Mud Songs

Some directors are so cool or innovative or just so damn good that even when they make a not-so-stellar motion picture, it’s still better or more watchable than 99% of the junk you’ll see at a multiplex any day of the week. Jim Jarmusch is one of those directors and Ghost Dog is one of the films. I watched it today while re-organizing my DVD collection (which probably isn’t a bad way to re-watch it), and thoroughly enjoyed it. It “seeks to superimpose the ways of the ancient samurai with the present day in the tale of a loner [Forrest Whitaker] who works as a hitman for the local mafia family.” It’s fun and funny and cool.

Anything directed by Jim Jarmusch is worth watching, even though his movies don’t always do much for me (Dead Man and Coffee and Cigarettes). His camera quietly observes people in an unobtrusive way that brings out the subtlties of character and has us feeling for them because they’re just so unremarkable. Broken Flowers, a road trip movie about a guy (Bill Murray) looking for a woman who leaves an unsigned letter in his mailbox informing him that he has a son, is Jarmusch’s most conventional movie to date, and as good as anything he’s done.