Only Lovers Left Alive

Yes, Only Lovers Left Alive is another vampire movie. Yes, the characters are very pale and old and romantic. Yes, it is very much full of clichés and stereotypes. However, it is also wickedly smart, beautifully shot, filled to the brim with talent and full of cultural witticisms.

Tom Hiddleston is Adam, Tilda Swinton is Eve and Jim Jarmusch is a genius. This is a director that tells us all we need to know without doubting our intelligence. He allows us to fall into the depths of the film without worrying about a perfectly neat beginning, middle and end. He even stops his characters from following tedious and predictable patterns, because after all, they're too old for that.

This is a movie for film lovers and pop culture enthusiasts. It is a vampire film that takes advantage of its time span; cultural references dating back hundreds of years can be found at every corner. Only Lovers Left Alive does not focus on blood and gore, it is not a thriller nor a horror, it doesn't even truly focus on the world of vampires. Instead, Jarmusch studies the eternal, he explores the quiet, perhaps boring, every day life of a modern, intelligent and ancient being who has, quite literally, seen it all.

• Sinann Fetherston.

You can find a full review at MoviefiedNYC.

From the moment I heard that Jim Jarmusch was working on a vampire film I was intrigued and was desperate to see what the result would be. It did not disappoint for a second.

Enchantingly atmospheric, it centres around Adam and Eve, two age-old vampires whose marriage has endured centuries of humanity's slap-dash efforts at building worthwhile civilisations.

It strikes a very unusual tone for a film in this genre, although fans of Jarmusch will be used to a certain amount of genre-straddling and refusal to make easily pigeon-holed films. Don't come into this expecting a plot driven film, or especially not a CGI gore-fest akin to a lot of the lazily produced horror/fantasy material that seems so abundant at the moment. The focus is much more on creating an authentic feel and intriguing characters. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton are virtually infallible in convincingly playing world-weary characters who have lived through plagues, inquisitions and the development of a flawed modern society.

Mia Wasikowska's arrival as Eve's volatile sister Ava is foreseen with a palpable sense of foreboding, providing an uneasy counterpart to Adam and Eve's relative level-headedness, and steps up the stakes for the final act.

John Hurt also deserves a mention for his typically assured and accomplished performance, albeit in a relatively small part.

Overall, an extremely adept piece of filmmaking, which has revitalised a genre which I, for one, was about ready to call time on.

Wonderful imagery. style and atmosphere in the extreme. great acting. Beauty in many forms: you get a lot for your eyes. Also, depending on your taste in music, there is also a lot for your ears.

For your brain, sadly, not as much.

"Only lovers left alive" is filled with a lot of name-dropping, by word, picture and sometimes sound. Whether you find that fascinating or pretentious depends on your taste.

But what this movie really lacks is a story. The characters are throughout and the dialogue may be scarce, but has some dry humour and snappy lines. That doesn't save it from going nowhere. Glaring plot holes may make you cringe at times. And the pacing looks like Jarmush tried to surpass Kaurismäki in terms of slowness. If so, he won.

So perhaps this movie is best tasted in the state its protagonists enter after relishing an excellent glass of blood: dazed, blissful, and somewhat drugged.

Jim Jarmusch's delicious new comedy is a vampire movie unlike any other. It's set in the present but forget those "Twilight" sagas; these are vampires for the art-house crowd, smart, funny and yes, sexy creatures of the night, (the whole film takes place at night; there isn't a single shot in daylight), and I was crazy about them. Indeed Jarmusch has fashioned a masterpiece about a couple of lonely people whose only solace is each other, doomed if you like to be together for all eternity or until one of them gets a stake or a wooden bullet in the heart or drinks some 'bad blood'; (I loved the subtle AIDS metaphor; be careful who you bite). Adam, (tall, dark and sexy Tom Hiddleston), and Eve, (a mesmerizing Tilda Swinton), have been married to each other, several times it would appear, over the centuries but living separate lives, he in Detroit as a reclusive musician, she in Tangier where she has another old vampire for a friend. He is Christopher Marlowe, (yes that Christopher Marlowe), and he's played by John Hurt with a twinkle in his eye. It's when Eve visits Adam in Detroit, flying by night, (in a plane; what did you expect - bat-wings?), that all hell breaks loose in the shapely form of Eve's sexy sister, (a terrific Mia Wasikowska), who can't keep her fangs to herself. As you would expect from Jarmusch this is funny, intelligent and off-the-wall. Hiddleston proves to be a highly dapper comedian while Swinton is superb as Eve, getting all she can out of a life she knows is going to go on forever. Unmissable.

"You drank Ian!" Best line of the film, delivered by Eve (Tilda).

There should have been more of this light-hearted irony, especially from Tom Hiddleston who takes his part (Adam) a touch too seriously. Result: he comes across as lugubrious. And he plays on a note of such desperate ennui that Tilda comes across as positively incandescent by contrast. She's the mother of the family, the fixer, the one who gets people up in the evening. She's very watchable.

But points for John Hurt as Christopher Marlowe (it was me, you know, not that Shakespeare!). And for Mia W. playing every family's nightmare, the teenage girl who can't say no.

Given the fact it wasn't shot on film one can forgive the murkiness of the picture but I don't think Jim Jarmusch has much of an eye for setting up shots. There's not much flow. Some awkward cuts. And so on.

Lots of wealthy addicts cope with their addiction provided they have access to quality drugs - Jean Cocteau being a classic example. The plot here hinges on how that supply can be so easily blocked, the panic and despair that ensues and the inevitable descent into violence. Moralistic? Maybe.