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The Limits of Control

  • 2009
  • R
  • 1h 56m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
22K
YOUR RATING
The Limits of Control (2009)
The story of a mysterious loner (De Bankolé), a stranger, whose activities remain meticulously outside the law. He is in the process of completing a job, yet he trusts no one, and his objectives are not initially divulged.
Play trailer1:36
6 Videos
99+ Photos
CrimeDramaMysteryThriller

The story of a mysterious loner, a stranger in the process of completing a criminal job.The story of a mysterious loner, a stranger in the process of completing a criminal job.The story of a mysterious loner, a stranger in the process of completing a criminal job.

  • Director
    • Jim Jarmusch
  • Writer
    • Jim Jarmusch
  • Stars
    • Isaach De Bankolé
    • Alex Descas
    • Jean-François Stévenin
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    22K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Jim Jarmusch
    • Writer
      • Jim Jarmusch
    • Stars
      • Isaach De Bankolé
      • Alex Descas
      • Jean-François Stévenin
    • 125User reviews
    • 113Critic reviews
    • 41Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win total

    Videos6

    The Limits of Control: UK Trailer
    Trailer 1:36
    The Limits of Control: UK Trailer
    The Limits of Control
    Trailer 1:40
    The Limits of Control
    The Limits of Control
    Trailer 1:40
    The Limits of Control
    The Limits of Control
    Clip 1:03
    The Limits of Control
    The Limits of Control
    Clip 1:40
    The Limits of Control
    The Limits Of Control: I Used My Imagination
    Clip 1:04
    The Limits Of Control: I Used My Imagination
    The Limits Of Control: Blonde
    Clip 1:41
    The Limits Of Control: Blonde

    Photos110

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    + 104
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    Top Cast48

    Edit
    Isaach De Bankolé
    Isaach De Bankolé
    • Lone Man
    Alex Descas
    Alex Descas
    • Creole
    Jean-François Stévenin
    Jean-François Stévenin
    • French
    Óscar Jaenada
    Óscar Jaenada
    • Waiter
    • (as Oscar Jaenada)
    Luis Tosar
    Luis Tosar
    • Violin
    Paz de la Huerta
    Paz de la Huerta
    • Nude
    Tilda Swinton
    Tilda Swinton
    • Blonde
    Yûki Kudô
    Yûki Kudô
    • Molecules
    • (as Youki Kudo)
    John Hurt
    John Hurt
    • Guitar
    Gael García Bernal
    Gael García Bernal
    • Mexican
    Hiam Abbass
    Hiam Abbass
    • Driver
    Bill Murray
    Bill Murray
    • American
    Héctor Colomé
    Héctor Colomé
    • Second American
    • (as Hector Colomé)
    María Isasi
    María Isasi
    • Flamenco Club Waitress
    • (as Maria Isasi)
    Norma Yessenia Paladines
    • Flight Attendant
    Alejandro Muñoz Biggie
    • Street Kid
    • (as Alexander Muñoz Biggie)
    Cristina Sierra Sánchez
    • Street Kid
    Pablo Lucas Ortega
    • Street Kid
    • Director
      • Jim Jarmusch
    • Writer
      • Jim Jarmusch
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews125

    6.221.8K
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    10

    Featured reviews

    6imseeg

    Portrait of a man who drinks espressos in Madrid. Only interesting for diehard Jim Jarmusch fans. NO storyline whatsoever. Big mystery theme though, that kept me curious...

    The "storyline": Nothing much happens at all. A man in Madrid orders an espresso, takes a train, walks in and out of a spanish museum in madrid, walks around town in madrid. No drama, no humor, just a man wandering about in Madrid getting secretive messages from strange secretive people

    Despite the failure to create drama, humor or suspense this movie still kept me curious about it's ending. I did enjoy it, but in the same way as I would enjoy watching landscapes pass by in the train. Soothing, mellow, calm. But for those who expect a story with some drama, my advice is to walk away. Only suited for die hard Jim Jarmusch fans. This is definitely NOT a typical gangster movie, although some might (wrongly) perceive it to be, having watched the trailer.

