Only Lovers Left Alive

Today I watched "Only Lovers Left Alive," a 2013 Jim Jarmusch film. It is hard to define its genre: Wikipedia describes it as "Gothic fantasy comedy-drama," but I've also seen it defined as "horror thriller." I guess to say it has a little bit of everything would be fair. I'm going to run it quickly through my usual media literacy analysis, with major spoilers included. So if you want to watch it and hate spoilers, you should probably stop here.

Just as a reminder, media literacy analysis suggests that any media product has a potential to affect users at the following four dimensions (the more, the better, but a good media product should work at at least two):

1. Cognitive Dimension (What did I learn from the film?)

The whole idea that Adam and Eve are vampires is quite novel and interesting. In a movie, they drift around the world as musicians (Adam is also a composer who gifted his music to struggling classical composers) and dwell in places near the hospitals with blood banks. It's the 21st century, as Adam said in the movie, they don't have to literary kill people for blood, but they need high quality type O negative, so blood banks are essential. They have an incredible telepathic connection, and Eve has peculiar vampire sensitivity that allows her to tell what anything was made from and when. At the beginning of the movie, they are miles apart, with Eve living in Tangier near Christopher (Kit) Marlowe (yes, the very writer from the 16th century who some conspiracy theorists believe was Shakespeare, and the movie entertains this theory) who has access to the best blood. But then Eve senses that Adam is depressed and suicidal and flies to his rescue to Detroit, where he lives in an abandoned mension in complete seclusion writing beautiful music. Eve slowly cures Adam's depression that is caused, as it turns out, by irresponsible self-indulgent and lazy humans they call "zombies." Adam tells Eve about his inventions, including his own electricity generator based on Tesla's ideas, and laments about "zombies" killing the planet and losing creativity in everything, music in particular. Adam and Eve live in a marital bliss for some time, until Eve's younger sister Ava, a troublemaker they all (including Kit) had worrisome dreams about, shows up and "drinks Ian," i.e. kills Adam's only connection to the human world and supplier of rare musical instruments. Adam and Eve flee back to Tangier, only to find dying Kit whose new supplier gave him contaminated blood. After Kit dies, giving them the little remains of the "good stuff," Adam and Eve have to resort to the tried and true method to stay alive. They spot a young kissing couple clearly madly in love, look at each other and say, "But we are going to just turn them, right?" End of the movie. Only lovers left alive and my head spins from just retelling the plot.

2. Emotional dimension (How did the movie make me feel?)

Amused, mostly. I loved Tom Hiddleston as Adam and Tilda Swinton as Eve. They are perfect casting choices for this movie, with their depth, sensitivity, and mysteriousness, and Tilda's grace. The late Anton Yelchin as Ian made me feel sad thinking about how many great roles he didn't play because of the freak accident that killed him in 2016. John Hurt as Kit would make you think he was the real Shakespeare and Jeffrey Wright as Adam's blood supplier was incredibly funny. On a couple of occasions, I was anticipating a jump scare like in a typical horror movie with vampires, but it never really happened. Everything was subdued and implied rather than shown clearly.

3. Aesthetic dimension (What did I appreciate in the movie about the way it was executed?)

The movie was beautifully shot, and the play of light and music made it very psychedelic. I was particularly impressed with the scene showing how the intake of fresh good blood affected the vampires, almost like drug addicts who got high. It was tastefully done, though, not gross, almost like drinking spiked-up wine. I've already mentioned the acting by excellent cast, but one of the main features of the film was its music. It was written specifically for the film and fit perfectly its eerie and mysterious nature. The last soundtrack would transport you to a different world.

4. Moral dimension (What ethical and moral lessons does the movie teach us?)

Adam and Eve are almost perfect even as vampires. But they can be perfect only when they are together, so love heals and endures. I also liked that Eve was more patient and less judgemental of humans than Adam, like a true mother who loves unconditionally and is ready to forgive her children for almost anything. There's a very strong message in the film about the meaning of life being love and music.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie with all its Gothic weirdness and an attempt to make the vampire story modern and light-hearted. I also chuckled in many places, even though I seemed to be the only one in the theater appreciating the movie's humor. Would I watch it for the second time? I honestly don't know, but I have no regrets about watching it.