Only Lovers Left Alive Reviews

Guilty me to forget Jarmush. I've just seen this romantic (in a historic way becuase Marlowe and a friend of Byron are dying in Tangier), subtle, tender, amusing, very well located in Detroit, gem.

In this age where the American cinema is overly ruled by the massive blockbusters which have to make 100 millions of dollars in their opening weekend, most of the indie directors seem to be struggling to keep working but some of them, like Jim Jarmusch, still manage to deliver their unique blend of movies, imperturbable and indifferent to the current trends. To be honest, Jarmusch has never been really productive (he usually releases a movie once every 4 years) and I think the last time he really impressed me was back in 1999 with 'Ghost Dog'. Well, after more than 15 years , he made again something that I really enjoyed. Indeed, somehow, the vampires have been an endless source of inspiration for the filmmakers, ever since 'Nosferatu' was made almost 100 years ago, and while most of the mainstream features like 'Twilight' are terribly underwhelming, Jarmusch managed to come up with something fresh and original. Indeed, instead of the usual boring action scenes, you get here a fascinating and melancholic character study about some of these night creatures. Once again with this director, the soundtrack was just perfect and mesmerizing and, with Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton, he couldn't have found some better actors. To be honest, there were a couple of things that did bother me though. For example, how on Earth a vampire should be able to die like that? It seemed to be an odd choice. Furthermore, those vampires were apparently filthy rich and with such wealth, it shouldn't be really difficult to find some blood and, yet, they act as if they are going to die soon. To conclude, even though it was probably missing something to be truly amazing, I thoroughly enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you're interested in Jim Jarmusch's work.

Initial Thought: I had planned to see this a few years back because it looked quite interesting. I just never really had the time to go and watch it. Recently my parents had watched and loved it. They told me to watch it that night, but I still didn't. Now I am finally going to go ahead and quit procrastinating. Let's get the show on the road.

Characters/Acting: This has a pretty excellent cast of which I only initially remember Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston from the trailer. There is also some other quite recognizable names/faces like Anton Yelchin, Mia Wasikowska, and John Hurt. Tilda Swinton is a strange cookie. There are times when she is very odd looking and other times when she is oddly attractive. This is one of those times where she is oddly attractive. I actually really enjoy everyone here and think the acting is just superb. They feel like a normal dysfunctional family that just so happen to be vampires. They are also you could say addicts in their own ways.

Story: It starts off interesting enough. We get the feel that this is definitely an artsy kind of film since our first shot is a rotating camera that gets closer to our two main characters in different homes. Not much is shown of these two characters other than Adam is very passionate about music it seems. We have so many vampire movies just like we do zombies yet someone always finds a way to make our next experience different from the last. I have to say there were things I hadn't seen before that were actually kind of interesting. There is stuff here that reminded me of Queen of the Damned with the fact that Adam is part of the music industry. Also I felt like the idea of peaceful vampires from Twilight or Little Vampires was looked at before making this as well. It's interesting that they put in a historical figure here that there is speculation about. I didn't know about it initially until I looked it up and found it out. I thought the ending was unique and really well done.

Directing: I haven't seen much of Jim Jarmusch's stuff except Ghost Dog which was just an okay film. He actually wrote this as well. It's a pretty interesting idea. It's hard to come up with new things in the vampire genre, but he succeeded. The vibe that this gives off is a very arthouse character driven vampire movie.

Final Thoughts: If you are looking for blood and chaos this isn't going to be the movie for you. This isn't what you would expect from a vampire film. It sort of treats the vampires like everyday people that just happen to need blood for survival and sustenance. This seemed like it could be in the realm of Anne Rice. Honestly though it didn't really grab my attention like I would have hoped. It's a decent drama and watchable, but I was hoping it would be more gripping. I say give it a try you may find yourself enjoying it or it may not be what you are looking for either.