Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) - Jim Jarmusch

Adam is a vampire, living a reclusive life as a musician in Detroit.  Seemingly living a life of solitude at first, he soon reunites with his wife, the love of his life, Eve, who leaves her home overseas to live with him in the motor city.  They are both vampires attempting to survive in an existence that is infinite, but when Eve's capricious sister, Ava, visits, trouble begins to brew.  Adam finds Ava irritable and irresponsible, causing trouble with Ian, the one human being which Adam trusts and gets along with.  Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive is probably the filmmakers most accessible film to-date,  though it's still is full of Jarmusch's dense thematic undertones.  Only Lovers Left Alive creates a magical world around these two vampires, using visual design and music that effectively transports the viewer into their viewpoint.  The audience feels like outsiders in this world which Jarmusch has created with composition in lighting, feeling as if Detroit is completely foreign, as it would feel for Adam and Eve.  Through these vampires Jarmusch creates a rather pessimistic viewpoint on the state of humanity, conveying a sense of disillusionment and world-weariness one would expect from individuals who have lived through so many of humanities vast mistakes.  Besides its thematic intentions, Only Lovers Left Alive also works as a serviceable love-story, with Adam and Eve being distinct characters.  While Eve is a more upbeat personality, Adam lives life from a far more cynical viewpoint, yet they share a timeless love and affecting that shines through the screen.  Being surrounding by humanity these two characters are very much alone, outside of each other, and Jarmusch uses this to his advantage in crafting their love story.  Detractors are bound to say that "nothing happens" in Only Lovers Left Alive but what Jarmusch has done is use the tropes of vampire mythology to his advantage, creating a melancholic examination of a desolate, endangered modern world. 

---