The Jarmusch Don't Die

My feelings on the movies of writer-director-hairdo Jim Jarmusch have long been all over the place -- some I like, some I hate, but I can't say I've ever deeply loved anything he's directed. Night on Earth is probably the closest that comes to that. I'm also a fan of Broken Flowers and I seem to be one of the few who really liked his zombie comedy The Dead Don't Die. Anyway that was all true until I saw his latest at NYFF a couple of weeks ago -- click over to Pajiba to read my thoughts on Father Mother Sister Brother, the director's "rumination on the unfamiliarity of family" as I put it, which seems to've immediately become a personal fave from the white-haired iconoclast. A triptych of unrelated stories about three very different families who have had some issues connecting, the film stars Charlotte Rampling, Vicky Krieps, Cate Blanchett, Tom Waits, Adam Driver, et cetera et cetera -- Jim Jarmusch can get whoever he wants and he usually does. Krieps gives my favorite turn in the film but then she often does -- thank you Paul Thomas Anderson for the gift of Vicky! FMSB is out in U.S. theaters on Christmas Eve; here's the recently dropped trailer: