Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) – J. Jarmusch

With this contemporary vampire film (taking place in Detroit and Tangiers), it feels like Jarmusch has finally created the proper milieu in which to deposit all of his cultural touchstones and references.  His band SQÜRL even contributes some of the minor-key guitar-slab soundtrack music and there are plenty of fetishistic scenes of old guitars (and other equipment), important novels, and celebrity artist photos.  In fact, the film feels like part of a scene – the aging bohemian rocker scene, I guess (and perhaps I belong since I have a couple of White Hills CDs). Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston are the titular lovers still alive as the centuries pass (and there are a fair few references to the damage that we “zombies”, aka humans, are doing to the planet and the culture).  John Hurt definitely looks dead or undead as Christopher Marlowe. Unlike some Jarmusch films this one does have a few discrete plot events that move the story forward or at least break up the flow of arthouse sensations.  But those sensations are assuredly the main point and this is one of Jarmusch’s best films.