Only Lovers Left Alive (2014)

From my favorite movies..

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Admirable film.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Only Lovers Left Alive is a love story - actually, several love stories. It's not a standard clichéd vampire horror flick, so best not to judge it by our modern vampire film conventions. In fact, the word "vampire" is never spoken in the film. And if you came for a fast-paced experience, then perhaps it's best to give it a miss. This is a very sensual movie in the sense that it engages and pulls on all your senses. There is no real need to think a lot about what's happening, only feel what is happening! I liked the film's contrast of the sad, reclusive, world-weary Adam who is ready to end it all with a bullet, against the world-loving Eve who dances, voraciously reads all the world's literature and enthusiastically connects with the history of her life in Tangier. How would you or I live the continuing life of the ancient un-dead? Would you embrace everything that life offers you, or retreat and simply watch the collapse of yet another civilization as it crumbles under foot like these film images of Detroit? Director Jim Jarmusch lets the viewer make up their own mind as Adam and Eve navigate the modern and ancient streets of Detroit and Tangier. However, as one other reviewer points out, this is a film "you should definitely watch before making any decisions about becoming a vampire." As the love and chemistry between Eve and Adam (and Christopher) shows, every relationship, even an eternal one, can end or be forever altered by circumstances beyond their knowledge and control. As much as I liked the movie, at the end I was frustrated and wanted more dialog about the endearing and unending love between Adam and Eve, more backstory, more comparison to living in this time of cell phones and blood banks vs living in the ages of literature, disease and war. Then I watched the "Extended and Deleted Scenes" on my BluRay disc and felt totally shocked: here was all the dialog and backstory and extended love scenes and quotes from Rumi that totally filled in what the film could/should have shown us! In fact I initially felt so angry I was motivated to digitize the disc into my video editing software and add all the extended and deleted scenes back into the film so I could see what a full experience of the film would be like, except I don't have that amount of time on my hands (I'm not a vampire). Please watch the Extended and Deleted Scenes (and also the music video Hal by Yasmine Hamdan that was used in the movie and will send shivers up your spine) after you view the movie itself - for me it made all the difference in the world between an ok movie and one that actually delivered the sights, sounds and feelings that I was really expecting from this movie. Why Director Jarmusch deleted all this good stuff and left in the too-long intervals of driving around Detroit is a mystery, or perhaps just another love story he included for himself...

Adam and Eve, a pair of lovers living in Detroit and Tangiers respectively, re-unite for a while. They talk about all that has happened in their lives, and the people they met. There is a lot of self-aware punning here, in the style of Doctor Who, because they are hundreds of years old. Eve's little sister shows up, and is warned not to behave badly. But it is clear that she will behave badly - to everyone but Adam and Eve, who appear monumentally thick because of this. Because of the sister's bad behaviour, the couple have to move house. And that's all that happens. Everyone has funky big hair and wears cool sunglasses, and it is all dark and moody. But this trivial little family drama hardly commands the viewer's attention, and is supposed to be interesting because the characters are vampires. It's not. A slow, boring tale with cheesy dialogue.

It's done just to be appreciated! It's a quiet, slow and obscure movie with an excellent photograph AND a great cast. The script it's not the greatest thing, it's very contemporary, empty and slow especially in the beggining, the best parts are between the lines, the sutil things like the brilliant playings (actings) united to a wonderful and pretty photograph and an excellent soundtrack. It's worth it!

Centuries old vampires exist in the modern world. And that's it, that's the plot. The fascinating Tilda Swinton (Eve) looks exotic in a number of baroque outfits, Tim Hiddleston (Adam) plays a typically soft spoken goth, and John Hurt is the supplier who brings them superior blood – 'the good stuff' – for a special treat. The acting is terrific and very natural, convincingly portraying what life would be like if they really did live forever.The look of the film is rich and lavish. Writer and director Jim Jarmusch is clearly in love with the concept. Very much like the earlier, rather more succinct, 'Kiss of the Damned (2013)', the sedate pacing and uneventful lifestyle is interrupted by the arrival of the heroine's unruly and precocious younger sister, Ava (Mia Wasikowska).After watching Adam and Eve doing things really slowly, it is to be hoped that Ava's inclusion would be something of a shot in the arm. Not to dispel their night-time sanctuary, but just to provide … something. After all, about the most eventful occurrence up until this point is when the electricity cuts during another airing of their surprisingly non-goth music. For her duration, Ava's presence does exactly as it should – shakes the two old vampires up and disrupts the complacency that has marred the film up to this point.My favourite character is probably Ian, the wheeler-dealer type. He's a shadowy, shady 'zombie' (Adam's contemptuous name for humans) and is enthralled by the rock and roll lifestyle these real 'life' goths adhere to. It is his demise at the hands of Ava that propels the couple, first to rid themselves of her (and therefore the interest she brings) and then to travel to Tangiers, where Eve was residing during the film's opening.There's no doubt for me that Ava's appearance makes things more interesting, but also has the effect of making me appreciate more the earlier, tranquil non-eventfulness of the story, and Adam and Eve's understandable need for a return to that anonymity. Their story has quietly become compelling.I rarely quote other reviews, preferring my opinions to emerge uninfluenced, but my favourite critique of 'Only Lovers Left Alive' is from Jessica Kiang of 'IndieWire', who gave the film a B+ grade, saying, "the real pleasure of the film is in its languid droll cool and its romantic portrayal of the central couple, who are now our number one role models in the inevitable event of us turning vampiric."