we watched this last night. a mixed bag.
really likey: blanchett; molina/coogan; the old codgers at the end
likey: waits/pop; the lees/buscemi; gza/rza/murray
not likey: wright/benigni–though this must have seemed like a great idea on paper
blah: everything else
amazing though that this was filmed over 17 years–even when it doesn’t work it holds together really well. does anyone know when the individual segments were shot? was the buscemi/lees elvis conversation shot during the filming of “mystery train”? looking forward to jarmusch’s next feature.
Yes, you got the filming time right–Lee siblings and Buscemi during MT, Wright and Benigni during DBL. The best stuff–about which you’re dead right–was shot pretty recently, I think. (Namely, Blanchett, Coogan/Molina.)
finally rented this but neither simon nor i could finish it. it seemed infinitely boring. the idea is great, but i just didn’t care. i had no idea iggy pop was so sweet, though. maybe i should listed to his music. mmmm. and what’s with all the checkered tables? why no starbucks, i ask? oh, right, because you can’t smoke at starbucks!
oh, i just saw this was posted at the very beginning of this blog. how sweet! and how nice that the “recent comment” feature allows people to go back in time. see, i was there from the beginning — even if arnab didn’t invite me!
I loved this movie. I love vignettes. Does anyone now of another feature-length movie in vignettes?
Hmmm… Good question, Pony. Richard Linklater springs to mind–Slacker is a bunch of loosely-strung together separate bits. And Jarmusch likes vignettes; Mystery Train links separate stuff together, but Night on Earth is five or six (I forget) different short movies. It’s kind of like reading an anthology; some of the stuff might not work, but it’s kind of fun to see someone playing in various chords.
i like the idea of this movie. i just didn’t like all of it as i watched it. sort of like a conversation with mike: you’re glad he gets to talk to people, but the best parts are when he’s shutting up.
Arnab is a [Mike shutting up] .