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Only Lovers Left Alive | 2014 | R | - 5.5.7

An underground musician and vampire (Tom Hiddleston) feels depressed and to find solace he reunites with his estranged wife (Tilda Swinton). However, her sister (Mia Wasikowska) interrupts their love story with mayhem. Also with John Hurt, Jeffrey Wright, Anton Yelchin and White Hills. Directed by Jim Jarmusch. [2:03]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - From a camera angle above a large bed we see a woman and a man, completely nude and lying on their sides, facing each other, with knees bent; we see her breasts, and their chest and buttocks. A shirtless man is shown seated on a couch (a guitar covers his chest except for shoulders). A man wears a robe that is partially open to reveal his bared upper chest in several scenes. A man is shown shirtless and we see his chest and back in a few scenes. A woman wears long, thick robes in several scenes: the robes open at the knee to reveal legs; in a few other scenes we see most of her thighs as well. A woman wears a dress that reveals thighs and legs (covered with the hosiery) and later we see that she has removed her top and wears a tank top that reveals some cleavage. A female worker in a bar wears a crop top revealing some cleavage as well as her abdomen. A woman singer in a café wears a top with thin straps, revealing a little cleavage and occasionally a bit of abdomen above tight-fitting pants. A woman wearing a hospital gown reveals most of her bare thighs. A close-up shows the hip and buttocks areas of a woman playing guitar while wearing short shorts that reveal full thighs and legs under sheer hosiery.
 An older man and a woman stare at another man and another woman kissing outdoors at night and we see the kissing couple kiss passionately for a couple of minutes and rub each other's arms; the woman's top has thin straps that reveal bare shoulders, arms and cleavage, as well as some of her abdomen.
 A husband and his wife meet one night and kiss for several seconds; he opens his mouth wide and places his mouth on her throat under her long hair. A wife lies in bed (her bare shoulders and arms are seen above the covers) and her husband, disguised as a doctor, kisses her forehead as she asks, "Are we playing doctor?" and he leaves the house. A man and a woman embrace briefly in an alley and later, they kiss briefly. A wife kisses the iPhone image of her husband during a phone call.
 Three scenes feature a husband and wife in bed, tangled in dark sheets and covered. A husband and wife (both clothed) sit on a couch and the wife has her head in the husband's lap. A wife lies on her side on a couch and her husband leans his head against her hip (both people are clothed). A husband and wife lie side-by-side in a bed, clothed.
 A man and a woman dance to rock music in a bar; his hands are on her buttocks and her hands on his as they sway and writhe. A music video features six women wearing sleeveless dresses that end at the top of their thighs, with knee-hi boots and they move to rock music.

VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - A woman discovers a living room wrecked and several vinyl records and guitars broken, and then a dead man in a sitting position on a couch, with the side of his throat and neck featuring teeth marks and fang holes as well as blood covering the throat; a woman sitting on the couch has a bloody mouth reaching to her chin and we hear that she "drank" the man, sucking his blood and the first woman puts her out of the house and throws her suitcase after her as the blood covered woman shouts obscenities while she walks away; the first woman summons her husband and together they roll the dead man into a carpet, put him into their car trunk, they drive to an abandoned parking garage and throw the dead man in the carpet over the side of a short wall and into a pool of toxic waste, which instantly dissolves the flesh to leave only a skull and clothing, which sink into greenish-black water.
 An elderly male vampire lying on a chaise and under a blanket wheezes, saying that he drank blood from a batch of contaminated stock; he closes his eyes and dies and a man and a woman in the room cry loudly.
 Half a dozen scenes feature howling wolves and hooting/screeching owls in the background at night and in one scene we see outlines of wild dogs or wolves running through an abandoned garage, their eyes glowing yellow in the darkness.
 Men and women in close-ups drink a deep red liquid in several scenes and we hear that it is blood from liqueur glasses; they lean back in chairs or on a couch, smiling open-mouthed in ecstasy for several seconds (please see the Substance Use category for more details) and their teeth and fangs are covered in blood and look yellowish/red. A man and a woman drink from a small flask several times and we see blood on the corners of their mouth and on their tongue. A woman drinks from a flask in a café and in a living room and smiles open-mouthed, revealing bloody yellow fangs and teeth. A woman drops a flask of blood; the blood pools on the carpet and then coagulates. A woman meets an older man in a café and receives a bag of what she calls "the really good stuff" (we see that it is a container of blood and she says it is French blood). A man and a woman lick red Popsicles that we hear came from French blood.
 A male musician argues several times with his assistant and becomes very loud in a few arguments. A husband argues with his wife and her sister a few times. A man says about a woman that he dislikes, "Shouldn't she be sleeping in a coffin somewhere with a stake in her heart?"
 A man has a wooden bullet made and inserts it into a pistol, pushes the muzzle to his heart and makes a soft shooting sound with his mouth; the man's wife later finds the pistol and asks him if it is for confrontations with other vampires which he denies and she becomes upset that he might commit suicide with it; the man says that he is tired of the world and his music both being ruined. A woman points a pistol at her own chest and her husband slaps it away fast, with a loud whoosh.
 A male vampire and a female vampire stare at a man and a woman kissing outdoors at night; they approach the second couple with eyes shining and mouths opened to reveal fangs as they quickly approach the camera lens and the screen cuts to black.
 A husband and his wife talk about hundreds of years of human rights violations and the slaughtering of intellectuals during inquisitions, as well as about wars and floods and fires; the woman says that it is a waste of time to dwell on them while the man says repeatedly that humans are zombies who are ruining the world. A man says to a woman, "Be cautious. I couldn't bear it if anything ever happened to you"; he refers to her traveling to a dangerous city. A man says that humans have contaminated their water and their blood. A man complains that a woman guest had consumed all of his type Rh-negative supply of blood.
 A man poses as a doctor in two scenes, wearing a surgical cap and mask, and a white coat with a stethoscope; he enters a hospital at night, proceeds to a laboratory, startles the technician in both scenes and purchases several containers filled with blood. A man posing as a doctor passes an ER cubicle where a woman's thigh and knee are undergoing a re-bandaging and blood appears on the leg and sheets under her (he stares for several seconds and moves on). An actor dressed as a vampire with large fangs and a cape dances with six music video dancers, looking at their throats in turn (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details).

LANGUAGE 7 - About 21 F-words and its derivatives, 9 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 10 mild obscenities, name-calling (weird, nutcase, Dr. Strangelove, Dr. Caligari, old pack rat, zombies, snobs, philistines), stereotypical references to men, women, vampires, non-vampires, zombies, jealous sisters, intellectuals, writers, musicians, drug dealers, the French, Detroit, Los Angeles), 3 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, My God).

SUBSTANCE USE - Two men in a doorway in an alley at night offer a woman an unknown substance by calling out, a man in an alley tells a woman that he has "What you need" (implying drugs) and she walks on, a man and a woman walk down an alley at night and two men at different points call out that they have something they need and a third man says that he has "something very special," (implying drugs) and they move on, a woman meets an older man in a café and receives a bag of what she calls "The really good stuff" (we see that it is a container of blood and she says it is French blood), a man and a woman lick red Popsicles that we hear are made from French blood, and men and women in several close-ups drink a deep red liquid that we hear is blood from liqueur glasses or a silver flask and lean back in chairs or on a couch smiling open-mouthed in ecstasy for several seconds (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). We see a few bottles of alcohol in a bar and some tall glasses of liquid on the bar, men and women dance in a bar and hold beer bottles while two men drink from bottles of beer, and a man and a woman drink several times from a flask while standing or sitting in an alley. A man in a café rolls a cigarette and smokes, and a woman in the background of one shot sits at a bar where cigarette smoke seems to be rising.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Fantasy, the 1960s, vampires, drug culture, depression, money, relationships, love, family, the Human Condition, murder, death, the environment, war.

MESSAGE - Some people are stuck in the 1960s.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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