A depressed musician reunites with his lover in the desolate streets of Detroit. Though their romance has endured several centuries, it is tested by the arrival of her capricious and unpredictable younger sister.
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There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
The acting in this movie is really good.
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
Here we have a movie about vampires which is not about vampires. The main characters are the husband, Adam, and the wife, Eve, and their relationship far from each other. Lately we have been able to see too many vampires movies (mainly action ones) and yes, we are tired of those....always...the same....movies.... but this one is not one of those, and you should give it an opportunity, cause there is no action at all. The movie is filmed in a dark filter and in a really vampirish style, meaning that it flows slowly but constantly.This movie is more a drama than anything else, about two lovers who are different from the rest, they feed on blood, but who have the same problems as the rest of couples: work related, family related.... About the actors: First, we have Tom Hiddleston (aka Loki), and he is really good! Here he plays the musician vampire, to whom music (besides his wife) is everything in "life". Music is an important issue in this movie, as is culture in general, everything really indie orientated. Secondly, we have Tilda Swinton (aka the bad which from Narnia) really cool too, specially when she is sharing the screen with Tom. You can feel their "vampire" connection. Finally, there is Mia Wasikowska (aka Alice in Wonderland) as the young sister, who also steals the others presence whenever she is on the screen with them.To sum it all up, all the actors and actresses do a good job and make this movie a little indie treasure worth your time. Because...if you were a vampire..... in today's world,.... in today's society.... how would you behave...? Think about it.
At first glance, Jim Jarmusch has brought his laid back, artistic sensibilities to the vampire genre in "Only Lovers Left Alive," but that would be a fairly surface-level reduction of this unusual, sophisticated film.Like all of Jarmsuch's films, "Only Lovers" cares little for story and a lot for scenario. He builds these deeply rich albeit kind of cold portraits of two lovers who are centuries if not millennia old in order to explore mortality and purpose in a new, meaningful way. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton are so sublimely subtle in their performances as Adam and Eve. They are distant and standoffish yet also alluring and maybe even familiar. The two lovers begin the film apart, he as a reclusive rock musician living in Detroit and she a voracious reader in Tangier. When Eve senses Adam has become a bit withdrawn, jaded and depressed — he's namely frustrated with the degradation of society — she flies out to be with him, a reunion that proves rejuvenating until Eve's sister Eva (Mia Wasikowska) shows up and imposes her recklessness upon them.The story could rather easily be told about normal humans, which is partly why classifying "Only Lovers" as a vampire film is misguided. The vampirism merely allows Jarmusch to mine the human condition at an even deeper level. Adam has been crafting music for centuries and inspired some of the greatest musicians of all time; Eve has a gift for dating any object she touches and is a wellspring of knowledge and literature. This gives Jarmusch his free pass to deal in matters of the intellect, as well as drop in countless cultural, scientific and historic references. Fortunately, in doing so he doesn't completely strip the film of accessibility because he remains so fixed on his two main subjects.Although the film takes some time to get into a groove with its audience, Jarmusch has a way of sliding us into its ambiance. That's the other benefit of the vampire component — it adds tremendous atmosphere. Jarmusch loves to tour his audiences through forgotten, once-vibrant places, especially cities, and the nocturnal rhythm of "Only Lovers" really lets the tones he prefers sink in at deeper level.The overall vibe of the movie is grim. Add to that these cold characters who would do anything to avoid attention and derive joy only from being together and wrapping their heads around the world's biggest ideas and as a filmmaker you risk putting a large distance between your film and audiences, especially those with mainstream tastes. It can certainly be difficult to care about them at times, yet the way they carry perspective and the way they navigate the circumstances of their survival as vampires and other predicaments in the film slowly reveals their relatable humanity.Emotional investment is a little harder to come by, but that's a byproduct of Jarmusch's intellect-driven style. The way he writes makes it difficult to connect with his characters on a deeply personal level. We can see reflections of who we are in these characters and the scenarios they find themselves in, but there is a definitive glass wall between us and them. As in past films, the characters also represent extreme stances. As much as we'd like Adam, for example, to lighten up and relax his rules and stances, we appreciate his demeanor in the face of the relentlessly troublemaking Ava. Jarmusch has always enjoyed pitting opposing perspectives against each other, and considering how much perspective matters in the life of an immortal vampire who can't go out during the day and needs blood to survive, these character experiments matter.Of course at the heart of "Only Lovers" is a love story, even if romance has never been one of Jarmusch's strength. Instead, he paints their love as a passionate partnership and a mutual reliance on each other to provide purpose. In a world where everything else around you dies or changes, love suddenly becomes the most powerful thing of all.~Steven CThanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more
Director tried to show us vampires from different site. We know them mostly as bloody creatures wanted just to kill, drink blood or makes an army to kill other species. OK but what about Twilight... hehe this is different story and I would not compare Twilight to the stylish movies about vampires. Thanks for the style, for he music, the feeling like time stopped for them. Director focused on a vampires couple which are connected by blood, by love, by music. If you can live forever in that connection you would be the happiest person on earth. But there of course like in life there are some differentiates between them that makes their love more interesting. I would recommend this movie for anyone familiar with vampire movies to have different view on the film and as well for lovers of good music. Piotr
Jarmusch, inviolable master of slow psychedelic movies. If you do not like slow movies do not even try to watch this, cause there's virtually no plot at all. Movie is based on characterization of protagonists, building of heavy atmosphere and it is visually fantastic. Although it technically falls within vampire/fantasy genre, movie does not have any of it's characteristics. Tilda and Tom for two hours became old married couple of vampires that will make you forget that vampires are just the fruit of the imagination and experience this movie as exceptionally realistic drama. Of course, Jarmusch wouldn't be Jarmusch if great psychedelic music didn't follow whole story. I saw Jim's opus long time ago, but if my memory does not deceive me, only Dead Man is better than this one.8,5/10