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The Limits of Control | Film review
14 December 2009 7:12 AM, PST
| The Guardian - Film News
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Jim Jarmusch sets his latest enigma in Madrid, Seville and Almería. Existentialist mystery ensues…
Jim Jarmusch has been writing and directing intriguing, highly accomplished independent movies for a quarter of a century now and occasionally acting in those of fellow independents. His budgets remain relatively modest by Hollywood standards, but he has attracted leading performers like Johnny Depp and Robert Mitchum to work with him, as well as musicians such as Tom Waits and Joe Strummer.
His films are mysterious without being obscure and are sometimes carefully patterned and sometimes linear stories of journeys of discovery. Mystery Train, for instance, retraces the same few hours as it interweaves several stories of Presley fans in Memphis, while in Broken Flowers Bill Murray crisscrosses America visiting old girlfriends (all played by well-known actresses) to discover which one bore him a son. Despite the fact that few of the characters actually meet each other,
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- Philip French
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Film review: The Limits of Control
10 December 2009 4:05 PM, PST
| The Guardian - Film News
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Only a successful and revered director could make this colossally self-indulgent and boring film
This shallow conundrum is at once a dull thriller and a humourless comedy, the sort of colossally self-indulgent and boring film that only a successful and revered director could make – or be allowed to make. The Limits of Control demonstrates the very worst side of Jim Jarmusch: a supercilious exhibition of mannerism. Jarmusch noodles and doodles with ideas but shapes them into nothing very rewarding. There is a supporting cast of A-list stars, including Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Bill Murray and Gael García Bernal, each engaged for what must have been an agreeably short period, with their minds evidently on other matters during principal photo-graphy, and producing something very much less than their best work.
The movie has some technical polish and style, I concede, but this only makes its emptiness even more exasperating. Jarmusch's
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- Peter Bradshaw
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The Longest Night In Shanghai review
25 November 2009 1:44 PM, PST
| Twitch
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(And another film with no Twitch review. Allow me to put that right.)
The
Longest Night in Shanghai could have been a disaster. It's a
formula rom-com at heart, yet another riff on Pygmalion where a
glossy pan-Asian cast is headed up by two lonely beautiful people who
only need one fleeting meet-cute to establish they're meant for each
other. It's helmed by an arthouse director, Zhang Yibai, coming off a
shaky second picture (Curiosity Kills the Cat) in which the more
predictable genre elements he tried to introduce killed a great deal
of the atmosphere stone dead almost before it even got started.
But it's
not a disaster. It's far from a perfect film; it's too long, and its
multiple plot threads vary wildly in quality, but the sumptuous
production values, stellar cast and gorgeous soundtrack paper over
the (very) rough spots to leave the viewer with one of the quietest,
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Entertainment Weekly Lists the 25 Best Soundtracks from the Past 25 Years
3 November 2009 2:34 PM, PST
| Collider.com
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I’m no music expert what with their fancy degrees and ability to appreciate music beyond “This sounds good.” But I do know lists and lists generate controversy and controversy equals traffic! And with their patented “slideshow” format which creates more hits based on an itemized story, EW.com has a real racket going!
Well, we just listed it like normal people after the jump. Take a look, see if you agree, and scream your disbelief at how a certain album you love wasn’t included. Also, remember that this is a list of soundtracks which are usually a collection of songs used in a movie as opposed to a score which is usually the instrumental accompaniment to the film created by a single composer (although there are obviously scores created by more than one composer).
If you want to click through the list like a chump, click here. It
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- Matt Goldberg
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1999: A Year In Review (Part Two)
14 October 2009 8:05 AM, PDT
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Welcome to Part 2 of our 1999 Movie Retrospective. The final year of the last century was one hell of a cinematic ride and it offered some outstanding films for lovers of cinema.
Now be aware that this is not a definitive list of the films released - it’s a brief rundown highlighting interesting films that should be seen (although not always for the right reasons).
You can check out the first part (A-e) here or continue reading to see the other gems that were released in 1999.
Fight Club
Fight Club was a box office disappointment ten years ago, but it has gained a Huge cult following since - and it must have made an absolute mint on DVD. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton star in this David Fincher directed adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s now-famous novel. The film is another example of world perspective from a late 90s view point.
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- Niall Browne
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John Woo Update: A Remake of ‘Le Samourai?’
