The Limits of Control

Year 13, Day 154 - 6/3/21 - Movie #3,859

BEFORE: Gael Garcia Bernal carries over from "The Kindergarten Teacher") and I'm back on the work of Jim Jarmusch somehow.  I had a run of Jarmusch last year, with two unusual horror films, "The Dead Don't Die" and "Only Lovers Left Alive", then I was able to squeeze in "Dead Man" just before my winter break, which also helped me reach 300 films exactly and connect to "Bad Santa 2" via Billy Bob Thornton.  I got to a lot of films last year that had been on my "To Do" list for a long time, and this year's been following that same path, at least from time to time.  But maybe it's time to take a long, hard look at my watchlist to determine if there are still films coming up that I WANT to see, or if I've just been doing this so long that I'm really just going through the motions now.  

THE PLOT: The story of a mysterious loner in the process of completing a criminal job. 

AFTER: What is this film about, really?  It's so obtuse and tries so hard to give away nothing, that many people end up thinking it's hard to follow.  Which it is, I believe.  There's some kind of criminal job that gets assigned to the Lone Man, but the people arranging the job speak mostly in code and in metaphors.  Small matchboxes are exchanged, the Lone Man gets coded messages in his that he then swallows, presumably after deciphering them, which seem to lead him to the next meeting, the next exchange, the next message.  He exchanges goods for information - again, presumably - one contact gets diamonds, another gives him a guitar, perhaps to deliver to the next contact.  

The Lone Man makes his way across Spain, meeting people in various cafés, always ordering two espressos in separate cups.  One is to drink, and the other is to wash down the coded messages?  I'm not sure.  He travels by plane, by train, and in someone's pick-up truck.  Eventually he reaches some kind of armed fortress, with his target or maybe the next contact inside.  Is this a drop-off, a business meeting or a hit-job?  Well, we never know until we know, and as the metaphors and idioms spoken by his contacts tell us, everything is subjective. Life means nothing. Reality is arbitrary.  Old films are like dreams you're never sure you've really had. Life is really just a handful of dirt at the cemetery.  Umm, thanks for that.  

There's more, we hear one contact's theories about molecules, another one's thoughts on musical instruments, and maybe that's when you realize that Jarmusch has really just remade his film "Coffee and Cigarettes", also with various characters chatting about various subjects over cups of coffee.  The "mission" here is just a framework that enables these conversations to take place, but in essence Jarmusch is staying true to form. Sure, there are some unique and interesting things here, like the Nude Woman who appears in the Lone Man's room, with no explanation, then again later on, wearing a see-through raincoat and nude underneath.  Is she real, or just a figment of his imagination?  We were told earlier that reality is arbitrary, so does it even matter?  "La vida no vale nada."  

Yeah, there's a pay-off, I guess.  But whether there's enough information doled out to you in order to make that pay-off mean something, to feel like there's any kind of resolution to the ending, well, of course that's up to you, it's subjective, just like any kind of poetry or any other film.  Was there a valid resolution to "Dead Man", or to "Only Lovers Left Alive"?  In all of these, it's a bit like a pot-luck dinner, you sort of have to bring something to the table if you want to take part in the event, and then maybe you fill up your plate and you feel satisfied at the end of the meal, but then again, maybe you don't.  

I've got to cut my own thoughts short, however, because my new job at the movie theater starts today, and I've got to show up and complete my hiring paperwork, and probably watch a bunch of orientation and training videos.  Thankfully box office at the movies is picking up, so there's work to be done, and this also means my free time is going to be cut short.  After nearly a year spent mostly at home, I should be welcoming this, it's a chance to get back out there, serve the public, and be part of the return to public cinema viewing.  This should feel very noble, I suppose, in the same way that a bunch of teens enlisted as soldiers right after 9/11.  But I suppose then I'm probably making too much of this, it's just a new part-time job where I get to start out as a 52-year old rookie.  And it's a chance to get some exercise and maybe back into some kind of shape, but then again, I'll probably be exhausted all summer long.  We'll see, I guess. Everything is subjective and reality is arbitrary.  

Also starring Isaach de Bankolé (last seen in "Shaft" (2019)), Bill Murray (last seen in "A Very Murray Christmas"), Tilda Swinton (last seen in "Okja"), Hiam Abbass (last seen in "Blade Runner 2049"), Paz de la Huerta (last seen in "Riding in Cars with Boys"), Alex Descas (last seen in "Coffee and Cigarettes"), John Hurt (last seen in "Dead Man"), Youki Kudoh, Jean-Francois Stévenin, Oscar Jaenada (last seen in "Hands of Stone"), Luis Tosar (last seen in "Miami Vice"), Hector Colomé. 

RATING: 3 out of 10 guitar strings