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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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

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Ray Liotta has died

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Philip Baker Hall has died

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William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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10/13/2022

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

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