Limits of Control, The

Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey

A little like guided meditation with suggestions floated, waiting, left untethered. It's up to you to distill meaning -- which will leave some convinced the director is merely self-indulgent, and others deeply satisfied.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Like everything Jarmusch, The Limits of Control is calibrated for cool.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Almost absurdly quiet and observant, The Limits of Control is about the space between the action, the steps along the way.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

A nondramatic work best appreciated as a pure image-and-sound event.

Empire Andrew Male

Cool, handsome, self-assured... but, as the existentialists might say, what’s the bloody point?

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Too much of The Limits Of Control feels canned and airless, so stifled by Jarmusch's obsessions that it loses all sense of surprise.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

While The Limits of Control offers some picturesque photography and grist for thought, it is ultimately too much like The Emperor's New Clothes to warrant anything approaching enthusiasm. The message is banal and the means by which it is presented reeks of artifice and pretention.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Unfortunately, the whole seldom adds up to the sum of its illustrious parts, and Jarmusch's trademark deadpan quirks seem to have gotten lost in the translation.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

As it is, the movie's lethal climax, with its vague protest against corporate control--and hence in favor of art, music, drugs, or whatever--feels like a poor theft from a more conventional film.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Even the great ones hit snags. With The Limits of Control, Jim Jarmsuch gets tangled up in his own deadpan.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Only a few events happen in this minimalist film, and most of them keep getting repeated through most of its running time.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's exactly the film Jarmusch wanted to make, but it's also smug, excruciating, borderline pointless. You could call it a deliberate effort to invert the conventions of the thriller; you could also call it, more rightly, a self-deluded disaster.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The Limits of Control, even with its flow of star cameos (Tilda Swinton, Gael García Bernal, a frenetic Bill Murray), is a listless long pause that rarely refreshes.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Worst of all, it just feels tired and recycled.

USA Today Claudia Puig

It might be that Jarmusch (Broken Flowers) is experimenting with creating a pastiche of dreamlike sequences that audiences can interpret as they wish. Or it may be merely pretension and hubris that fuels such a stylized and insubstantial story.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Jarmusch has come up with a dud.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

This is one of those movies that's too cool to have a plot.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Jarmusch makes some effort to deliver on the promise of suspense near the end, with de Bankole stalking despicable businessman Bill Murray at his fortresslike compound in the hills.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The result is that rare movie specimen, a completely intentional, expertly guided work of art that fails almost completely.

Slate Dana Stevens

This beautifully shot and painstakingly constructed film is a self-indulgent bucket of hogwash.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Jarmusch is making some kind of a point. I think the point is that if you strip a story down to its bare essentials, you will have very little left. I wonder how he pitched this idea to his investors.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Jim Jarmusch's Dada meander, shot by Christopher Doyle, is empty and excruciating -- that's really all you need to know.