Review of Mystery Train (1989) by Nikolai E — 03 Jul 2009

I wish I knew how Jarmusch is able to take something like a tracking shot of a woman walking down a street, and infuse it with such a distinct and unmistakable atmosphere and attitude. The weakest segment is the third, and that's probably because it's the only one in which anything much happens.

Jarmusch's plots act on me like a sensory deprivation chamber, and that's not a slight, it's just no other director can take such a complete dramatic vacuum and turn it into something so compellingly watchable.