Comedy?

Being more or less familiar with Bill Murray's recent years career, I didn't trust IMDb about the movie being a comedy. And so I started to watch it believing there was maybe a remote possibility of it having some subtle cynical humor but no real humor. And despite lowering so much my expectations, it was much worse than what I'd thought. Didn't laugh once.


I believe there are some really really really subtle comedic points that mostly rely on irony. But it wasn't nearly enough to even cause me the slightest of smiles.


I consider it a depressing drama (much like Bill Murray's recent work). That doesn't mean it's bad per se (although it isn't very good either), but I believe it's wrong to announce it as a comedy.

Yes, a lot of reviews and awards list it as a comedy. It has a lot of deadpan humour, but I still consider it a drama, mainly because of the ending.

It's subtle dark comedy. You can't easily categorize Jarmush's films into a traditional genre. I call it a cynical romcom/mystery. It's definitely not LOL funny, but there are amusing uncomfortable moments throughout the interactions. Its one of my favorites of JJ's. His work is hit/miss. Have to watch with a grain of salt.

If you are new to Jarmusch. Consider the genres below to be loose interpretations and see them as almost spoofs of the genre, but without silly humor.
Dead Man~ Acid Western (his best work IMO)
Limits of Control ~ Cynical "action" (no action) movie. He's just mocking the genre and having fun, but it's mostly boring with a few interesting moments.
Only Lovers left alive~ Vampire movie (2nd favorite)
The Dead Don't die~ Horror (I didn't see it, because of the bad reviews)
Ghost Dog~ gangster
Paterson might be the most straightforward script of them all

Not all humor is "haha humor".