Only Lovers Left Alive Movie Review (2013)
A romantic drama about the daily lives of several vampires living today, Only Lovers Left Alive has an excellent cast and a dreamlike quality. Very enjoyable.
When I was younger, I was terrified of vampires. I am an extremely visual person, so seeing just the wrong clip of a visual will have me looking at it rent-free in my head for years. That is not an exaggeration (and the biggest reason that I don’t watch horror movies). But when Twilight was released, my fear took a turn. It was the first time that I could comprehend a world in which vampires aren’t just beings of nightmares, but people with stories who didn’t want to harm anyone. So, regardless of the silliness of those films, they will always have a special place in my heart.
Only Lovers Left Alive is about vampire couple Adam and Eve, who live quiet and separate lives in different cities. It is the modern day, and while finding blood and living only at night isn’t easy, it is part of the usual and they have each found patterns for existing without hurting anyone. Eve meets with her vampire friend Kit, who supplies her with canisters, and Adam visits a local hospital to pay an employee for donation bags. Adam is losing hope, though, so Eve goes to visit him. When her sister suddenly appears during the visit, things go awry.
To be very clear, this is not a horror movie. The entire film has a calm and enchanting feeling to it, as if romance and an ethereal quality live in the air, along with the frequent guitar music. You infer that this music was written by Adam, as he is a musician who has been secretly releasing pieces to the masses for centuries.
There are a few toothy visuals that imply that drinking blood gets these characters high, like they’re on drugs, but this is their life. This is how they exist, so understanding that hurting someone would always be a last resort is a fascinating development. Doing that would be so last century. There are many fancier ways these days.
Tilda Swinton was made for this movie. If you see her cast in anything, you know it’s going to be a little extra intriguing. She only chooses parts that are different from most others, so she is always a hint at what you’re getting. Plus, when you see John Hurt as Kit and Tom Hiddleston as Adam, you will wonder why you never thought of them as vampires before. They are all extremely well cast.
One of the most interesting things about Only Lovers Left Alive is that these vampires have touched many, many years. That means that they have favorite clothes that are centuries old, use phones that are decades old (why replace a perfectly good phone?), and don’t consider (or don’t care?) that other people might notice the age.
This is a super engaging movie that I really enjoyed watching. It is unlike almost anything else out there, so give it a whirl. A fantastic cast, a curious premise, and a billowy tone. Really compelling.
Runtime: 122 minutes
Motion Picture Rating: R
Languages Spoken In The Film: English
Should You Watch It? Yes
Did I Cry? Nope
My Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Available: Free on Tubi, to rent on Prime Video, or may be available for free on other streaming platforms
