That was an excellent one.

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This movie is often presented as a Memphis-based anthology where all the stories come together in the end, but that's only half true. The character stay in their own segments without meeting each other (with one fairly redundant exception), the only thing that connects them all is that they stay in the same hotel and all end up hearing the same gunshot. And I beg you: don't keep watching to see where the gunshot comes from, it's not worth it. Are there other reasons to keep watching? There are. The last segment is arguably the best, mainly because at least it does have some sort of plot and features the likes of Joe Strummer (yeah, the one from The Clash) and Steve Buscemi. There are some funny lines in there, and Vondie Curtis-Hall (who would go on to direct "Gridlock'd") is pretty awesome in it as well. Most people actually disagree with this though and like the first segment far more, but I couldn't get into it all. It features two Japanese tourists...being Japanese tourists for 40 minutes. Writer/Director Jim Jarmusch does give them some interesting traits and it's a cute couple, but 40 minutes of this? It's not like this is all setting up something, they have nothing to do with the rest of the segments. I'll take Joe Strummer robbing a liquor store any time. The second segment is probably the least interesting to discuss, because most people aren't particularly fond of it and neither am I. It's not filler, but it's not very entertaining either. "Mystery Train" didn't thrill me nearly as much as I thought it would, but I guess the last segment does make it worthwhile.

The opening shots of Jim Jarmusch's new film show two young Japanese tourists in a faded Amtrak coach, listening to their Walkmans as the train pulls through the edge of Memphis. The girl is an Elvis fan. Her boyfriend believes Carl Perkins was the real founder of rock 'n' roll. They have come to see the shrines of Memphis such as Sun Records. In other hands, this pattern would head straight into cultural satire, into a comic knock on rock tourism, with a sardonic destination at Graceland as the punchline. But, though he is a natural at dry goofiness, Jarmusch is not quite as much a comedian as an idealist, who sees America as an immigrant might, as a bizarre, nostalgic country where the urban landscapes are painted by Robert Henri and the all-night blues stations supply a soundtrack for life.The tourists arrive in Memphis and haul their luggage through the yawning train station, and walk to the Sun studios, where a guide babbles on with her pitch about Presley and Perkins faster than an auctioneer could. Then they check into one of those flop joints that has grown tired waiting for the traveling salesmen who no longer come. This is a hotel out of a 1940s noir, with neon signs and a linoleum lobby, and a night clerk who is surprised by nothing and a bellboy whose eyes are so broad, he might be seeing everything for the first time. Other people will check into this hotel during the movie's lasting night of intricacy.The soundtrack is from a local radio station, and Elvis' version of Blue Moon is heard at some point during all three segments of the narrative, supplying a collective bond, as does an offscreen gunshot. And so does the ghost of Elvis, who appears to habituate the movie with his sound and his mythology, and who materializes to an Italian widow played by Nicoletta Braschi. Jarmusch believes in an American landscape that took place before city spread, before the reliable fruitlessness of the fast-food strips on the highways leading into town, saloons where everybody knows each other, diners where the short-order cook is in charge, and landscapes across railroad tracks to a hotel where vagabonds are not only greeted, they are known.This indie tapestry is Jarmusch's third major film, after Stranger than Paradise and Down by Law, and definitely a precursor to his next film, Night On Earth, which is more solidly an anthology and explores the entire world at random. In all three there is the conviction that America cannot be nimbly encased into conservative and reassuring shopping assemblies, that there must be a life of the night for the drifters and the dropouts, the heroes of no permanent address and no evident vocational position. However indeed their lives may be horizontal and bare, in Jarmusch's conception they are the true residents of the city, mainly after midnight.Speaking of the film as if separate from the universe of the Jarmusch filmography, this uncommon genre-less universalistic film, an anthology film that upon reflection does not seem like three stories but one, is not a traditional plot, and it is not how the story ends that is essential, but how it endures. It is inhabited by dozens of minute, oddly contemplated bits of behavior, such as the rapport between Screamin' Jay Hawkins' hilarious night clerk and Cinque Lee's bellboy, or between the two teenage Japanese tourists, whose whole idea of what America is like is fashioned out of the sum of ideas, perspectives, attitudes and images of the mainstream. The greatest element about this almost antiquated album is that it takes you to an America you sense that you ought to be able to find for yourself, if you just knew where to look. A place of people who are permitted to be personas, to be themselves. The train is the foolproof synecdoche in this movie. It's not where it's been that's of value, or even where it's going.

This is a quite an original film and interesting too. What is great is the fact that Jarmusch can balance all three stories and make them all work.Far From Yokohama- A good segment. I thought that the two Asian newcomers were very appealing and interesting to watch. Contains a lot about Japanese culture and beliefs as well. Main fault: It plods suddenly when they get to the hotel.A Ghost- The weakest. This could have been better. One thing I did not like was the uninteresting woman played by Roberto Benigni's wife. I think that she is unappealing and should not have been cast. I also think that the Elvis ghost thing was silly. A disappointment.Lost In Space- The best, by far. This is hilarious and well-written. Joe Strummer is great playing a drunk the entire movie. Rick Aviles is also quite amusing as Will Robinson. Buscemi is the best, though, as the man who keeps whining about how he got himself into the situation of this tale. This is basically what makes the movie worth it.I think that all three of them were decent. Special kudos to Lee and Screaming Jay as the two constantly arguing hotel receptionists. They are the source of what maybe the funniest moment, which is the plum scene. Also good is the short bit of Lee taking the fly swatter and hitting the fake fly. A completely original film about Elvis's spirit in Memphis. This is quintessential Jarmusch.***1/2 out of ****

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.