Review of Down by Law (1986) by Alan D — 24 Jan 2011
Jim Jarmusch's "neo-beat-noir-comedy" is him in the mode he works best in. Jarmusch photographs old American locations like Memphis in MYSTERY TRAIN and New Orleans in this movie in a way that captures everything that is appealing about those cities, picking the right locations, inserting the right music, and gliding the camera by while shooting the best possible actors for the setting.
Tom Waits seems like he crawled straight of the New Orleans gutters the way Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Cinquà (C) Lee seem somehow eternally stuck in a weird Memphis hotel. DOWN BY LAW is a jailbreak movie that ignores bullshit like the logistics of the break, and instead focuses on the atmosphere and characters, it almost seems like a story Bukowski would've written if Henry Chinaski got tossed in the pen with a couple of other misfits.
DOWN BY LAW and MYSTERY TRAIN, I would argue, are Jarmusch's defining works as a filmmaker.
This review of Down by Law (1986) was written by Alan D on 24 Jan 2011.
Down by Law has generally received very positive reviews.
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