Last night's screening of Jim Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive" provided the first "rock star" moment of the new TIFF. That it was for Jarmusch wasn't a surprise. Jarmusch continues to epitomize a degree of cool even though he's moved into the latter part of his career.
Lovers is his take on a vampire story, set in Tangiers and, mostly, the decayed core of Detroit. It focuses on two vampires, played by Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, facing the passing of the nights.
The rock star moment came mostly from the presence of Hiddleston at the screening and in particular from a contingent of fans of his work as Loki in the Thor and Avengers movies (in the line outside the Ryerson, I saw a variety of Thor merchandise in the arms of patrons, including one Loki action figure!
He's quite good in this, playing a Byronic musician holed up in a studio of analog equipment -- reel-to-reel tape recorders, old turntables and big tube-driven amps and speakers. His relationship with Swinton is beautifully drawn.
In many other respects, this is a beautifully drawn movie. With the exception of the music, it's a very quiet movie with lots of grace notes. The music is powerful, with old 45's and feedback-laden guitar instrumentals predominating, some of it from Jarmusch's new band Sqürl. Unfortunately, the end result is a little underwhelming. It felt like there needed to be something more to the story; that there was something missing that was needed to add some drama to what was there.
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