I’ve been avoiding Only Lovers Left Alive for over a year. I am not a Jim Jarmusch fan, though admittedly I have not seen some of his most acclaimed work, like Ghost Dog or Down By Law. I only saw Dead Man because in 1995 Johnny Depp could seemingly do no wrong, and it was interminable. I’d seen Broken Flowers and Coffee and Cigarettes too, and found them also meandering and slow (though I got to the end of each which I can’t say for Dead Man). I figured I got his aesthetic and it just wasn’t for me, which is fair.
Boy, was I wrong! Only Lovers Left Alive was awesome! Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston play vampire lovers Adam and Eve who reunite in Detroit where he has been living as an underground musician. I can certainly see the recurring traditions of character study and lingering on stillness, but this is the most eventful Jim Jarmusch movie I’ve ever seen. I don’t mean that it has to have action and vampires biting people and stuff. It’s just that the characters are actually doing something, even when they’re just lying there.
Related: Watch an Exclusive Video Interview with Tilda Swinton
It helps that these are two of the most watchable actors we have working today, so just seeing them mope around or lie intertwined together would be enough for two hours. The choices they make in each scene, each shot, and each take elevate most of the material with which they’ve been associated. Frankly, Hiddleston is all that makes those Thor movies even watchable.
They are joined by impressive supporting actors too. Anton Yelchin approaches Adam like he really wants to join the club, but he’s respecting the boundaries when he finds them. When Mia Wasikowska shows up, she throws a playful wrench into the moping. She’s adorable and frustrating simultaneously. John Hurt adds some dramatic heft as a mentor to Eve, and when Jeffrey Wright pops in for a scene or two, he owns it.
There is a macabre sense of humor, less about the mundanity of being an undead killer and more about using vampire powers to circumvent a lot of human bullshit. Super speed pops up a few times, probably a complicated visual effect, used to convey when Adam or Eve just don’t have time for this crap. And they have all the time in the world. So that underlying humor kept the pace moving, but only in scenes where Adam is forced to interact with the outside world. Adam’s preference is to spend eternity alone with Eve and she’s amenable. When they are alone together, that’s when they explore the stillness together and form interesting shapes with their entwined bodies which are fascinating to behold in Blu-ray quality.
The Blu-ray does have a sort of sepia tone to it, like it’s never quite bright enough. Duh, they’re vampires living in the shadows so it’s not supposed to be. I tried every setting on my HDTV and it always looked like the picture wasn’t quite filling out the colors and brightness of the world. I trust that was intentional. It is a clear picture and you could almost feel the caked up dreadlocks of Adam and Eve’s hair, which they may not have washed for decades.
The deleted and extended scenes feature some interesting additional material, including a question I had throughout the movie about the characters closing themselves in during days. There are a couple completed visual effects as well, and a lot more of Adam and Eve discussing pop culture of the ages, which was another interesting aspect that made Only Lovers Left Alive constantly fascinating. Some of the bites are just scene trims, business of actors walking from place to place. Those didn’t need to be included, but it’s mostly an interesting collection.
The “music video” of Yasmine Hamdan performing “Hal” is literally the scene from the movie. That is so Jim Jarmusch. They may very well have released that as a music video. I’m sure her complete performance of the song is longer than the scene in the movie. That is the music video equivalent of just leaving the camera running on a performer, although to be fair, most soundtrack artists are not physically featured in the film so it wasn’t an option for Ray Parker Jr. or Irene Cara.
Well, I consider myself schooled. I thought I had Jim Jarmusch pegged but clearly I had not. Perhaps it’s time to delve further into his filmography. I can certainly do that homework I’ve neglected since film school, and maybe even do some exploring off textbook. I’ve heard The Limits of Control is difficult but I can certainly take on Ghost Dog or Stranger Than Paradise now. When I do, perhaps I won’t seem like such a poser talking about how Jim Jarmusch this movie was.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
