Down by Law (1986) - Jarmusch's jailbreak movie is an independent character gem

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One of the great posters for Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law

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Written and directed by Ohioan master filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)), Down by Law was his third feature, and it remains one of my favorites among his many great films.

Zack, Jack and the Italian Bob are all three innocently jailed in New Orleans. That is, Bob actually has killed a man, but it was not really his intention. Now, of course, they escape!

What is so attractive about Down by Law is also what sets it apart from so many of Jarmusch's other fine pictures: It is 100 % character-oriented. It never abandons its characters to reach for philosophical heights but keeps its focus on the interactions of the three fundamentally different men, brought together through incarceration: The ego-loner pimp Jack (John Lurie (Oz (2001-03))), the socially grunting Zack (Tom Waits (Short Cuts (1993))) and the simple man Bob (Roberto Benigni (Life Is Beautiful/La Vita è Bella (1997))).
Benigni is hysterically funny, and Lurie and Waits are simply perfect as two seedy New Orleans characters.
Don't miss this magical gem in B/W, gorgeously shot by Robby Müller (Breaking the Waves (1996)).

Related reviews:

Jim Jarmusch: 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   
Dead Man (1995) - Jarmusch's bold, poetic, rich Americana masterpiece 
Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Roberto Benigni in loving embrace with Nicoletta Braschi, who would later become his wife in real life, in Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law

Watch the trailer for this great film here

Cost: Estimated 1.1 mil. $
Box office: In excess of 4.5 mil. $
= Uncertainty
[But at least a big hit. The film, which also features two of Waits' songs from his album Rain Dogs, played in Cannes and received grandiloquent reviews en masse. It made 1.4 mil. $ in North America and 3.1 mil. $ in Germany. The film was a US-West-German co-production. Its final gross is unknown.]

What do you think of Down by Law?

Seeking Asylum/Chiedo Asilo (1979) - Ferreri and Benigni present a cart of Italian bull

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Roberto Benigni, goofing around with some kids, on the poster for Marco Ferreri's Seeking Asylum

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A Goofy-resembling man becomes a kindergarten teacher and the institution's 'father', an eternally performing clown, who ends up kidnapping a group of kids to his pregnant girlfriend in Sardinia without a lira in his pocket.

Roberto Benigni (Life Is Beautiful/La Vita è Bella (1997)), who also co-wrote this film, has charisma, and so do some of the other Italians in it. Asylum is interesting as a radical portrait of a nation (Italy). It's got a few memorable images, among them SPOILER the last one of Benigni and the previously mute boy on the beach.
Asylum is mostly without plot and conflict. It values are derailed. In truth, it is some anarchistic twaddle. A really uncommitted and male-chauvinistic movie from co-writer/director Marco Ferreri (La Grande Bouffe (1973)).

In lieu of a trailer for this film, which isn't to be found on Youtube, here is a clip of the traditionally over-the-top Benigni as he receives his Oscar for his performance in Life Is Beautiful

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of Seeking Asylum?
If you know of the film's budget and box office numbers, please, inform us

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) - Precious, pleasant vignette sit-down with some wonderful people

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+ Best B/W Movie of the Year

Checkered coffee table with neat character pictures inserted, for Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes

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Coffee and Cigarettes consists of a row of human meetings over coffee and cigarettes (d'uh), carried out by a string of cool celebrities: There's vignettes with Cate Blanchett and a fictional cousin, Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan, RZA and GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan meeting Bill Murray, Jack and Meg White of The White Stripes and Iggy Pop and Tom Waits, among others. Eleven scenes in all.
Writer-director Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man (1995)) elevates the precious and random qualities of human meetings in some beautiful situations here in this little gem, which is based on three short films that Jarmusch had already made in 1986, '89 and '95, (called Coffee and Cigarettes, Coffee and Cigarettes II and Coffee and Cigarettes III), which are all three incorporated into this feature.

Related posts:

Jim Jarmusch: Broken Flowers (2005) - Hip search for son and self with Jarmusch and Murray

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

Iggy Pop and Tom Waits in their segment of Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 7.9 mil. $
= Uncertainty
[But probably a hit, with nice numbers overseas especially; the film only made 1.9 mil. $ of its revenue in the US. Coffee and Cigarettes was probably a very affordable film, seeing as 3 of the 11 scenes in it were already shot as previous shorts, and the rest are simple sit-down scenes of celebrities who are friendly admirers of Jarmusch and may even have appeared as favors, however; we don't know for sure.]

What do you think of Coffee and Cigarettes?
What is your favorite Jim Jarmusch movie?

To Rome With Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date

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Stars on the poster of Woody Allen's To Rome With Love

Americans in Rome fall for the wrong people; Italians in Rome fall for the wrong people.
Everything is wholly gaga in Rome, which initially serves laughter here and there, but after roughly 45 minutes, it is clear that the film has nothing left to offer.
Alec Baldwin has a bizarre character, who just follows Jesse Eisenberg around without really being there, (the film is described as magical realism, but it never succeeds with anything resembling 'real' magic, unfortunately.)
A few other actors charm accidentally, Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha (2012)) mostly. Penélope Cruz has been made into a tawdry tramp here, which is a little hard to take. Judy Greer (Deconstructing Harry (1997)) is OK but doesn't compare to great writer-director Woody Allen's (Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)) earlier, charming, full-bodied female characters.
Allen also plays in the film, battling a young, local rough-neck communist. Rome is a hired, rushed job full of compromises and left-hand work. It is an almost completely ludicrous movie, and probably the weakest that Allen has ever completed.
Allen is at the moment finishing his Magic in the Moonlight (2014) and preparing his next film, as is the prodigious master's modus operandi.  

Related posts:

Woody Allen: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess  
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy
Celebrity (1998) or, Beautiful Celebrities Talk About Sex (guest review)
Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep your Heart
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship With Alvie Singer 

Allen wanted to call the film Bop Decameron, then Nero Fiddles, but was eventually forced to accept the title (which he reportedly hates); To Rome With Love

Here's the trailer for the film

Budget: Est. 17 mil. euros, equal to approximately 18.37 mil. $
Box office: 73.2 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of To Rome With Love?
Do you agree that it is Woody Allen's poorest film to date?