Only Lovers Left Alive
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: April 11, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Time OutKeith UhlichApr 8, 2014
If Jim Jarmusch’s languorous, laconic style isn’t your bag, his stone-faced vampire comedy won’t make you a believer. Those who’ve already been bitten, however, will swoon like the film’s toothy leads whenever their lips touch neck juice. Read full review
100
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekApr 8, 2014
Only Lovers Left Alive is silly and deeply serious at once, an elegy with a light touch and more than a dash of hope. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 26, 2013
Only Lovers Left Alive is an addictive mood and tone piece, a nocturnal reverie that incidentally celebrates a marriage that has lasted untold centuries. Read full review
92
Film.comJordan HoffmanMay 26, 2013
Only Lovers Left Alive is an exhibit A example of how to use style to enhance substance, not overwhelm it. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Apr 9, 2014
In many respects, Adam and Eve are nocturnal cousins to the angels from Wim Wenders’ "Wings Of Desire": They’re secret observers of history, living records of the past with little control over the future. But Jarmusch has no interest in the kind of guilt and grief Wenders wove through his movie; Only Lovers comes in a hipper, sexier shade of melancholy. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnMay 26, 2013
If you can groove with Jarmusch's patient, philosophical indulgences and the wooden exteriors of his characters' lives, the movie rewards with a savvy emotional payoff about moving forward even when the motivation to do so has gone. Read full review
90
SlateSharan ShettyDec 15, 2014
Rarely has Jarmusch’s style been so inherently suited to his content. Stillness and silence, the cardinal virtues of his method, have never been so pertinent as in the lives of the undead. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 11, 2014
Do I detect a note of self-satire in Jarmusch’s undead? I’d like to think he’s poking fun at his own stylized, white-boy cool. But underneath, of course, he’s deadly serious. A ruined metropolis, a snatch of dialogue about coming water wars, a poisoned blood supply: The garden of Adam and Eve is despoiled beyond remedy. This is a charming dirge, though. Read full review
90
The DissolveScott TobiasApr 9, 2014
Only Lovers Left Alive accomplishes the neat trick of reinventing a moribund genre as a distinctly Jarmuschian hangout movie. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenApr 23, 2014
The film is hypnotic, which lends it an addictive sensibility that complements the need Adam and Eve have for their bloody fixes. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 8, 2014
The casting of Hiddleston and Swinton was a stroke of genius: They emanate a particular sort of cool only they seem privy to, accentuating their alienation. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonMay 1, 2014
An enthralling lament for an era in which beauty is in danger of becoming extinct. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaApr 25, 2014
This story of two very old souls who suck on O negative Popsicles is, in many ways, more about the life-sustaining force of music than any hankering for blood. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyApr 24, 2014
Only Lovers is so fluidly edited and thinly plotted that it feels almost off-hand; yet, it’s also made with great care, beautifully lit and set-designed to an eyelash. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineCalum MarshOct 12, 2013
As is so often the case in Jim Jarmusch's films, simply spending time in the company of his creations proves engrossing. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMay 1, 2014
Plot takes a back seat to style and attitude, as it often does in Jarmuch's world, which can make the last half-hour of the movie drag a bit. But when that means getting to hang out with two fascinating creatures of the night, played by two fascinating performers, that's a perfectly valid trade-off. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 26, 2013
It’s an offbeat, fun, and frequently very funny film, lifted out of disposability by some wonderfully rich production design, music cuts and photography, and by the cherishable performances of the leads. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 8, 2014
This is a film that finds horror not in the extreme, but in the mundane. That alone makes it a worthwhile entry in a genre that it both inhabits and rises above. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 12, 2014
Here is the territory that "Twilight" never dared to enter. It was so busy with crushes, covens, werewolves, and all the other moth-eaten trappings of the genre that it forgot to ask, Why do vampires not die of boredom? Is time not the sharpest stake in the heart? [14 April 2014, p.86]
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanApr 10, 2014
