Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2013

Yes, the vampire genre has been done to undeath. So it’s kind of refreshing when a director of Jim Jarmusch’s (Stranger than Paradise, Down by Law, Broken Flowers) indie stature decides to offer a new, somewhat metaphorical take on the bloodsucker flick, and makes it a love story at that. In his world, the vampires are erudite literati and the huddled human masses insufferable plebeians they refer to as “zombies” who (gasp!) lack taste. Gotta love it. The central characters are a pair of attractive, decadently cool, centuries-married, world-weary hipsters (Tom Hiddleston & Tilda Swinton, showing great chemistry) who are so old they were hep when it was hip to be hep. They rarely bite anyone these days (sooo last century!), preferring to pilfer their plasma from hospitals. Their undead drinking partners include Christopher Marlowe (John Hurt), whom it turns out actually did write all those Shakespeare plays. Watch for similar riffs on mankind’s creative oeuvre. This mood piece is languidly paced and the score is recherché, but the production design is superb, the cinematography memorable and the humor sly. Sometimes it’s just fun to hang out with Jarmusch’s characters for a few hours. (123 min)