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

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!

something about bears, nicole kidman looking bitchy, and daniel craig ftw in the end probably

nicole kidman in looking bitchy shock

she cant even help it anymore

ALL OTM

Mystery Train - for Screamin' Jay, the Carl Perkins dialogue, Natchez = Matches, that fucking awesome pan shot of the Italian women in the airport with the airplane taking off behind her, and of course, "lost in space".

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/9940/18830783gl1.jpg

Steve Buscemi is the only actor in that truck cab who's still alive.

Or, as gabbnebb might say: they are all alive except the one on the right and the one on the left.

alex's ranking is otm on all counts.

although ok maybe i'd bump stranger than paradise up to 2nd place. i love that movie unconditionally.

love him for his movies, and also for carving out the career he's had. i'm not really sure how he's done it, since i don't think he's ever made much money for himself or anyone else. although maybe not caring a whole lot about that is a necessary ingredient. (also probably doesn't hurt to be the coolest guy in the room, which he probably often is.)

1) dead man
2) stranger than fiction
2) down by law
2) mystery train
5) the rest
6) except for the ones i haven't seen (permanent vacation, year of the horse)

dead man is like one of my top movies of ... uh ... ever?

Dead Man is amazing from beginning to end, and back round again.

I do have a weak spot for Ghost Dog, I admit

i haven't seen year of the horse, but the neil young score (if you can call it that) to dead man is one of my favorite soundtracks.

i'm with remy, noodle and tipsy. one of my all-time favourites.

Strangerthan Paradise by a ocuntry mile.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

xxxpost: I love Dead Man except for the soundtrack (and I am a Neil Young fan). It's really lazy and boring. I mean, compare it to Ry Cooder's Paris, Texas.

really? that's interesting, because i was never a neil young fan till i saw dead man. but ry cooder's st for paris, texas is fucking awesome.

Everything about Dead Man sets it apart. The entertaining ugly violence, the score, his best-looking black & white film and his best cast: Depp, Robert Mitchum, Gabriel Byrne, John Hurt, Iggy Pop, Crispin Glover, Alfred Molina, Billy Bob Thornton, and Bishop.

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.

having a little mini-early-jarmusch fest this morning while working, rewatching stranger than paradise and down by law.

stranger than paradise holds up great and lurie's score is fantastic. so much great footage of the scuzzy parts of america in the early 80s. it's a bit slight but the three characters are a fun hang.
down by law i remember loving when i first saw it, this time i feel like it takes too long to get to the prison and benigni, which is when it really kicks off. waits and lurie are basically playing the same guy so they need someone different to bounce off of. but benigni is so funny and the movie looks so much better than stranger than paradise, thanks to robby muller.

dead man and mystery train are my favs. love the dumb zombie movie too though i think it beefs the ending even within the looser parameters of the anti-comedy farce it's doing

I loved the new one. I don't know if Father Mother Sister Brother is great Jarmusch, but what does great Jarmusch look like? How can we tell? Is this one better or worse than Mystery Train, Dead Man, Ghost Dog, or Only Lovers Left Alive? A lovely triptych, especially the Charlotte Rampling-Cate Blanchett-Vicky Krieps section.

Parts of Dead Man have stuck with me in ways no other Jarmusch film did.

idk Down By Law is perfect to me pacing wise. before prison and after prison. both parts cook.

i've rewatched dead man and ghost dog in the past few years, but i should go back to some of the other older ones. it's been a long time since i've seen mystery train.
i remember enjoying paterson a lot.

i guess the question is, has he ever made a bad movie? the only one i've seen that i disliked more than liked was the stooges documentary, but there are several i've never seen (broken flowers, limits of control, coffee and cigarettes, night on earth, the dead don't die, father mother sister brother)

Broken Flowers was dreadful and not even in a bad taste sort of way.

I thought the new one was extremely middling and kind of shallow, but a) I recently developed an aversion to scenes where two people converse while driving so I started off rooting against the film, and b) I acquiesced to my friend's desire to see this, which means I ended up missing out on seeing The Secret Agent while it was in theatres and I'm still mad about that.

Meanwhile I've grown to love movies with two people talking and driving. At any rate the second section's the best.

I did immediately think of several counter examples after posting that :)

However, I found that opening leaden and clunky regardless of the setting, which probably then increased my disinterest in the subsequent driving & talking scenes. I do agree about the second section though -- that would have made a nice stand-alone short