Review of Down by Law (1986) by Ricardo V — 30 Jan 2008
It's official, i'm a big jim jarmusch fan. I have seen four of his films and two of them were amazing and the other two were great. so he's on a great streak. this film is great and it oozes what makes jarmusch such an oddity in american cinema.
he's an american filmmaker who makes films that are slow and deliberate in pace, he makes films which look like they cost nothing, a lot of what happens in the film doesn't really seem like much, about a good 20-30 minutes of the film take place in a single prison cell and never ventures out of it.
but it's hypnotic and never boring. it's mostly to do to do with his choice of actors. tom waits's first acting role is great and shows he has an interesting quality about him, john lurie fresh off of 'stranger than paradise' comes in here and again plays does a great job and again, roberto benigni, fresh out of being my favorite segment in 'down on earth' again does a great job being a comic relief/optimistic individual full of life and constantly interesting to look at.
it's a great film with interesting exchanges of dialogue, simple not too clever but it keeps you interested enough that after about a few minutes of bantering you find out you just watched a 5 minute conversation go by like it was nothing.
jarmusch is a one of a kind and i'm glad his films exist.
This review of Down by Law (1986) was written by Ricardo V on 30 Jan 2008.
Down by Law has generally received very positive reviews.
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