Even the great ones hit snags. With The Limits of Control, Jim Jarmsuch gets tangled up in his own deadpan. I'd explain a little of the plot, but there isn't any. Just the stoic visage of Isaach De Bankolé as a nameless hitman who wanders through non-touristy Spain (shot with a poet's eye by the masterful Christopher Doye) doing meet-and-greets with terrific actors, such as Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Gael Garcia Bernal and John Hurt. They don't act, really. They strike poses. But it's a kick just to watch Swinton swanning around in a cheap white wig that makes her look like Jarmusch or a maybe daughter of Lee Marvin. When the hitman just stares at her, she expounds on Orson Welles' The Lady From Shanghai, another treatise on cinematic abstraction. Jarmusch is the antidote to everything Fast and Furious in Hollywood. His metaphysical journey across the border of life and death (laugh softly, Jarmusch wouldn't mind) may cause permanent harm to audiences drawn to Hannah Montana: The Movie. For that reason, at least, it is recommended.

(Get more news and reviews from Peter Travers on his blog, the Travers Take)

“1999”

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.