Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) - Jarmusch's drowsy vampires, an overrated bore

10/13/2022

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) - Jarmusch's drowsy vampires, an overrated bore

♥♥

+ Most Overrated Movie of the Year

Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton lounge around and look like lazy artists on this unexciting poster for Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive

A vampire couple who are several centuries old, and who have long abstained from biting humans, meet up in Detroit, where they dive into their very laid-back and personal rock musician lifestyle.

Only Lovers Left Alive is written and directed by Ohioan master filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (Permanent Vacation (1980)), whose 11th feature it is.

It is a relentlessly downbeat and very very quiet slug of a movie; Only Lovers Left Alive snails its way self-indulgently forward. As an audience you'll have to buy into total admiration of the perceived 'hipster coolness' of Tilda Swinton (The Limits of Control (2009)), Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers (2012)) and Mia Wasikowska (September (2007)) with troll-like hair (not so cool in my opinion), and also feel that it is really keen that the film celebrates scientists and apparently proposes that major artistic works such as Hamlet were really made by vampire.

Jarmusch invites us along to some interesting locations (Detroit and Tangier), - but this midnight exercise is a yawning killer, and a slow, yawning killer at that.

Related posts:

Jim Jarmusch: 2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

The Limits of Control (2009) - Jarmusch hits career low with idea-bereft embarrassment
Broken Flowers (2005) - Hip search for son and self with Jarmusch and Murray
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) - Pleasant, precious vignette sit-down with some wonderful people
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) - Whitaker serves ancient samurai justice in Jarmusch's cool treat

1995 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Dead Man (1995) - Jarmusch's bold, poetic, rich Americana masterpiece
Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Down by Law (1986) - Jarmusch's jailbreak movie is an independent character gem

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 7 mil. $

Box office: 7.6 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 1.08 times its cost)

[Only Lovers Left Alive premiered 25 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 123 minutes. Gathering funding for the film reportedly took 7 years. 13 companies and support bodies cooperated in its funding and production. Shooting took place from July - September 2012 in Morocco, Germany and in Michigan. The stars wear wigs made of human, yak and goat hair. The film opened #33 to an 87k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #24 and in 95 theaters (different weeks), grossing 1.8 mil. $ (23.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 1.6 mil. $ (21.1 %) and France with 1.3 mil. $ (17.1 %). The film was nominated for 2 Independent Spirit awards, among many other honors. Jarmusch returned with Paterson (2016). Swinton returned in Snowpiercer (2013); Hiddleston in Exhibition (2013). Only Lovers Left Alive is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Only Lovers Left Alive?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

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10/13/2022

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) - Jarmusch's drowsy vampires, an overrated bore

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