Limits of Control

Director - Jim Jarmusch

Cast- Isaach De Bankole, Bill Murray

Country of Origin - Various
 

Distributor - Arrow Video

Number of Discs - 1

Reviewed by - Scott MacDonald

Date- 12/18/2019

    When Jim Jarmusch's The Limits of Control came out 10 years ago it was a failure, and I could not even find a release of it forever. Finally, months after release I found a DVD in a rental shop, and managed to finally view it.  What I found was a film that like the director's prior Ghost Dog, and feels like heavy part homage to Jean Pierre Melville (Le Samourai, Le Cercle Rouge), but with the meditative tone of Antonioni. Needless to say I loved the film, and wanted nothing more than to see it a format worthy of its Christopher Doyle-lensed visuals.

    The film stars frequent Jarmusch collaborator Isaach De Bankole as "The Lone Man". He is given a job from a mysterious man in an airport which ends up taking him to various locales in Spain where each day we get to view his routine which involves meditation, 2 espressos in separate cups, where he also gets a matchbook with additional directions. This process repeats itself throughout the film, where we are introduced to characters who less drive the plot, but still offer a layer of intrigue to the whole thing.

    I am going to go out on a limb, and suggest that the film is quite a significant one for Jarmusch. The director started his career with the similarly meditative Permanent Vacation which saw a young man in 70's New York wander aimlessly through his existence. Unlike that character, the Lone Man seems to have a purpose guiding him through his existence. 

    Jarmusch would follow Permanent Vacation with Stranger than Paradise and Down by Law, 2 deadpan comedies that would also take on a muted, measured style, before making more accessible films like Mystery Train, Night on Earth, Dead Man, and Ghost Dog. I still say that even though these films were more accessible they were still very very Jarmusch in style and tone.

    The Limits of Control seems to have the director reaching back to his filmmaking roots to see if he can still make cinematic experiences like this earliest films, and as such it does succeed. The film feels like a blend of present-day Jarmusch coupled with his earlier tone, and Euro Arthouse influence. After the Limits of Control, the director would make Only Lovers Left a Live, a Rollin-esque vampire film, Patterson a domestic deadpan dramedy, which successfully applies the repetitive style of this film in a more accessible template.  His most recent film is the zombie comedy The Dead Won't Die, which while most found the humor too on the nose for its subject matter, I found a compelling addition to the lexicon of zombie cinema.

    Arrow Video presents the Limits of Control in a splendid 1:85:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer.  This seriously looks gorgeous, I remember the 10 year old DVD accurately reflecting the visuals on a surface level, but this presentation from Arrow brings the textures, colors, and tones of Christopher Doyle's cinematography to life, and I would highly recommend this disc based on the visual upgrade alone. Audio is handed with HD 2.0 and 5.1 tracks in English, and those are clear and quite audible. Extras include an interview with Geoff Andrews who wrote a book on Jarmusch, a documentary on the director and a few other odds and ends. It is not the most elaborate package, but it is more than we have gotten on this film previously.  I'll admit I am a huge Jarmusch fan, and this film and Blu-ray is all too easy to HIGHLY RECOMMEND.