8 October 2009 2:04 PM, PDT
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Since 2003’s much-panned Paycheck, American audiences haven’t heard much from the often-imitated action auteur, John Woo. But he hasn’t been resting on his laurels. In fact, he’s been adding feathers to his cap. His latest film, Red Cliff, is an over four-hour-long historical epic that broke the record for the highest-grossing film in China (a title once held by Titanic).
However, Red Cliff, like Woo’s next project, Jianyu Jianghu (The Swordsman’s World), is in Chinese. And we all know that subtitles - especially on an action film that won’t play with the art-house types - dooms a film to limited release in America. So when Will the director return to American screens with an English language film?
IMDb lists a slew of projects in development, but the two Woo is most excited about haven’t been announced till now. One is a remake of
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- Brian Gresko
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[DVD Review] Blood and Bone
22 September 2009 2:00 PM, PDT
| JustPressPlay.net
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Let’s be clear – Blood and Bone is an above average Mma beat-em-up flick. But since that’s a genre that right now encompasses a whopping six, perhaps even seven films, that’s not really saying much. Blood and Bone is the kind of film where characters say lines like: "You had my friend Johnny murdered in prison, after you sent him there for a crime he didn’t commit.”; where illegal bare knuckle brawls take place in inner-city parking lots close to busy intersections; where groups of heavy set gentlemen covered in ink and decked out in bling swagger around wearing sunglasses at night.
Into this neon drenched arena steps Bone (Michael Jai White of Spawn fame, also producing), a stoically badass fighter freshly released from prison and on a mission to avenge his friend’s death and rescue his loved ones from under the boot of local kingpin James (Eamonn Walker,
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- Neil Pedley
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Review: Limits of Control
22 May 2009 1:13 AM, PDT
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Plot: A mysterious assassin (Isaach De Bankolé) wanders through Spain, while preparing for his next assignment.
Review: Jim Jarmusch is nothing if not pretentious. That.s not to say he.s a bad director- far from it. At his best, he.s able to put together some fine work (Broken Flowers, Ghost Dog, Dead Man), and even at his worst, his films are never anything less than intriguing.
The Limits Of Control is not one of Jarmusch.s better films. It.s first and foremost an exercise in
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- Chris Bumbray
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Wolverine 2 Will Force Hugh Jackman To Fight Samurai
4 May 2009 11:04 PM, PDT
| cinemablend.com
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X-Men Origins: Wolverine is getting a sequel, not that you should be in the least bit surprised. I'm certainly not. There's been like nine Friday The 13th movies, twenty Olsen Twin straight to DVD endeavors and even hundreds of cases of swine flu. Yup, everything gets a goddamn sequel, but this one isn't even pretending to be about anything but the money.
According to Variety, all systems are a go even without a writer, director or anything more than a vague premise. Apparently it's going to involve samurais. Great. Clear Tom Cruise's schedule, maybe Forest Whitaker's too. Ha. Bet you didn't think you'd get a Ghost Dog: Way Of The Samurai reference in this story, did you?
I find this news offensive on several levels but mostly because of how casually Variety reported this whole thing. Blame them, blame the machinery of Hollywood, blame Bill Buckner, for God's sake,
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Culture Warrior: The ‘Limits’ of Directorial Self-Indulgence
4 May 2009 6:00 AM, PDT
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If you watch the trailer for Jim Jarmusch’s new film, The Limits of Control, there’s one point where Tilda Swinton—donning a snow-white wig, cowboy hat, and trenchcoat accompanied by a clear plastic umbrella on a sunny day for seemingly no other reason than the wardrobe’s photogenic appeal, like Swinton herself—states the following over footage from various parts of the film: “It’s like a game…deception…[loud whisper] suspicion!” When one hears these words in the trailer, they are likely misled into thinking Swinton is referring to whatever “game” the unnamed hitman protagonist (Isaach de Bankolé) is involved in that makes up the plot of the film. However, Swinton is instead referring to Suspicion (1941), the Hitchcock film starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. This discrepancy between the film’s marketing and what the film actually is—its placement over extra-textual, self-reflexive cinematic winking over a plot sustaining itself on its own terms—accurately sums
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- Landon Palmer
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The Limits of Control
1 May 2009 5:00 AM, PDT
| Pastemagazine.com
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Release Date: May 1 (limited)
Writer/Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cinematographer: Christopher Doyle
Starring: Isaach De Bankolé, Tilda Swinton, Gael García Bernal, Bill Murray
Studio/Run Time: Focus Features, 82
mins.
