I watched Peter Weir's The Last Wave last night, a fantastic, creepy-as-hell movie about a rational Western man encountering an Otherness (in this case in the form of tribal aboriginal thought) that leaves him completely unhinged. The movie manages to avoid most of the racist magic Negro tropes (although the climactic scene loses its grip a bit), mainly by being neutral about which view of reality is correct. The last scene should have been cut, but everything that led up to it was brilliant.

OK, I need a crash course in Jarmusch. What am I looking for with his movies? Why do I never seem to get what his point is, although I generally feel like I like the movie?

Well, one thing I like - he said in an interview that most of your life is not the big events - marriage, graduation, getting that big job, or whatever - most of your life is the stuff that happens in between the big events in your life. So he likes his movies to focus on those in between moments.

Checkhov said almost the exact same thing about his plays. I love both Chechhov and Jarmusch, but both seem to lack in widespread appeal.

Well, Jarmusch isn't so much telling a story as creating a world with each film. It doesn't have a point any more than, say, Mount Fuji has a point--the experience of being there IS the point. It can be satisying and moving and thought-porvoking, but in the way an experience is rather than a story is.

Raq, I can't help you much but I loved Ghost Dog.

What am I looking for with his movies? Why do I never seem to get what his point is, although I generally feel like I like the movie?

Interesting characters in situations that may seem out-there, but there's a very clear path for how said characters got there?

I never really think of a Jarmusch film as having with a greater sense of the world or a *point*, really. He's just telling a story.

Or, what tommyrot and Robin said.

Which movies in particular have you seen, Raq?

Raq, I can't help you much but I loved Ghost Dog.

Chiming in on the Ghost Dog love, but I'm also a big samurai fan.

Huh. I've never seen a Jarmush movie. I think I was led to believe his style was aggressively quirky (which doesn't sound like it's true from the above posts), and I hate aggressive quirky. I'm gonna see Broken Flowers and see if I like that enough to check out his other work.

I watched Peter Weir's The Last Wave last night, a fantastic, creepy-as-hell movie about a rational Western man encountering an Otherness

Oh yeah. I have to rewatch this film some time; I recall being mesmerized and creeped out, but I can't even tell you what it was about beyond that. Something apocalyptic. I did like that last shot though.

Weir made this one back to back with Picnic at Hanging Rock, right? They'd make a good double feature. Or throw in Roeg's Walkabout and make it a triple-feature.

IMDb tells me Weir's adopting William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. No casting yet, but I'm stoked.

I think I was led to believe his style was aggressively quirky

Huh. I'd say more langorously quirky. My first Jarmusch film was Dead Man, and I immediately fell in love. It's just so... odd. And unexplained. And beautiful.