Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Quietly his most bonkers movie to date, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive stands alone in just how grounded his approach to vampire storytelling is.

We talked about Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark yesterday, and while we love that movie and believe it falls into the category of great prestige genre films, Only Lovers Left Alive makes Near Dark look like a Far Side cartoon.

This is quite strange considering the fact the premise of this movie is insane.

The film is about two vampires, played by Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton, who have been together for hundreds of years. The vampire played by Hiddleston is starting to feel weary and no longer wants to be alive, so they must search for the cure for immortality.

Also, Hiddleston is a doom-metal musician. Yes, you read that correctly. A doom metal musician.

Not only do Hiddleston and Swinton look as pale as we’ve always imagined vampires to be, they also capture the feeling of immortal beings better than you thought possible.

Tilda Swinton is a Jarmusch regular who captures this old wisdom of someone who has lived many lives, and yet still thirsts for knowledge and expanding her horizons.

Meanwhile, Hiddleston captures somebody who has conquered everything they’ve wanted to conquer. Now he's a musician who yearns so hard for a new sound that he has pushed himself to the breaking point.

He finds nothing new under the sun that he desperately hides from. And the heartbreak that comes with that is absolutely astounding and, dare we say, Oscar-worthy.

One last piece of context you might like to have is that Jarmusch himself is in a metal band.

Seriously it’s a band called SQÜRL and if you’re into some weird stuff you will love this band!

Listening to Jarmusch talk about music is a very odd experience. When asked about the role music plays in his life, creative process, and this film in an Indiewire interview, he had to say:

“I think the strongest thing humans give as expression is music. I don’t know how to exactly define the new psychedelic movement, but there are many bands that I really love that are described this way. I also like drone music, I like trance music, I like the different categories of metal music they call stoner music or doom metal. Some of this I like very much. I also like underground hip hop, and lots of other styles as well. But I do very much like this resurgence of psychedelic music that really transports you and lets you drift, and affects you in a sensual or sensory way. I like heavy rock ‘n’ roll too.”

It’s quite funny to read this quote for a number of reasons, even without “I like heavy rock ‘n’ roll too”.

But especially after watching a film that basically has the stance that doom metal is the final frontier of music, all we can say is at least the man knows what he likes!

Good on you Jim, we support you and everything you have to offer us.

Guess Tomorrow’s Film