Only Lovers Left Alive (9/10): A fresh spin on the vampire genre

“I just feel like all the sand is at the bottom of the hour glass or something.”

Jim Jarmusch brings a fresh spin to the very familiar vampire tale and delivers a solid and unique film that is unlike any other from the genre. Only Lovers Left Alive will stand alone considering it lacks the horror and action elements that the classic vampire films always introduce, and it also avoids the romantic cliches as well. It is an existential vampire film where you have two very distinct characters. On the one hand there is Tom Hiddleston’s character who has been around for centuries and is living in Detroit along with his growing music collection. He has grown weary with the way humans (or as he calls them: zombies) are living and has this nostalgic sense of the past, which explains why he collects several instruments from the early 1900’s. He seems to be depressed and simply disillusioned towards the modern world. On the other hand, his wife played by Tilda Swinton is living in Tangier, and she continues to enjoy the basic things in life. She loves to read and seems to have adapted well to the new world. When she realizes that her husband is getting depressed she decides to travel to Detroit to see if she can cheer him up. Most of the film focuses on Hiddleston’s existential crisis and serves as an excuse for Jarmusch to talk about art and culture. Many people might find this pretentious, but it works because you are reminded that these characters have been living for centuries and have actually met some of these artists and scientists they are referring to. The way in which Jarmusch builds these characters is also fascinating. The idea of the vampires having this sort of rockstar look to them is great and the way they seem to get high when they drink blood was also a very clever touch. There is no action here because these vampires aren’t feeding off people, they simply have their resources for buying blood. 

It’s the small moments that work extremely well in the film and the performances are fantastic. Hiddleston and Swinton are perfectly cast for their roles and both share an incredible chemistry on screen. They’ve been together for centuries so there is no tension in the relationship and they read each other perfectly. However when Swinton’s smaller sister (Played by Mia Wasikowska) shows up things begin to get interesting. Wasikowska is also great in this film and she does a convincing job playing this immature and pain in the neck little sister. There are also some strong supporting performances from John Hurt and Anton Yelchin. The cast is excellent in the film and with the strong script they all shine in this unique indie movie. I went into it knowing almost nothing about the film and I think it is the best way to approach it because the world created by Jarmusch is quite interesting. I had heard a lot about the director, but this was the first time I actually saw a film of his and I’m surprised I enjoyed it so much because I don’t consider myself a fan of the genre and I do tend to find existential films pretentious at times, but here it works. It is very elegant, cool, and stylish.

My Review: Broken City (4/10)

"There are some wars you fight and some wars you walk away from. This isn't the fighting kind."

I guess Allen Hughes's brother, Albert (with whom he has always worked with in the past directing such films as The Book of Eli and From Hell), decided this was a movie he was going to walk away from. Albert was the smarter brother here because Broken City really missed the mark with a rather predictable plot involving corrupt government officials, silly twists, and irrelevant character motivations. I felt the story was rather ambiguous and some characters were presented only to introduce a certain plot element and then were completely forgotten (as with Natalie and Cathleen). In this day and age where you can find great TV series why would someone want to go see a political thriller so formulaic as this? Hughes has to offer something much more groundbreaking if he wants to attract audiences. It's not enough just to have big stars and a predictable script. It's a shame that the film is actually more broken than the city, and one of the main issues I had was with the weak script written by Brian Tucker which leaves way too many loose ends. Broken City isn't a terrible movie, but it isn't any good either. 

Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) is a New York detective on trial for having killed an alleged rapist and murderer. The court finds Billy innocent despite the fact that Police Commissioner Fairbanks (Jeffrey Wright) presented some evidence to the city's Mayor, Hostetler (Russell Crowe), which he decided to withhold. The Mayor congratulates Billy for doing the right thing but he is asked to resign. The film jumps seven years forward where we see Billy working as a private detective (mostly hired for adultery cases). He is married to Natalie (Natalie Martinez), an aspiring actress who happened to be the sister of the murderer's victim. Mayor Hostetler hires Billy to follow his wife, Cathleen (Catherine Zeta Jones), whom he suspects is cheating on him. He wants him to do it quietly because he's a few weeks away from reelection and the opposing candidate, Jack Valliant (Barry Pepper) is closing in on the race. Billy is surprised to discover that the person Cathleen has been meeting with is actually Paul Andrews (Kyle Chandler), Valliant's lead campaign coordinator. A few days after he makes this discovery, Paul is found murdered in the streets and Billy realizes that there is much more going on here than a simple adultery case. 

There is no doubt that the strongest thing about Broken City is its cast. Mark Wahlberg is comfortable here playing the tough guy and I thought he gave a strong performance. I did expect more from Russell Crowe who didn't really add much to the movie. The few scenes with Barry Pepper were probably the strongest ones. Catherine Zeta Jones was underused here and her character is simply in this film to move the plot along. The same can be said for Natalie Martinez. So many of these characters were simply part of this film to introduce certain plot elements but then were completely forgotten. There is no character development and pretty much everyone plays stereotypical roles here. If you've seen political thrillers in the past than you'd be very familiar with these one dimensional characters. Despite trying to pay close attention to the plot I still had a hard time understanding how certain elements were connected with one another. Everything felt contrived and the story was too ambitious. By the end I thought the story was just too unbelievable for a film that tried to appear real and authentic.