Just caught this one. Even though I've called myself a Jarmusch fan for years I've rather embarrassingly managed not to see any of the 80's films he built his reputation on, so it's good to finally start playing catch up with the rest of the civilised world.
For a Tom Waits fan this is a treat, and not just because he's one of the leads. The first third has to be as close to watching an early Waits song up on screen as I've ever seen - it's right out of Blue Valentines. You've got your smokey, whiskey soaked noir, your sleazy but soulful broken-hearted down-and-outs, even the almost musical rhythms of the dialogue seem to fit. Waits himself pretty much plays his usual persona, which is all you'd want and expect from the guy really.
Once it gets to the prison and things start to get going (even as they slow down) Benigni takes over as the star player. He puts a lot of charm and energy into the movie without being annoying as he can sometimes be. John Lurie also has real presence, with a kind of old-school Steve McQueenish leading man quality. Makes me wonder if he couldn't have gone on to bigger things as an actor.
It's almost funny the way Jarmusch breezes past the meat and potatoes of the plot mechanics (the bigger story of why they went to jail, exactly how they get out - the stuff other directors would build entire movies around) literally in a matter of seconds, only to follow with long, static scenes filled with nothing but three guys interacting, and of course the totally gorgeous b&w photography. At points this thing is approaches I Am Cuba levels of visual lushness.
So yeah, it's a good one. Minimalistic as always from Jarmusch but never boring, and there's heart there that elevates it above the somewhat similar but colder Dead Man. That said, Dead Man is something I really need to revisit - one of those films I didn't really like that much, even the second time I saw it, but I still have the gut feeling that the problem might be with me more than with the movie.
For a Tom Waits fan this is a treat, and not just because he's one of the leads. The first third has to be as close to watching an early Waits song up on screen as I've ever seen - it's right out of Blue Valentines. You've got your smokey, whiskey soaked noir, your sleazy but soulful broken-hearted down-and-outs, even the almost musical rhythms of the dialogue seem to fit. Waits himself pretty much plays his usual persona, which is all you'd want and expect from the guy really.
Once it gets to the prison and things start to get going (even as they slow down) Benigni takes over as the star player. He puts a lot of charm and energy into the movie without being annoying as he can sometimes be. John Lurie also has real presence, with a kind of old-school Steve McQueenish leading man quality. Makes me wonder if he couldn't have gone on to bigger things as an actor.
It's almost funny the way Jarmusch breezes past the meat and potatoes of the plot mechanics (the bigger story of why they went to jail, exactly how they get out - the stuff other directors would build entire movies around) literally in a matter of seconds, only to follow with long, static scenes filled with nothing but three guys interacting, and of course the totally gorgeous b&w photography. At points this thing is approaches I Am Cuba levels of visual lushness.
So yeah, it's a good one. Minimalistic as always from Jarmusch but never boring, and there's heart there that elevates it above the somewhat similar but colder Dead Man. That said, Dead Man is something I really need to revisit - one of those films I didn't really like that much, even the second time I saw it, but I still have the gut feeling that the problem might be with me more than with the movie.
