LGM Film Club, Part 237: Only Lovers Left Alive

I rewatched Jim Jarmusch’s 2013 film Only Lovers Left Alive the other night. Against my will, I really love this film. Yes, the plot is ridiculous. But like many Jarmusch films, the point is the atmosphere. This is full-fledged atmosphere at its peak. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston are vampires and lovers over the centuries. For unclear reasons, she lives in Tangiers (highly exoticized and orientalized of course) and he lives in Detroit (full ruin porn but it works for the aesthetics of the film). Yeah, those locations are pretty problematic. But it’s so much fun. Plus the entire thrust of the film’s choices–treating vampires drinking blood like a heroin addiction in a world where human blood is so often contaminated with all the crap we put into our bodies–is brilliant. On top of this, you have John Hurt playing Christopher Marlowe writing stuff for other people, including all of Shakespeare’s plays. Again, it is totally ridiculous. But what a fun ridiculous.