    I really adore (some of) Jim Jarmusch' work. But I do get bored by some of his movies as well. Jarmusch has a great knack for telling stories about people, who just wander about. Really. That's all they usually do in his movies. All of his movies are about people wandering around searching for something, waiting for something, escaping from something. Walking, waiting, wandering around. He has perfected these "wandering" storylines. He always slows his movies down to a level which is very uncommon and sometimes bordering on boring. The latter unfortunately is the case with "No limits No controls". It is basically a rather boring movie only interesting for die hard Jim Jarmusch fans, like myself . It is suited for those who love to relate to 100 year old paintings or movies no one has ever heard of beside an incrowd of movie geeks.

    Soundtracks in Jarmusch'movies are always eccentric. The music by "Boris" is impressive, edgy and heavy, but I felt it wasnt suited for the mood of this picture. The photography was lacking in originality, although some shots were very gorgeous, because of the beauty of Madrid. BUT the photography was almost entirely consisting of still shots, which were mostly not very impressive. Director Wes Anderson has perfected this still photography in his movies, many others have tried to copy it, but failed at it. So did the photographer in "No limits No control".

    Acting is great though. Great leading actor, which I had never heard of before. What a powerful face. He indeed doenst have to say anything, which he doesnt. Almost a silent movie, little to none dialogue. But it works. It creates some kind of mystery. Another trade mark of Jim Jarmusch. And there is also a great supporting cast although they only appear very short: Bill Murray (3minutes), John Hurt (5minutes), Abbass (5 minutes), Tilda Swinton (only 15 seconds), being pushed inside a car...

    Trivia endnote: The end credits mention "Quantum respect and broken flowers to Bart Walker". This Bart Walker fellow is one of the most thanked characters in movie history, because the man has a staggering 30 special thanks credits to his name at Imdb. He must be some sort of mysterious muse for Jim Jarmusch and other directors, because many great directors have thanked this Bart Walker guy many times over the last decades.
    rooprect

    Quickest review you've ever seen

    I'm not going to waste anyone's time with subjective yammering, whether it be positive ("a cinematic tour de force!") or negative ("pretentious artsy fluff!") because, let's face it, those comments don't mean squat to anyone but the person saying it.

    Instead, just rifle through this list of movies and if you liked any of them, you'll probably like this movie.

    "Tetro" (director Francis Ford Coppola, 2009), "Broken Flowers" (director Jim Jarmusch, 2005), "Before It Had a Name" (director Giada Colagrande, 2005), "A Scene at the Sea" (director Takeshi Kitano, 1991), "Der Himmel über Berlin" a.k.a. "Wings of Desire" (director Wim Wenders, 1987), "Paris, Texas" (director Wim Wenders, 1984).

    If you haven't heard of, or seen, any of those then just bear in mind that "Limits of Control", like the movies mentioned above, is very slow, almost uneventful, without a lot of revealing dialogue to carry the story. These stories are told in images, and it can be a real challenge keeping up, not because there are a lot of crazy twists and turns, but because there's almost nothing. I could sum up the plot of this movie in 8 words: "a day in the life of a hit-man". But if you're up for a challenge, give it a shot.
    7ricardojorgeramalho

    The Journey

    An abstract reflection on power and its transience. A risky film by Jim Jarmusch which, despite having stars in secondary roles, having the exoticism of being filmed in Spain and having many of the qualities to which this irreverent North American independent filmmaker has accustomed us, ends up leaving a slight bitter taste in the mouth.

    Deep down because Jarmusch stripped the film of everything superfluous, summarizing it as a bare course, without a classic plot beyond the essential message. Life is short and all power is vain and transitory. A simple journey whose destination is discovered at each stop.
    6Radiohans

    The Limits of Suggestiveness

    I was thinking that this was the abstract baby Lost in Translation and The American had, and just like that Bill Murray eventually makes an appearance. The way he looked at the skull on his desk really made me smile.

    The reason I watched this movie was because of Boris & Sunn O)))'s contribution to the soundtrack, and that was the only reason. Well, I was in for it! Personally I don't think this drone / doom metal soundtrack fits this movie, or almost any movie, but surely I am biased. And perhaps I've just listened too much to the songs beforehand so that I find they are too cut down, repetitive and out of place here. Boris's music worked in Kokuhaku, though.

