Get Your Reps In: True Love Waits for “Only Lovers Left Alive”

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Countless vampire movies have identified immortality as a curse, but few consider what centurieslong life would really do to the psyche like Only Lovers Left Alive. Jim Jarmusch’s romance between a long-married vampire couple envisions the undead as racked with nostalgia, worry, boredom and the gravity of cyclical relationships. For Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton), 20 lifetimes is too long to live together or to stay apart. When we meet Adam, he’s starting to lose it inside the secluded recording studio he calls home, so he asks Eve to travel from Tangier to Detroit to reunite.

For being such a cool movie (Jarmusch doesn’t know another way), there is something shockingly lame and relatable about a vampire (Adam) just sinking down the rabbit hole of his pet interests, collecting rare guitars, and remixing his own compositions into oblivion. Pretty human after all. Only Lovers Left Alive kicks off the Tomorrow Theater’s monthlong vampire series on Jan. 2.

Also Playing:

Academy: Elf (2003), Dec. 24 and 25. Lethal Weapon (1987), Dec. 24. Christmas Evil (1980), Dec. 25. White Christmas (1954), Black Christmas (1974) and The Phantom Carriage (1921) Dec. 26–Jan. 1. The Matrix (1999), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and Jawbreaker (1999), Jan. 2–8. Cinema 21: Rebecca (1940), Jan. 3. Cinemagic: Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Dec. 26, 29 and 31. Prisoners (2013), Dec. 27 and 29. There Will Be Blood (2007), Dec. 28 and 30. Swiss Army Man (2016), Dec. 26, 27 and 30. The Batman (2022), Dec. 28. Cold Harvest (1999), Jan. 2. Clinton: The Big Lebowski (1998), Dec. 24–27. Hundreds of Beavers (2022), Dec. 26. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Dec. 27 and Jan. 3. Cult Classics: 200 Cigarettes (1999), Dec. 28. Hollywood: The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Dec. 31. China O’Brien (1990), Jan. 6. Tomorrow: Twilight triple feature, Jan. 3. The Hunger (1981) and The Lost Boys (1987), Jan. 4.