MovieChat Forums > The Limits of Control (2009) Discussion > It's a shame this isn't being discussed ...

It's a shame this isn't being discussed more


I know I'll get a lot of backlash for saying this, but I honestly feel like this is one of the most important films to come along in a long while. From the point of view of filmmaking, I think that it evolves the whole art of movies in a way that very few movies have in a while. It reminded me a lot of The Passenger. It seems to have uniformly negative reviews all across the board, but I suspect that, years from now, scholars will look back at this and it will seem remarkable that it had no attention when it first came out.

It definitely was a hard movie to sit through, because it demanded full and complete attention, and it seemed to paint a picture of a bunch of characters who are living in the world at a different level of perception or awareness than the general public, and we are seeing it from the inside...not from the pov of outsiders looking in. I don't know if I'm explaining it well or making sense, but this movie impacted me so strongly, and I can't get it out of my head after seeing it last night, so I just want to attempt to explain why I feel like that and see if anyone has similar thoughts.

It was like all the characters in the movie are in on some secret about how to read signs of the times, or about how the world really works, and exist outside of the normal world of our perception, yet they exist in the same space as all of us. The characters in the movie have evolved their awareness of what life is, and have caught on to patterns of the universe and are waging an epic war to try to prevent other people from controling the world.

I looked back on what I wrote and I think I made it too simplistic...but anyway, this movie really effected me and I'm disappointed that I can't seem to find any critics who even attempt to really understand what the film is presenting to us. And I think it's wrong to compare it to David Lynch...it may be surreal, but it is not like some strange dream, it is something completely on a different level than what david lynch does. I would compare it more to Antonioni films, like The Passenger. The characters are almost like the characters in the passenger, except that in LImits, the characters have more of an awareness of what the angst is that leads Jack Nicholson's character in The Passenger.

If you've seen the passenger, maybe you'll get what I'm saying. Anyway, thanks for reading this rant if you made it this far, and let me know what you think!

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Also, check out the current issue of Film Comment. There's a nice interview and a great little essay that understands the film's intentions. It's titled Death By Poetry.

Like Lynch, Jarmusch's films are almost never well received by the general audience or critical community.

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Generally true with exceptions (Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway, Inland Empire). Jarmusch and Lynch do share the very rare quality of having one foot in Hollywood and one in the art house. In that way they are brothers. Also, in a certain purity of expression, especially in the way they present simple uncluttered frames and in their use of silences and absurd humour.

Lynch is more of a showman, however, who flirts with an almost gothic aura compared with Jarmusch's much drier approach.

I love them both but I agreed that Jarmusch is much more underrated.

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http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/mj09/jarmusch.htm
http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=15562

Yeah interesting film to discuss. I found it beautiful.

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...thanks for the film comment and Rosenbaum info. I checked out Rosenbaum's page and it was pretty insightful. I still haven't checked out film comment, but I plan to.

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10. Saving Private Ryan

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...wait, that wasn't in the past decade...how about Slumdog Millionaire for #10?

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1999 counts?...ok, what about American Beauty for number 10?

the way you write is interesting.

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Many answers to your post lead to I'm certain great reads, which I will read, after I write my untarnished impression having just seen it. I'm no artist, just a scientific pragmatist who loves movies with a difference. This is certainly a movie with a difference. My thoughts on the film contradict all previous readings I did of it because everyone went on and on about existencialism. I disagree.

To me this film is about the very heart of art and the value of life on earth. It does not QUESTION why we are here, but clearly STATES why we are here, and clearly delineates the future course of action. A call to arms to artists who have far too long indulged in greediness. A call to arms for the value of life.

The Revolution will NOT be Televised!

***So I've seen 4 movies/wk in theatre for a 1/4 century, call me crazy?**

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This is exactly what I felt when I watched this movie. Thank you!
(I have not seen The Passenger, but I guess I'm going to in the next few days...)

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I dunno.. I went to the movies last night, the girl at the box office told me and my g/f that a couple of old ladies said this movie was crap.. so we watched "Brothers Bloom" instead. not a bad choice, but just wasn't sure on this movie.

I was only trying to COOL OFF!!!

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