Actors: Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch is cool. His films evoke a kind of cool even if they are often about losers. When it comes right down to it, I can imagine Jim Jarmusch making decisions about the content of his films based on exactly how cool it be. Wouldn't it be cool to have Robert Mitchum in my movie? Yes, it would - put him in. Iggy Pop likes acting, let's give him a role. Oh, and everyone should ask everyone if they have tobacco. Unfortunately, past all the coolness, there's not very much substance - things just kind of happen. I don't know why I'm so disposed to dislike these very open-ended, 'life-like' films - I suppose because we never really get a sense that Johnny Depp's character has anything to him at all. Also grating was Jarmusch's use of fades in and out to begin and end scenes, a technique that worked better in Stranger Than Paradise. The film is very cool, and that's cool - it strikes me as the sort of film that if the viewer is in the right mood, can seem excellent. Evidently I was not in the right mood.
Another 'cool' choice was having Neil Young do the soundtrack - a bunch of twanging, amelodic, distorted guitars that really seemed to add nothing. I suppose it was Young's interpretation of typical Western soundtracks.
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You gave Deadman the same rating as Thank You for Smoking.
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was a big fan of dead man. it was really entertaining
ReplyDeletecouldn't get into this one. part of it is the kinds of films i've been watching lately, i think, but if someone had told me beforehand what this movie was about and how the story was told, i'm pretty sure i wouldn't've expected to like it very much.
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