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

I once wanted to start a zombie sludge-noise band called BRAINS that was just us pawing at our instruments and sounding like Flipper or something.

― space invaders are smokin penises!!!! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, June 17, 2019 11:16 AM (thirty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

down for this

That was like 06/07/08? Man, I would have beaten epic bacon Ron Swanson Internet to the punch somewhat and could have been making FAT CASH by now

I like that idea as inscrutable as it is

I’m in Los Angeles area now, I could probably hook up some people who know how to do sick zombie makeup and just play gigs at like Fantastic Fest and cons or whatever

I guess the whole "zombies are sheeple" thing was the OG Dawn of the Dead, and the "Zombies gravitate to what they like" thing is a little more contemporary

"Zombies gravitate to what they like" definitely comes from the OG Dawn of the Dead - it's why the zombies are surrounding the shopping mall - somebody even says, "This place was important to them".

Yeah this was pretty much exactly what I was prepared for & expecting – a totally light, silly, largely aimless goof, mostly just an excuse to enjoy the screen presence of a bunch of interesting performers, which I’m totally fine with.

― One Eye Open, Monday, June 17, 2019 10:20 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Accurate assessment of the movie but I'm not fine with JJ phoning it in like this. I mean, why bother? There's half a dozen stars, a decent setup, tone was good, but this went NOWHERE. rehashed everything Dawn of the Dead had to say 41 years ago plus "wiiiifiiiii" / "bluuuuuuetoooooooth." not looking for trenchant social commentary from him, but christ, punch the script up, give these great actors something to do.

definitely better than Stranger Than Paradise though

:)

haven't seen it but wasn't its devolution into grim stasis meant to be intentional, a reflection of our current world? I thought I remember Nicholas Rapold and Amy Taubin talking about it in one of the Cannes podcasts

remembered

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