    Also, did I get what The Limits of Control was about? Not overall, and I didn't like the unrealistic dialogues. It made the dominating silence in the movie seem more meaningless and less thought-provoking. Still, having random (famous) people ramble on about long-winded, ambiguous and quite irrelevant topics didn't lack charm (I'm not being completely sarcastic, especially in John Hurt's case). But hey, it is a very symbolic and long-dragged movie that shrouds its various points with mystery. It is a full-blown "show, don't tell" piece of film. Make what you will of it; I was entertained throughout but I did not arrive at any satisfactory conclusion.

    However, the wavering of the camera in the last second of the movie had me wondering. Did I limit this movie?
    lefaikone

    Jim, next time you get a midlife crisis, buy a Harley like the rest of us

    I think I can somehow imagine what Jarmusch was trying to deliver with this - some sort of an existentialistic feeling of being abandoned in this world, and how arts and music etc. reflect our world-view and life in general. May have worked in theory, but definitely not in practice. To me, Jim Jarmusches works are all about cutting the technical nonsense to the minimum, and replacing it with powerful inner depth, such as interesting and multileveled characters - this one seemed to be the other way around.

    The whole thing smelt like new wave and Godard ten miles away, with the whole style, and all the references to it (for example the Spanish girl holding the gun to Bankolé's face was almost exact reference to Godard's Made in U.S.A.) - and I didn't like the scent of it one bit. It was superficial, and didn't evoke any feelings in me. It was like Jarmusch was trying to speak with a language that wasn't his own. And the whole anti-capitalist "black James Bond" theme came as just naive to me.

    About the only things that left me a good taste in my mouth, was the feeling of loneliness and emptiness that it delivered, plus John Hurt's short appearance with his monologue with the Kaurismäki- reference. That's about it, and even the mood was almost ruined by the two-pence Neil Young that kept on howling on the back.

    Never would have believed to say this about a Jarmusch movie, but it was a huge disappointment.

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    Related interests

    James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Sharon Angela, Max Casella, Dan Grimaldi, Joe Perrino, Donna Pescow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Tony Sirico, and Michael Drayer in The Sopranos (1999)
    Crime
    Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali, Janelle Monáe, André Holland, Herman Caheej McGloun, Edson Jean, Alex R. Hibbert, and Tanisha Cidel in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown (1974)
    Mystery
    Cho Yeo-jeong in Parasite (2019)
    Thriller

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The Finnish movie, to which Man with Guitar (Sir John Hurt) refers, is The Bohemian Life (1992) by Director Aki Kaurismäki, a friend of Writer and Director Jim Jarmusch.
    • Goofs
      When the Lone Man travels from Madrid to Sevilla, he enters a S 100 AVE train set. But the interior shots are clearly done in a S 103 (Velaro E), a totally different - and much newer - type of train.
    • Quotes

      Blonde: Are you interested in films, by any chance? I like really old films. You can really see what the world looked like, thirty, fifty, a hundred years ago. You know the clothes, the telephones, the trains, the way people smoked cigarettes, the little details of life. The best films are like dreams you're never sure you've really had. I have this image in my head of a room full of sand. And a bird flies towards me, and dips its wing into the sand. And I honestly have no idea whether this image came from a dream, or a film. Sometimes I like it in films when people just sit there, not saying anything.

    • Crazy credits
      "NO LIMITS NO CONTROL" at the end of the closing credits
    • Connections
      Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Watchmen/Shuttle/12 (2009)
    • Soundtracks
      Feedbacker
      Written & Performed by Boris

      Courtesy of Boris

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    FAQ20

    • How long is The Limits of Control?Powered by Alexa
    • Is "The Limits of Control" based on a novel?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 19, 2009 (Japan)
    • Countries of origin
      • United States
      • Japan
    • Languages
      • English
      • Spanish
      • Arabic
      • French
      • Japanese
    • Also known as
      • No Limits No Control
    • Filming locations
      • Estación de Doña María-Ocaña, Doña María, Almería, Andalucia, Spain(small train station)
    • Production companies
      • Focus Features
      • Entertainment Farm (EF)
      • PointBlank Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $426,688
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $55,820
      • May 3, 2009
    • Gross worldwide
      • $1,981,718
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 56m(116 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
      • DTS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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