Mystery Train (1989)

Waste of time

How sad is this?

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Like the other films from Jim that I've seen (at least the recent ones i've seen, not counting Only Lovers Left Alive which I absolutely love) this remains a fascinating, frustrating film. Mostly brilliant, yes, I liked it, even liked it a lot. And I wasn't ever bored, despite what one would think because of his films' slow pacing. This one doesn't even feel slow, it just feels a little self- conscious. That being said, despite there being some scenes I liked less (the third anthology story, to me, was by far the least interesting despite being easily the most action-packed). The film's well done n a technical level that fits the theme of the stories and not being distracting either.

Director Jim Jarmusch continues to indulge his fascination with America's cultural residue, this time going directly to one of the more reliable sources: Memphis, Tennessee, home of the Once and Future King himself, Elvis Presley. Like other Jarmusch films it's a deadpan, deadbeat sampling of offbeat Americana, seen by outsiders on the inside looking out: an Elvis-idolizing Japanese tourist and her cool, catatonic boyfriend; a young Italian widow who receives a ghostly visitation from the King; and an expatriate English drop-out bearing an unfortunate resemblance to the Man From Memphis. It's certainly the most tightly controlled of the director's features to date, but at the same time the most relaxed and disarming. All the action (what little there is) takes place in and around a dilapidated downtown hotel over the course of a single night, with each episode occurring simultaneously but told in sequence, connected only by the repetition of otherwise incidental details. It may not add up to anything more than a shaggy dog joke, but (in its own offhand way) the film works, with Robby Muller's atmospheric photography providing a wonderfully effective after-hours ambiance.

Three stories about three sets of off beat characters, one scenario: Memphis. Mystery train is a clever and funny film in full Jarmush style; in my opinion it is an enjoyable and light hearted film constructed in such a way that as the plot proceeds, the audience begins to pay attention to various details used as a way to connect the three stories together. I enjoyed particularly the first story which depicted the Japanese couple on a discovery tour of Memphis, here Jarmush's interest for the human's behaviour is evident as the couple relationship, although it might seem to be almost comical, is in fact a quite realistic stereotyipical representation of a Japanese relationship.Definitely worth watching it if you are into independent "no mainstream" films.

Today I watched my first Alain Resnais film and my first Jim Jarmusch film. I didn't love "Coeurs", but thought it was technically impressive and admired most of all Resnais' mise-en-scene, and it thankfully made me interested in seeing more Resnais films. On the other hand, "Mystery Train", which coincidentally also has interconnecting stories, was a real disappointment. I'll say this right now: I didn't 'get' this movie, I don't understand why it's acclaimed, and it didn't exactly make me want to see more Jarmusch films, especially as he is supposedly an auteur, suggesting that his writing for other films, or at least most of his other films, would be similar to this.I didn't think this film was impressive at all on any technical scale. It's not 'simple' or 'understated', it's borderline simplistic, or at least seemed so to me. Jarmusch's approach to the film is thoroughly conventional and expected in every scene, there was nothing interesting about the mise-en-scene, nothing special about his approach whatsoever. Moreover, it's not even an especially well-shot film by normal Hollywood standards, just 'solid'. My real problem with the film however was the writing. I found it to be truly poor for much of the film. The opening segment with the Japanese couple is the epitome of pretentious quirk, something which is only emphasized by the lead actor's awful stare-and-pause-between-words approach, which I'd also blame on Jarmusch. I don't even think there should be a 'point' to things necessarily, but I've rarely seen anything so self-congratulatory and for what? Wow, you wrote a silly story about Japanese caricatures in Memphis filled with borderline racist jokes which have been used in movies for decades! Whoop-de-doo! The second story is better, but still undeserving of the film's reputation. An Italian tourist in Memphis is tricked into buying a stack of magazines, a con-man attempts to cheat her out of 20 bucks with an Elvis ghost story, then she ends up at the hotel which connects the three stories, shares a room with an annoying American, and sees Elvis' ghost. At least it's entertaining. The third story should've been better, but again, the caricatures get progressively more annoying and the quirky, self-congratulatory, 'clever' humor is just unbearable. This isn't far removed from the sort of 'indie comedy' which is ruining the movies for anyone with a sense of humor, and it has made further adventures in Jarmusch-land a worrying prospect. Ugh. I'm pretty sure this movie's reputation is almost entirely built on it being 'cool' due to the soundtrack, Screamin' Jay Hawkins (who IS cool), etc, but you know what? The billionth time that Japanese idiot mentioned Carl Perkins I wished I was listening to Carl Perkins. If this is the work of a great director... Godard did make "King Lear", that gives me some hope.