialogue
― Οὖτις, Friday, 5 June 2015 17:02 (nine years ago) link
wow LoC was terrible
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 17 June 2015 21:04 (eight years ago) link
yeah! it might be his absolute nadir.
the vampire one is pretty good! return to form, i guess.
though i tend to think stranger than paradise renders the rest of it fairly redundant.
― wizzz! (amateurist), Wednesday, 17 June 2015 21:06 (eight years ago) link
as mh says upthread: it was a success in terms of being evocative of moods and forms, while not necessarily ideas.
it's just so ... empty. the style is there and it is gorgeous to look at but it's all in service of a script/plot that is woefully underdone and paper-thin, it's a bunch of gestures that add up to nothing, which is usually the opposite of how Jarmusch's best material works.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 17 June 2015 21:07 (eight years ago) link
all of the "stars" getting their one-scene walk-ons felt like the hackiest way possible to give it any structure, and since we don't know or care about anyone involved in the exchanges (incl the nullity at the center of the action, about whom we never learn anything) they just feel cheap and pointless.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 17 June 2015 21:09 (eight years ago) link
and the gestures feel pretty received and rote by this point.
jarmusch's films have always been about attitudinizing (jonathan rosenbaum's claims for "dead man's" profundity notwithstanding) and that kind of thing walks a thin line between indulgent and charming.
― wizzz! (amateurist), Wednesday, 17 June 2015 21:10 (eight years ago) link
xpost
Rewatched this today. Only this time through I recognised the Stalker reference.
I have this image in my head of a room full of sand. And a bird flies towards me, and dips its wing into the sand. And I honestly have no idea whether this image came from a dream, or a film.
Really enjoyed it this time through.
― call me by your name..or Finn (fionnland), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 21:32 (six years ago) link