Only Lovers Left Alive

Our veins ran cold on vampires years ago, but this is a Jim Jarmusch joint, so the usual bloodlust is but a minor plot point. These are civilized vegan vampires, who think killing people is tacky in this day and age, so they buy their blood from hospitals and weird dudes. A perfectly cast Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston play longtime married vamps---Eve lives in Tangier as a student of life and Adam (sigh) in Detroit as a reclusive musician. He’s suicidal to the point of having a wooden bullet constructed, so she takes the night route to be with him. When her crappy sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska) appears and kills someone (gauche), it sends the duo on a cover-up-and-flee scheme out of the country. Atypical in every way, Only Lovers Left Alive is almost overwhelmingly cool—to the point the analogue-only Adam shows Eve Jack White’s childhood home—but presenting vampires as sexy heroin addicts is a refreshing approach and nice counter-programming to this week’s mutant assault. —Tara Thorne