37 / Dead Man / Jim Jarmusch

I don't like Johnny Depp. I used to think he was the greatest thing ever when I was 15, and yes he's made some great films, none in the last 10 years though (don't cite me on that, he probably has and me in my ignorance have just missed them) I always just feel like he ruins a film. Just by being himself. You're constantly aware 'oh this is Johnny Depp I'm watching here, isn't a quirky man!' which removes any chance of actually getting emotionally invested in characters he plays. This wasn't my problem with Dead Man. He's actually really quite good in dead man. My problem with Dead Man lies with Jim Jarmusch. A director I have a lot of respect for. Down By Law & Midnight Train are some of my favourite films, I normally love his gritty bluesy approach to film making. Not here though. In all honestly Dead Man bored me. I found the style jarring, I didn't get why it kept fading in and out, it ruined any sense of pacing for me. It felt more like a pastiche to me. There was nothing authentic about the 'wild west' that was displayed in the film. Which really surprised me, Jarmusch is normally a master at authenticity. Not here. I stopped caring after about 40 minutes in. Yes it was a really nicely shot film and the way the score started out kind of sparse and slowly grew throughout the film until at the end you had this really beautiful shoegazey fuzz during the final moments was really great. But I had no emotional investment in any of the characters and this wasn't Depp's fault. Depp's performance was actually quite understated and nuanced, it's a shame the film wasn't. It just seemed like it was trying really hard to be deep, but in the end just felt extremely shallow to me.