The Limits of Control

4.00
    The Limits of Control
    2009

    Synopsis

    A mysterious stranger works outside the law and keeps his objectives hidden, trusting no one. While his demeanor is paradoxically focused and dreamlike all at once, he embarks on a journey that not only takes him across Spain, but also through his own consciousness.

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      Cast

      • Isaach De BankoléLone Man
      • Alex DescasCreole
      • Jean-François StéveninFrench
      • Óscar JaenadaWaiter
      • Luis TosarViolin
      • Paz de la HuertaNude
      • Tilda SwintonBlonde
      • Youki KudohMolecules
      • John HurtGuitar
      • Gael García BernalMexican

      Recommendations

      • 90

        Los Angeles Times

        A little like guided meditation with suggestions floated, waiting, left untethered. It's up to you to distill meaning -- which will leave some convinced the director is merely self-indulgent, and others deeply satisfied.
      • 80

        Village Voice

        Like everything Jarmusch, The Limits of Control is calibrated for cool.
      • 60

        The New York Times

        A nondramatic work best appreciated as a pure image-and-sound event.
      • 58

        The A.V. Club

        Too much of The Limits Of Control feels canned and airless, so stifled by Jarmusch's obsessions that it loses all sense of surprise.
      • 50

        The Hollywood Reporter

        Unfortunately, the whole seldom adds up to the sum of its illustrious parts, and Jarmusch's trademark deadpan quirks seem to have gotten lost in the translation.
      • 50

        The New Yorker

        As it is, the movie's lethal climax, with its vague protest against corporate control--and hence in favor of art, music, drugs, or whatever--feels like a poor theft from a more conventional film.
      • 50

        ReelViews

        While The Limits of Control offers some picturesque photography and grist for thought, it is ultimately too much like The Emperor's New Clothes to warrant anything approaching enthusiasm. The message is banal and the means by which it is presented reeks of artifice and pretention.
      • 42

        Entertainment Weekly

        The Limits of Control, even with its flow of star cameos (Tilda Swinton, Gael García Bernal, a frenetic Bill Murray), is a listless long pause that rarely refreshes.

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