Mystery Train

R

Released Nov 17, 1989

1 hr. 53 min.

Comedy

Drama

List

89%

36 Reviews

Tomatometer

87%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

A seedy hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, provides the backdrop for three separate tales, featuring everything from a kitsch-obsessed Japanese couple (Masatoshi Nagase, Yûki Kudô) to a trio of amateur robbers (Joe Strummer, Rick Aviles, Steve Buscemi) who discover the true nature of their relationship during a botched heist. Linking the stories together is the hotel's eccentric and creepy night clerk (Screamin' Jay Hawkins) as well as the spirit of Elvis Presley.

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Critics Consensus

Mystery Train meanders by design, but it never goes off the rails, retaining its deadpan cool throughout.

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Aender S

Great movie in Jim Jarmusch's typical style of three stories tied loosely together.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/25/24

Full Review

Vito P

A hotel in a dilapidated urban environment, three loosely connected stories with likable and unique characters, and immense narrative power in the first one.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

11/13/23

Full Review

Logan M

Classic Jim Jarmusch. If you like quirky movies, comedy movies or independent movies, this is a must-watch.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/12/23

Full Review

TheFilmReviewer 1

Showcasing a virtually unknown cast at the time, Mystery Train is a brilliantly original dramedy with excellent directing and writing by Jim Jarmusch.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/02/23

Full Review

Tony S

In all of Jarmusch's other movies, I really don't mind the meandering as long as the character that meanders is interesting. It doesn't mean that something necessarily engaging needs to happen, but in this movie it is clear that the main character is the director's love for Americana and Memphis. Mystery Train has a few good characters, like the clerk and bellboy (to the point where I wish it was about them), great cinematography, and a great soundtrack, but in every other aspect it's dull. All three stories have a peppering of Elvis, but in reality, it could have been literally anyone. The template is already there in the first story. None of the stories converge outside of a few incorporations, and nothing even justifies the structure of the movie. It's just 100 minutes of rarely amusing scenes of badly padded dialogue in vignettes with bizarre allusions that only serve to question the character's artificiality. Lost in Space, because Buscemi is lost in space with those two idiots, and that's why he doesn't just leave. That's great. It's also not interesting. The movie insists on being an anti-climax, subverting the dreaded conventions of storytelling to its detriment. It's definitely not Jim Jarmusch's best.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

05/18/22

Full Review

william d

Uneven yet still entertaining. Youki Kudoh is a delight.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Jim Jarmusch

Director

Masatoshi Nagase

Jun

Nicoletta Braschi

Luisa

Joe Strummer

Johnny aka Elvis

Yûki Kudô

Mitsuko

Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Night Clerk

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John Pym

Sight & Sound

Mystery Train, evocatively photographed by the clear-eyed outsider Robby Muller, is occasionally touched with comic inspiration.

Jan 11, 2020

Full Review

Chris Nashawaty

Entertainment Weekly

The three-part structure of Mystery Train is still a bit shambling and slight, but there's an undeniable air of deadpan cool that permeates the film and gives it a haunting sense of place.

Rated: B+

Jun 10, 2010

Full Review

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Happily, Jarmusch's formal inventiveness is framed by a rare flair for zany entertainment ...

Jun 24, 2006

Full Review

Rene Jordan

El Nuevo Herald (Miami)

The grand pleasure of Mystery Train is seeing how a film with all the possibilities of being boring and soporific has a special dose of adrenaline within every demented sequence. [Full review in Spanish]

Nov 3, 2022

Full Review

Catherine Saalfield

OutWeek

Jarmusch says, 'Sometimes two people going to have an ice cream cone can be much more dramatic or insightful than two people shooting at each other.' What makes Mystery Train different is that he gives us both.

May 20, 2020

Full Review

Michael Guarnieri

The Spool

It's a film about atmosphere and about feeling more than anything else, and in its own fashion succeeds remarkably.

Jan 16, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

A seedy hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, provides the backdrop for three separate tales, featuring everything from a kitsch-obsessed Japanese couple (Masatoshi Nagase, Yûki Kudô) to a trio of amateur robbers (Joe Strummer, Rick Aviles, Steve Buscemi) who discover the true nature of their relationship during a botched heist. Linking the stories together is the hotel's eccentric and creepy night clerk (Screamin' Jay Hawkins) as well as the spirit of Elvis Presley.

Director: Jim Jarmusch
Executive Producer: Kunijiro Hirata, Hideaki Suda
Screenwriter: Jim Jarmusch
Production Co: JVC Entertainment
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 17, 1989, Original
Release Date (Streaming): May 22, 2017

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