It's a sad and beautiful world: the Jim Jarmusch poll.

It's a hard choice for me, because I basically think all of his films besides Permanent Vacation and Ghost Dog are great (and even those two have many great moments). I think I'll have to vote for Down by Law, because few other films so perfectly sum the way I feel about life.

down by law, though i need to see it again

GHOST...DOG?

i don't think he's topped 'mystery train' since he made that (dead man comes close, I guess); broken flowers was so disappointing. so, mystery train!

torn between down by law and ghost dog, voted ghost dog.

i didn't think broken flowers was all that bad, but i didn't expect it to be good either.

i've only seen 5 of these btw

Mystery Train is a sentimental favorite but something about Stranger than Paradise made me choose it.

Broken Flowers is better than Coffee & Cigarettes; still awful

"Mystery Train" because nothing else I've seen was particularly exciting.

'ghost dog'

Dead Man just about over Ghost Dog.

Can't decide between "Dead Man" and "Mystery Train."

i liked broken flowers. i haven't seen any other jarmusch film though.

Nick OTM, "Down by Law" never stops working for me. "Ghost Dog" is pretty great, too, but requires... I dunno... one more half a layer of distance to appreciate.

(i'm not going to vote.)

Broken Flowers was underwhelming upon my first viewing. It has become one of my fave movies upon subsequent viewings. Down By Law is such a beautiful movie.

down by law

broken flowers was really good, chaki otm

Dead Man is almost as good as Ghost Dog, but Ghost Dog has RZA beats.

that mulatu soundtrack!

yes!

Mystery Train

but I could have just as easily voted for any of these:

Night on Earth
Dead Man
Stranger Than Paradise
Down by Law
Ghost Dog

GHOST...DOG?

...HE'S Gay

I've seen all but the first (though it's now in my dvd library) and the last two, and like Mystery Train the least

I don't know the answer yet

just put mystery train and dead man on my queue

and yet the world continues to turn...

i'm going to act like that wasn't an xpost

no, the world pretty much waits for me, actually

stranger than paradise

nothing beats the five minute shot of dude drinking his beer

lol @ "all but the first two and the last two"

+ mystery train ftw

lol @ "all but the first two and the last two"

learn to read better

coffee and cigarettes is terrible. i like ghost dog and dead man. i havent seen anything else

In order, but the first four are pretty close:
Dead Man (1995)
Ghost Dog (1999)
Mystery Train (1989)
Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
Broken Flowers (2005)
Down by Law (1986)
Night on Earth (1991) (this mostly weak, but the paris, new york and helsinki bits all have moments--the la bit is the worst thing he's ever done)
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) (also mostly garbage, but I seem to remember a few good bits.)

Haven't seen, don't care about:
Permanent Vacation (1980)
Year of the Horse (1997)

I lean toward Ghost Dog over Dead Man because I think it's more stylish and because the-inner-city-is-dying is more relevant than indians-died-a-long-time-ago, and because I think he gets the tri-state area a little better than the West. Greater reach than STP, sure, but not sure they're really better. Night on Earth was my first and yes the LA part sucks and I hate Roberto Benigni but while I haven't seen it in ages I think fake Spike Lee and fake Kaurismaki and faux whoever might still feel more soulful than any of his others.

I think I'm going to make a policy of not seeing Bill Murray movies from now on. No offense, you know.

I never intended to see Year of the Horse, but it's not a bad movie, even if you don't care about Neil.

i like it!

more relevant than indians-died-a-long-time-ago

ok, sure it has lots of more current more-than-overtones, but they just aren't all that interesting

wait, I've never really watched Down By Law straight ("straight") through, have I?

lol, college

Down By Law has not aged well.

maybe it's just a lot easier to feel sad for Forest Whittaker than it is for Johnny Depp

Well I don't think you are really supposed to feel sad for Johnny Depp.

The indie/artsy/outsider voice wanted to vote for Down By Law or Stranger Than Paradise. But the viewer in me won out and voted Mystery Train. Mainly because of it's repeatability. Screamin Jay Hawkins & Cinque Lee? Absolutely classic. &fwiw, Permanent Vacation was bad. Bad, bad.