The film plays like a marbling of Ghost Dog, arguably his best
Silently pondering of art, the
universe, violence, coffee
The central character in Jim Jarmusch's
latest is technically called Lone Man, but his name might as well be
Mysterious Badass. Like Forest Whittaker in Ghost Dog, the Lone Man
is a disciplined outsider, practicing tai chi and refusing sex. "The
universe has no center and no edges," an equally anonymous
bossman named French tells him in French (the Creole translator named
Creole comically refusing to translate), sending De Bankolé
careening across Spain on an unspecified mission.
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Lone Rangers
30 April 2009 4:53 PM, PDT
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Back in the early '60s, when Sonny Liston ruled boxing and hard bop could still be found on the corner jukebox, just wearing a sharkskin suit could be construed as an act of aggression, passive or otherwise. Sharkskin is the uniform of choice worn by the protagonist of Jim Jarmusch's alluring, enigmatic "The Limits of Control." Isaach De Bankolé's Lone Man (for that's how he is ID'd in the program notes, if not the movie itself) is like Jarmusch's Ghost Dog, taciturn and resolute, if also exposed to more sunlight. Lone Man's granite-slab impassiveness is buttressed by the sharkskin's implicit provocation. Yet, as with his suits, De Bankolé maintains his character's angular, creased surfaces throughout the movie. Only when the routine is ruffled does his composure show nicks -- as when a café waiter brings him a double espresso in one cup instead of two espressos in separate cups,
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- Gene Seymour
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Surfers, Dancers and Wolverine
27 April 2009 8:37 AM, PDT
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With Tribeca well under way, there's much in the way of art house fare this week for everyone with a rich international flavor. Go crazy!
Download this in audio form (MP3: 11:33 minutes, 15.8 Mb)
Subscribe to the In Theaters podcast: [Xml] [iTunes]
"A Wink and a Smile"
Seattle-based documentary filmmaker Deirdre Allen Timmons makes her debut by pulling back the velvet curtain on the world of burlesque, where art and erotica co-exist in the same spectacle. Timmons introduces ten game volunteers, comprised of eager housewives and bored professionals, to Miss Indigo Blue's House of Burlesque, where the ladies find self-confidence and empowerment as they're instructed by Miss Blue in the age-old art of theatrical titillation.
Opens in New York.
"Battle For Terra"
Having spent much of the last 15 years honing his skills as a digital artist on the likes of "Hellboy," effects wizard Aristomenis Tsirbas wields the pixelated megaphone for his feature debut,
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- Neil Pedley
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Sr Picks: Our Favorite Cult Movies
24 March 2009 3:21 PM, PDT
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The other day, we Screen Rant writers were chatting online and the subject of cult movies came up. Immediately I began thinking of all the cult movies I’ve seen and loved (or loathed) - so I thought it would be great to list some of our favorite cult movies individually, and as a group.
As we were compiling our lists, we debated what, exactly, constitutes a “cult movie.” We talked about different criteria… for instance movies that fail at the box office (or do only modestly well), but then do terrific on home video. Or maybe they tank overall, but have a small, passionate (and underground?) fan base. Then there are movies that gain some popularity, but are really, really weird. Sr boss Vic Holtreman even posed the question on Twitter, and got some great answers.
To settle any debates about whether any of our picks were actual cult movies or not,
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- Heath McKnight
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The Expendables: 50 Cent Is Out, Terry Crews Is In
22 March 2009 8:29 AM, PDT
| ScreenRant.com
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Earlier this week it was reported that Forest Whitaker had to drop out of The Expendables due to a scheduling conflict. Then it was immediately reported that 50 Cent would be replacing Whitaker as Hale Caesar in Sylvester Stallone’s up and coming project. And now, Ain’t It Cool is reporting that Sylvester Stallone himself has said 50 Cent is out and the role will go to former San Diego Charger and actor Terry Crews.
