‘Heaven Knows What’: the movie Jim Jarmusch calls a vital “addition to American filmmaking”
There are a few filmmakers whose contributions to the world of American cinema have inextricably changed the texture and tempo of the industry. Just consider how Steven Spielberg transformed the face of blockbuster cinema with the release of Jaws in 1975, the ways in which Quentin Tarantino injected adrenaline into the indie scene in the 1990s or how Jim Jarmusch brought European techniques to the mainstream market.
Emerging to popularity at the dawn of the 1980s, Jarmusch entered the industry with a unique voice that separated him distinctly from his peers, taking inspiration not from the foundational years of Hollywood cinema but from various foreign sources. From the joyful experimentation of French New Wave artists like Jean-Luc Godard to the work of Yasujirō Ozu, whose works of subtle beauty crafted some of Japan’s greatest-ever films, Jarmusch was attracted to innovative creatives wishing to push the limits of the art form.
Taking this one step further, Jarmusch goes so far as to call Hollywood cinema “cowardly” in comparison to the efforts made abroad. When asked if the American industry can match the unabashed creativity of foreign cinema, the filmmaker expressed: “I have seen films that are incredibly poetic! The kinds of films I see are from everywhere, they are all types of films. But I am not Mr. Mainstream. The problem with Hollywood studios is that they are cowardly.”
Unsurprisingly, then, the American movies that he does love are from filmmakers who, like him, take inspiration from world cinema rather than the flicks made on home soil. Such can be seen in his love for the Safdie brothers, cinema’s latest favourite brotherly duo whose films, such as Daddy Longlegs, Good Time and Uncut Gems, point toward industry masters like Robert Bresson, Wim Wenders and Mike Leigh.
Jarmusch expressed his love for the duo during an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, writing in regards to their 2014 breakout hit: “Heaven Knows What is such a disturbing story about unrequited love, heroin addiction, and suicidal tendencies that somehow evades being only completely weighed down by desperation.” A bleak tale, the award-winning film tells the story of a young woman trying to reconnect with her boyfriend and try to reason with her heroin addiction.
Continuing in his passionate adoration for the film, Jarmusch added: “It’s also a really interestingly made film in the way it’s shot – it’s bleak, yet somehow a fascinating and important addition for me to recent American filmmaking.”
Based on the book Mad Love in N.Y.C. by Arielle Holmes, the film is an intense depiction of drug addiction told and acted by those who actually went through such torment, with Holmes also playing the lead role in the film. Dedicated to authenticity, the film is an intense, gritty and personal tale, with Holmes being joined by Caleb Landry Jones of Get Out fame and Buddy Duress, who tragically passed away in February 2024.
In the film, New York is a living, breathing organism, bottling the characters like test subjects, similar to how Howard Ratner is depicted in the director’s 2019 masterpiece Uncut Gems. Such has shades of Jarmusch’s filmmaking style, with the Safdie’s even naming 1984’s Stranger Than Paradise as a key text that accurately depicts New York City.
Check out the trailer for the Safdie brothers’ quintessentially ‘New York’ movie below, which isn’t for the faint-hearted.
