Pop’s Cult Theater: Jarmusch January

Pop’s Cult Theater is here! Every month, we’ll be curating a double feature featuring flicks that are a little bit weird, a little bit different, and a whole lot of kickass.

For our January installment, Pop’s Cult Theater is bringing you Jarmusch January featuring two of Jim Jarmusch’s classic anthology films: MYSTERY TRAIN (1989) and NIGHT ON EARTH (1991).

In our first film, aloof teenage Japanese tourists, a frazzled Italian widow, and a disgruntled British immigrant all converge in the city of dreams—which, in Mystery Train, from Jim Jarmusch, is Memphis. Made with its director’s customary precision and wit, this triptych of stories pays playful tribute to the home of Stax Records, Sun Studio, Graceland, Carl Perkins, and, of course, the King, who presides over the film like a spirit. Mystery Train is one of Jarmusch’s very best movies, a boozy and beautiful pilgrimage to an iconic American ghost town and a paean to the music it gave the world.

In our second film,  Night on Earth Jim Jarmusch assembled an extraordinary international cast of actors (including Gena Rowlands, Winona Ryder, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Beatrice Dalle, and Roberto Benigni) for this hilarious quintet of tales of urban displacement and existential angst, spanning time zones, continents, and languages. Jarmusch’s lovingly askew view of humanity from the passenger seat makes for one of his most charming and beloved films. Five cities. Five taxicabs. A multitude of strangers in the night.