Movie Review: Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

[Dave Gray]

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Premise: A Vampire couple reunites from across the world to hang out and lie low in downtown Detroit, until their family member shows up and causes problems.

Rating: A good movie that a lot of viewers will struggle with.

I like this movie.  I sought it out because of a Tilda Swinton cameo in the TV Show What We Do in the Shadows.  She plays herself as a real-life vampire on the show and I'd never heard of this movie.

This is like no other vampire movie I've ever seen.  The vampire stuff is almost secondary.  In fact, for about the first 20 minutes, you wouldn't even know this was a film about vampires.  This movie is film-festival, indie-style drama and the leads are played almost like drugged out, depressed rockers.  But instead of drugs, it's blood.

This movie does have some plot, but it mostly plays out as a slice of life for its characters and there is a slow unfolding through conversations in just a few locations.  They talk about the past a lot and seem to have lived these large lives with famous people but now are just hanging out day after day like recluses.  You get to learn about several of the famous vampire tropes but through this "Sid and Nancy" style lens.  The cast is great.  Swinton, as I mentioned....Tom Hiddleston, John Hurt, and Anton Yelchin.

I enjoyed this because I'd just never seen vampires done this way, but I imagine that some traditional vampire fans may have an issue with the lack of action or horror elements.