Limited Control

Now that The Limits of Control has been released to US theaters, the verdict of the American mainstream press and blogosphere is in. The film seems to really divide its audience – some can't avoid being repelled by it, even though they've come to it with sympathetic expectations, whereas others are mesmerized even though they admit being challenged by the unorthodox slowness and uneventfulness of the film (cf Rotten Tomatoes). This blog review rather nicely sums up the film's particular challenges. Below I link to some reviews that pretty much covers the whole range:

THE GOOD

"The Limits of Control is a shaggy dog story, but it’s leaner and less precious (and more beautiful) than the past few Jarmusch films—not to mention his last exercise in existential assassinitis, the 1999 Forest Whittaker vehicle Ghost Dog."

"Jarmusch's Mythic Limits of Control His Best Since Dead Man", J Hoberman, The Village Voice

"Surrender to its formalistic rhythm and beautiful compositions and there is much pleasure to be had here for an intellectual audience. /.../ Shot gorgeously on location by Chris Doyle, each frame a composition in itself, the film moves at its own deliberate tempo: some would call it boring, others hypnotic."

Review, Mike Goodrich, Screen

Taken as a state of mind writ photochemically large (Jarmusch and DP Christopher Doyle compose astonishingly for 35mm), The Limits of Control suddenly reveals its depths of insight and emotion.

Review, Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York

"It’s a return to the subliminally jokey neonoir of some of his early films, but it’s also unmistakably the work of a seasoned master who understands the power of every shot, cut, and uttered word."

"Mission Impassable", Michael Koresky, IndieWIRE

"Jarmusch fans, in short, will have a ball, and no other director, even now, can match him in his calculation of the offhand. Yet the movie itself, for all its cinematic references /.../, seems impatient with the need to tell a narrative at all, as if its secret wish were to be a photography exhibit, or an album of half-connected songs."

"Men of Mystery", Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

"I can't wait for you to see it, and I can't wait to see it again, like, about four more times before the DVD comes out."

Blog review, Glenn Kenny, Some Came Running

"I think what Jarmusch is up to here is a kind of moviemaking that comes perilously close to music or dance, where the momentum isn't shaped by explicit plot details so much as by chimeras of movies embedded in our collective dream-life."

"Lone Rangers", Gene Seymour, IFC.com

"The magic of Limits is that Jarmusch has used rigorous formalism (both within the narrative, and guiding it) to construct what feels like a loose, dreamy continuum of ideas."

Blog review, Karina Lonworth, Spout.com

THE BAD

"It's the kind of painfully reflexive exercise in which a character mentions that she likes movies in which people just sit there onscreen saying nothing, whereupon you immediately check your watch to see how much time will elapse before the next line of dialogue. (About a minute.)"

"Begging to Differ", Mike D'Angelo, blog review

"There’s no humanity here, no genuine feeling. The picture badly needs some of the heartfelt yearning that’s characterized some of the more memorable loner figures in Mr. Jarmusch’s oeuvre."

 "Hit Man of La Mancha", Robert Levin, Critic's Notebook

"What begins as an intriguingly symbolic gangster-saga-turned-spiritual head-trip, however, quickly turns into a slab of inert pretentiousness."

Blog review, Nick Schager, The Screengrab

THE UGLY

"Paint drying. Photosynthesis. Rush-hour traffic on the 405. All these activities would be more entertaining to watch — and probably speedier — than Jim Jarmusch's 'The Limits of Control.'"

"`Limits of Control' tests limits of patience", Christy Lemire, PopEater.com

"Resembling what a David Lynch film no doubt looks like to people who don't actually like David Lynch films, Limits of Control is a singular but bland vision that seems only useful as a feng shui instruction manual."

Review, Ed Gozanels, Slant Magazine