After the initial establishment of character and atmosphere, the laughs come thick and fast, most notably from the marvellous [Roberto] Benigni.
Comment
01/26/06
Down by Law (1986)
87 %
Reviews Counted: 23 Fresh: 20 Rotten:3 Average Rating: 7.4/10
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Synopsis: Jim Jarmusch's quirky follow-up to his groundbreaking STRANGER THAN PARADISE is a comic fable about finding the American dream in the most unlikely of places. After being thrown out of the house by his girlfriend, Zack (Tom Waits), an out-of-work DJ, takes a job driving a stolen car with a body... [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto Benigni, Ellen Barkin, Nicoletta Braschi
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Reviews
Top Critic
Director-writer Jarmusch's characters are insignificant antiheroes adrift in an America that is both sad and beautiful.
01/11/08
Top Critic
The Jim Jarmusch penchant for off-the-wall characters and odd situations is very much in evidence.
01/11/08
Top Critic
Its soul is the same as all Jarmusch films, but here he digs a bit deeper into the roots of his own methodology and that to which he is opposed.
09/25/06
Consciously more cheerful than Stranger Than Paradise, this movie plays a reversal on the Hollywood comedy in which a high-spirited American usually brings joy to a foreigner; here it's Italian Roberto Benigni who does the job.
06/20/06
The excitement (of Down by Law) comes from the realization that we are seeing a true film maker at work, using film to create a narrative that couldn't exist on the stage or the printed page of a novel.
05/20/03
Top Critic
If you don't know anything about Jarmusch, this DVD is a great place to start.
10/27/02
At 90 minutes, it felt entirely too long, but would I have wanted Jarmusch to trim it down at all? That would have killed his best jokes.
01/27/02
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