2009
Dir: Jim Jarmusch With Isaach De Bankolé, Paz de la Huerta, Tilda Swinton
116 min
35mm
Following the opaque actions of a nameless, impeccably be-suited stranger (Isaach De Bankolé), The Limits of Control is “calibrated for cool” (J. Hoberman, Village Voice). The Lone Man is a participant in a cryptic game of espionage which brings him into contact with a vivid cast of characters, played by Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, and Gael García Bernal, among others, all of whom have mysterious matchboxes to exchange. The conventions and symbols of a spy film (hovering helicopters, postcards used as clues, enigmatic dialogue) are elevated into abstraction, making The Limits of Control a “pure image-and-sound event” (Manohla Dargis, The New York Times).