Well I don't think you are really supposed to feel sad for Johnny Depp.

no I suppose not, but for what he represents I meant

that Gary Farmer is so good-natured and has such funny sayings and no wonky eye

learn to read better

*takes a reading course*

what you said is still retarded

i guess calling me names is a way to get me to pay attention to you. which, you know, i would never do otherwise.

*takes a caring course*

i'm gonna see the golden compass tonight

i know nothing about it!

nice

"grim stasis" is not only generous but inaccurate, it's not grim, it's too cute to ever be grim. I found this frustrating because the actors are all great, setup is good, and that's it... the tone is great, a mix of his last two movies Paterson (didn't like at the time but has really grown on me) and Only Lovers Left Alive (which I hated). really too many stars that are given short shrift. I don't think it succeeds as commentary since it's all reheated DOTD with nothing new. Everything in this movie is left unexplored. I liked the meta stuff, but fuck, go further with it! the grammatical joke with Buscemi's hat was great. wish the cast was pared down or it was longer, leaving the juvie kids hanging is a bizarre choice.

ok, will have to see it

I don't think it succeeds as commentary since it's all reheated DOTD with nothing new.

To Dan S's point, it's 'Dawn of the Dead' but the new part is responding to a zombie attack with grim resignation and droll irony

He's been phoning it in for a long time

I loved Paterson and Broken Flowers!

was ambivalent about Only Lovers Left Alive but I think I would like it if I saw it again

Only Lovers Left Alive is the only one I sort of liked. Dead Man is the last film of his I genuinely loved.

I don't think it succeeds as commentary since it's all reheated DOTD with nothing new.
To Dan S's point, it's 'Dawn of the Dead' but the new part is responding to a zombie attack with grim resignation and droll irony

― space invaders are smokin penises!!!! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, June 18, 2019 10:46 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it sounds good on paper... and ilx...

This was fun until about the halfway point

sayin

I hated Only Lovers Left Alive so much it almost put me off Jarmusch completely, largely because it was so serious and portentous but had basically nothing to back it up, idea-wise.

This worked for me bc it was self aware of how inessential it was imho, just sort of a collection of vignettes & variations on a theme. The Jarmusch film I'd compare it to the most would be Mystery Train - nothing really going on intellectually, but just an enjoyable collection of actors & scenery. I can see being disappointed if you expected more or thinking that its a good cast wasted etc, but I don't think it would have been improved by giving any of the actors a chance to really show their chops or anything.

Similarly, I took the politics and social commentary stuff as basically just being in there as a superficial nod to genre tropes. Like obviously he hates trump & global warming and stuff but I dont think theres much to unpack there tbh

Paterson was NOT a phone-in.

saw Dead Don't Die yesterday and i think it's interesting to think about, but not exactly recommendable as a movie to watch. it doesn't work very well as a horror-comedy (for me) - it's never scary, and the laughs, even the arch ones, are rare. but that seems to be the result of deliberate choices to create this dry, unhurried tone. less a nightmare than one of those unpleasant and boring dreams that loops back on itself and never goes anywhere. i think the idea is that's where we're at in the anthropocene, etc. ironic 80s/90s listlessness (personified by murray) arrives to the 2010s and finds more of the same; his cliche-spotting hipster descendants are equally doomed. BUT some hope still rests with the self-motivated, boundary-refusing teens. optimistic, if in an oldster "i guess we failed, but maybe you kids will succeed" sort of way. anyway i think this is why the juvenile offenders vanish/escape from the movie.

the more overt touches of wackiness may unfortunately act as red herrings, giving the impression wants to be an over-the-top zany thing and is just failing at it. which isn't as interesting so i'd rather not dwell on it.

with the exception of the expenditure on decent zombie makeup, it might be one of the laziest movies I've ever seen

if it wasn't Jarmusch I'd say it'd take a lot of effort to *appear* to be that lazy

The only big lol besides tiny car i had was those Sturgill Simpson cds being 12.99 when they had one song on them

just saw Dead Man for the first time, I liked it but it not nearly as much as Stranger Than Paradise or Down By Law

it was beautiful as all of his films are, but it didn't seem as inspired to me. maybe I need to see it again in a couple of years

