Barnes & Noble

The Memphis of Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train is as eerily empty as a ghost town, an appropriate setting for a movie haunted by the specter of Elvis. His music, image, and spirit is a common thread running through the film's trio of loosely connected vignettes. Flavored by Jarmusch's trademark wit and enhanced by Robbie Müller's gorgeous color cinematography, all three stories explore the experiences of various foreigners in this quintessentially American landscape. There are teenage Japanese lovebirds with a fetish for Memphis music legends, an Italian widow passing through town with her recently deceased husband (in a casket), and a despondent, recently jilted British expatriate (former Clash lead singer Joe Strummer). As usual, Jarmusch loads the supporting cast with a wide array of cool weirdos. Screamin' Jay Hawkins plays the night manager of the fleabag hotel where all the characters end up, Steve Buscemi is a local barber, and Tom Waits supplies the voice of the late-night DJ who is heard throughout the film. Like Jarmusch's haunting Stranger than Paradise and hilarious Down By Law, Mystery Train is a film about hip aimlessness; but even more than that, it is a loving valentine to American pop culture. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

Written and directed by the ever-unpredictable Jim Jarmusch, Mystery Train is comprised of three short anecdotes involving foreign tourists in Tennessee. Each story is set in a fleabag Memphis hotel which has been redressed as a "tribute" to Elvis Presley. Story #1 involves two Japanese tourists whose devotion to '50s American rock music blinds them to everything around them. Story #2 finds eternal victim Nicoletta Braschi sharing a room with stone-broke Elizabeth Bracco and having her problems solved by a spectral vision of The King. And story #3 offers the further misadventures of Bracco, her no-good boyfriend and her dysfunctional family. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 883904128977
• Source: MGM (VIDEO & DVD)
• Sales Rank: 24,170