In an exclusive interview with Stallone Ain’t It Cool said:
“For quite some time, the role belonged to Forest Whitaker, but a push in the schedule made it impossible for the Ghost Dog to continue with the film. Then I received a call, informing me that rapper, 50 Cent aka Curtis Jackson, had stepped into the role. Then Sly sent me an email regarding that casting, that I updated the story with. Well… today, I get
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- Sabrina Cognata
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'Limits of Control' Poster Has Unlimited Coolness
11 March 2009 11:26 PM, PDT
| GetTheBigPicture.net
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It's been a while since we've seen something new from Jim Jarmusch. The iconoclastic director
was on a bit of a hot streak with the varied and interesting quintet of Dead Man, Year of the Dog, Ghost Dog:
The Way of the Samurai, Coffee and Cigarettes, and Broken Flowers, but this is his first movie in four
years.
Jarmusch attracts some pretty good actors as a rule, and his latest, The Limits of Control, features Bill
Murray, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Isaach De Bankolé, and Gael Garcia Bernal. And now there's a terrific new poster
that adheres to the old advertising mantra, Keep It Simple, Stupid.
We don't know much about the story, other than it centers on a loner who's in the process of completing "a job."
Let your mind wander there. And feast your eyes on a very classy one-sheet, courtesy of Cinematical. Click to expand the limits of control.
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- Colin Boyd
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Exclusive: 'The Limits of Control' Poster Premiere!
11 March 2009 3:02 PM, PDT
| Cinematical
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Click image below to view full poster
Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for The Limits of Control, which premiered a bizarre-yet-intriguing trailer the other day and comes from acclaimed director Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise, Broken Flowers, Ghost Dog). Starring Isaach De Bankolé, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Gael Garcia Bernal and John Hurt (not a bad cast if you ask me), The Limits of Control follows a mysterious loner (and criminal) who's in the process of completing a job. Not a whole lot to go on there, but the best kept secrets are the ones that are, well, best kept secret.
Also, the music in the film is getting a lot of buzz; the Japanese trip Boris wrote and performed most of the songs, while Jarmusch wrote and performed -- along with Carter Logan (drums, percussion) and Shane Stoneback (carillon, organ) -- the music in the trailer. (Read more about that here.
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- Erik Davis
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Trailer Tuesday
10 March 2009 1:23 PM, PDT
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“The Limits of Control” is the latest films from the actor/director team Isaach De Bankole and Jim Jarmusch. The two worked together on “Night on Earth,” “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” and “Coffee and Cigarettes.” This film is about a strange man (De Bankole) who is working to complete a job that may not be legal. He trusts no one and divulges no details as to what he is doing. “The Limits of Control,” which also stars Alex Descas, John Hurt, Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton, hits theaters May 28th. Check out the trailer below:
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Bill Murray in The Limits of Control Trailer
6 March 2009 5:00 PM, PST
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The trailer for the upcoming Jim Jarmusch-directed "The Limits of Control" has been released, once again re-teaming him with Isaach De Bankole for the fourth time after "Night on Earth," "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai," and "Coffee and Cigarettes." "The Limits of Control" is the story of a mysterious loner (De Bankole), a stranger, whose activities remain meticulously outside the law. He is in the process of completing a job, yet he trusts no one, and his objectives are not initially divulged. His journey, paradoxically both intently focused and dreamlike, takes him not only across Spain but also through his own consciousness. Joning De Bankole are a number of stars who worked with Jarmusch before, including John Hurt, Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton. "The Limits of Control" is scheduled to hit theaters on May 22nd, in limited release. Click here to read more about "The Limits of Control.
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New Trailer for Jim Jarmusch's 'The Limits of Control'
5 March 2009 4:15 PM, PST
| Cinematical
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I regret to say that I don't feel that I've seen enough of Jim Jarmusch's work to determine whether or not I'm a capital-f Fan, but I do know that I do like what I have seen -- namely, Broken Flowers, much of Coffee and Cigarettes, and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.
That last title seems to be the one to which his new film, The Limits of Control, merits the most comparison, if this new trailer (watch at Apple or below) is any indication. This time, though, our stoic assassin (Isaach De Bankole) has a bit more of an ensemble to work with on the streets of Spain, including Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Gael Garcia Bernal and melonfarmin' Bill Murray.
Normally, I'd be put off by the hipper-than-thou fortune-cookie banter we're treated to here, but I've got a feeling that there might be more than meets the eye (namely,
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- William Goss
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