'The Limits of Control' is easy to misunderstand, and even easier to dislike. I can certainly understand the bad reviews. What I can't agree to is anyone calling it 'pretentious'; it doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not. It's not a clever allegory or a meaningful social critique, and it doesn't have a hidden message - nor does it pretend to be any of those things. It's a big mistake to try to find a hidden message, or a coherent plot, as it doesn't have either. What it is is a series of fragments and dreams, characters, places and encounters, more like Coffee & Cigarettes than Ghost Dog. But it's lots of fun, for cinema lovers and for art lovers, and it's incredibly beautiful (a given with a Jim Jarmusch film), and for a movie in which nothing ever really happens, it keeps the viewer interested the whole time; that in itself is an accomplishment.
Review of The Limits of Control
