Mystery Train

"Mystery Train" is a witty look at different aspects of one of the crazes of our time, the worship of Elvis Presley. The cast includes cult performers like Tom Noonan (the serial killer in Michael Mann's "Manhunter"), Steve Buscemi, and singer Tom Waits (heard on the radio), and it is directed by one of America's leading independent directors. "Mystery Train" is possibly Jim Jarmusch's most immaculate film, and though the movie gets steadily darker in its comic tone, it is his least bleak work to date. The patterning is precise, the film growing richer as the three strands are finally woven together, or perhaps unwoven, as the characters go their separate ways. Robbie Muller, the great Dutch cameraman who shot Alex Cox's "Repo Man" and Wim Wenders' "Paris, Texas", once more brings an outsider's perspective to the American landscape, giving the night scenes and hotel interiors a Hopperesque look and endowing a dilapidated section of Memphis with an elegaic sadness.

Mystery Train is a moody and atmospheric gem surrounding a flea-bag Memphis hotel. Great performances are dished out (Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Cinque Lee are hilarious in an argument over exotic fruits from foreign lands) all around, but I favor the dynamic duo of Youki Kudoh and Masatoshi Nagase. Their characters are "far from Yokohama," but love will find its way to Tennessee. The lighting of a cigarette, an impressive t-shirt collection, an argument over the merits of Carl Perkins versus The King, the smearing of some crimson lipstick, and an exhilarating invitation to bed -- the minutiae of a special bond beyond mere chemistry. The combination of Nagase's dour, glowering sourpuss and Kudoh's charming, enthusiastic pixie makes for a volcanic cocktail.

Mystery Train is the type of movie that is over before you know it. Serious and funny at the same time. I like the layout of the picture, how all the people's live inter-mingled without touching each other and time started over when the next group of people started their adventure.

Made in 1989, this movie still lives today, just like Elvis! Actually, this movie will be around for a very long time. With quirky being the "norm" for TV and movies now, it fits into the current movie atmosphere even more. I think this one fell in between the time of Twin Peaks & Northern Exposure on network TV and Six Feet Under and Dead Like Me on cable movie channels.

This one ranks way up there with Momento as one of my favorite movies.

Jim Jarmusch's follow-up to 1986's "Down By Law" is an engrossing trio of stories revolving around one night in a run-down Memphis hotel. Continuing his tradition of casting musicians as actors, he enlists Joe Strummer as a British Elvis and the late Screamin' Jay Hawkins as the hotel night clerk. R&B great Rufus Thomas appears in the train station, and Tom Waits is the voice of the radio DJ. John Lurie provides the score, along with a fabulous soundtrack of classic Memphis music (from Elvis Presley to the Bar-Kays). The stories are intertwined, with certain events being shown from the perspective of each of the three sets of characters. The town has fallen a bit since its heyday as a musical hotbed, but the spirits of its past can be sensed in the delapidated buildings and landscapes, all lovingly embraced by Jarmusch's lens. All of the night shots were actually filmed at night, and some scenes are subtitled in Japanese and Italian. As is typical with Jarmusch's work, the action unfolds at a leisurely pace, and not without some humor. The film's juxtaposing of cultures is a popular theme with the director, and one he would use again in his next anthology piece, "Night On Earth."

Jarmusch does a masterful job weaving three stories, portraying simultaneity of action, building a mood and creating believable characters. All the things that Tarrentino would later get credit for in Pulp Fiction are done here and better.

The stories move at less than break-neck pace, so if you need action all the time this is not your film. But a belief in the reality of the world, and a compassion for the characters is wonderfully realized.

Because each of the three stories has it's on rhythm, conflict and characters, some will be drawn more to one part of the trilogy than another. The wonder of this, the mastery shown, is when contrasted with other, lesser writers who attempt this but have three stories all with the same tone - for example in Sin City where everyone acts the same.

I loved Mystery Train (as I had Down by Law). Bapu says check it out.