This is a movie about the transcendent bond between partners who can communicate without speaking a word, so it’s only fitting that the gorgeous cinematography perfectly captures the movie’s emotional depths. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenApr 10, 2014
The unhurried film is a beauty. Shooting digitally — a first for Jarmusch and a paradox for a movie that so ardently celebrates the artisanal — cinematographer Yorick Le Saux uses nocturnal lighting to eloquent effect. The titular lovers are beauties too, soulful and captivating. Swinton and Hiddleston make their love story one for the ages. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 10, 2014
You don't have to be a fan of Mr. Jarmusch's special brand of indie spookiness to enjoy his new film. All that's required is patience with its languorous pace, plus a willingness to swing between amusement and delight, with periodic pauses at ennui. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleyFeb 18, 2014
A loving, very funny valentine to undead pleasures, with Swinton and Hiddleston on top form. Read full review
80
EmpireIan NathanFeb 18, 2014
Haunting and idiosyncratic, Jarmusch’s vampire marriage preaches to the converted, but he’s in fine voice nonetheless. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 26, 2013
The real reason to see this is Swinton and Hiddleston’s sexy, pallid double act: two old souls in hot bodies who have long tired of this Earth, but have nowhere else to make their home. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 26, 2013
If it is an exercise in style … well, what style. With its retro-chic connoisseurship and analogue era rock, this is a brilliant haute-hippy homage. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMay 5, 2014
The lack of urgency may bore those unused to Jarmusch’s style and pacing. But his languor is his calling card. The deliberate pacing makes the offhand jokes and dry observations seem funnier than they are, at least in this case. This borders on being “cute.” And dull. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 24, 2014
Disarmingly direct and charmingly directed; it’s a bona fide love story, if an exhausted and occasionally thin one. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesBill StametsApr 17, 2014
Jim Jarmusch stocks his latest low-key indie with more than his usual characters in low-velocity drift. The Akron-born auteur infuses the title couple of Only Lovers Left Alive with his taste for culture, if not cuisine. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 11, 2014
Jim Jarmusch has made a vampire movie, but, as you might expect, not just any old vampire movie. “Twilight” fans will not be amused, but Jarmusch’s usual coterie of art-film followers will likely find the movie his best in years. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaApr 11, 2014
Like most of Jarmusch’s films, the emphasis is not on action but interaction—especially the verbal kind. And atmosphere. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 11, 2014
Jarmusch, as ever, has the power to sneak up on you. He's a spellbinder. The same goes for his movie. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 10, 2014
For those who puzzled over the "Twilight" hoopla here are Adam and Eve, the artiest, most sophisticated pair of vampires to hit screens in a long time. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickApr 10, 2014
Legendary hipster filmmaker Jim Jarmusch’s wryly funny exercise in genre bending hits so many grace notes it ends up being his most satisfying film in years. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedApr 10, 2014
It’s so elegant and dreamlike — such a departure from most vampire epics — that you won’t be bored. It also has a wicked sense of humor you usually don’t find in the genre. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyApr 9, 2014
It's always a thrill to see what an artist as singular as Jarmusch will do next. I just wish that his foray into the world of the undead had a little more to sink its beautiful fangs into. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirApr 10, 2014
It’s shot through with sadness and beauty, with dry humor, with the certainty that even things meant to last forever actually don’t. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 10, 2014
In many ways, Only Lovers Left Alive is among Mr. Jarmusch’s most voluptuous movies — full of rare and gorgeous images and sounds, heavy with wistful sighs and sprinkled with wry, knowing jokes — but it is also thin and pale, and perhaps too afraid of daylight for its own good. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounFeb 18, 2014
Only Lovers Left Alive drags its feet and shows serious signs of anaemia as a story. Read full review
60
VarietyLeslie FelperinMay 26, 2013
A sweet but slight love story about world-weary hipster bloodsuckers. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 18, 2014
Only Lovers Left Alive is simply dead, an exercise in style, bland humor and vague gesture that yet seems to have been made in the naive expectation of a conventional response - that is, of an audience's actually caring. Read full review
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