I wasn't expecting much from Mystery Train or Night on Earth as short story anthologies, but I loved them both

this was great until it was bad but i dont think ill let the swing to the latter affect my enjoyment of the former

Dead Don't Die was about as ill-conceived as a movie could be: a meta Romero homage with designs on trenchant social commentary about as deep as the "This is fine" dog cartoon that mostly exists to give a director I once loved license to indulge in all his worst tics. I guess it looks like everyone involved is having a good time but man, I was mostly just bored. It's definitely the kind of movie designed so that everyone walks away with one singular chuckle, mine was the surprisingly nerdy shot across the bow at "Farmer Frank Miller".

saw Limits of Control yesterday and really liked it, though it would have worked even better with less dialogue imo (esp. the awful Swinton scene)

As I posted on the ILF thread

I just saw "the dead dont die" and I cant work out if I hated it, or it was really clever and dryly witty. I mean I'll happily watch Adam Driver drly remark "this is gonna end badly" on a loop for 2 hours, and the reviews make me think I missed something, but... enh?

― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, September 2, 2019 10:00 AM bookmarkflaglink

That's how i felt

sturgill simpson. good song.

just saw Dead Man for the first time, I liked it but it not nearly as much as Stranger Than Paradise or Down By Law

saw it in a smaller room of a multiplex with surprisingly great sound, loved it & told my friends on the way out I would probably never see it again bcz it would be so underwhelming not being surrounded & shaken by the guitar

have no interest in Young as a musician otherwise either

(I’ve mostly seen Jarmusch on VHS or broadcast TV otherwise. Night On Earth, Ghost Dog, and either the Joie & Cinque Lee or the Tom & Iggy Coffee & Cigarettes were big screen too afair, maybe one or two others.)

re: the Dead Man soundtrack, I hope to see it on a theater screen at some point

finally saw The Dead Don’t Die. I don’t really know zombie movies so it’s hard for me to evaluate it outside of the context of Jarmusch films

would have thought having recently watched the others again I would like this less, but I really enjoyed it

It was dull

First half good

I think maybe being immersed in Jarmusch films but not zombie films made me like it more

Could be. I am very zombie filmed out

good song

it's the theme song.

I lasted about 20 minutes with The Dead Don't Die

you didn't miss anything

You missed a lot of references to Sturgill Simpson

made Paterson look like a masterpiece in comparison

that's a movie that's stuck with me despite not thinking much of it at the time - I bet it'll be the consensus late career pick for him when all is said and done.

Paterson was a better film, but I thought this was funny and I liked the way it looked. Was reminded that Amy Taubin spoke about the ‘radioactive’ quality of Frederick Elmes’ cinematography in the night-time scenes. The soundtrack by Jarmusch and Carter Logan was good too.

Elmes' cinematography in Paterson was also great

There were a couple Paterson jokes in TDDD! Even if the execution fell flat, it's pretty clear Jarmusch felt like doing a film of lazy riffing after doing a "serious" movie

So wait theres not actually a ghost dog here or what

Am I the only person who was disappointed that Ghost Dog used a gun and not a samurai sword?

Several aging mafiosos also id say

Just watched Only Lovers...I enjoyed it well enough. It may grow on me in the next few days as I think about it. There's a cue in the score after Marlowe's death that I'd swear is a variation on the Stooges' "No Fun."

on Criterion?

Yeah, there's a new Jarmusch bundle with new arrivals OLLA and Coffee & Cigarettes, and Ghost Dog and Dead Man back for short engagements, plus the permanent library stuff.

In the last week i rewatched Mystery Train and Dead Man, partly out of curiosity because I hadn’t seen either in forever but loved them when they came out. I have to say Mystery Train didn’t really hold my attention. Maybe it’s a victim of its own influence, but the hipster riffs and in particular all the Elvis references felt a little rote. I did love the depiction of Memphis itself, and I didn’t dislike the film but it felt kind of pat.

Dead Man still rules, though. Just gorgeous, for one thing, and I think it’s grounded enough to carry all of its pretentions. The relationship between Blake and Nobody remains one of my favorite “buddy film” pairings.

I had the same reactions to both flicks, tipsy.