This episode is a completely audio-only essay, designed like a casual phone call from your neighborhood cinephile friend. You can hit play on the video below to listen along, but if you’re someone who prefers to skip the audio and just read, I’ve got you covered! You can scroll past the video player to find the full, cleaned-up transcript of the discussion down below.

Well, let me tell you something about my first time watching Jim Jarmusch’s 1989 film, Mystery Train. I’m going to tell you what it’s really about.

First, let’s look at what it is on the surface. The film follows three intersecting stories, and it’s really not about a train as much as it is about a hotel. There are two Japanese tourists who are there to see both Sun Records and Graceland, though they only end up seeing one. There is an Italian woman who is there to claim her late husband’s body and take him back to Italy, and we aren’t really told why. Along the way, she encounters a strange sort of tourist trap and hears a story about a phantom hitchhiker. Then, in the third story, there are three bumbling, accidental criminals. It’s played for laughs.

The whole town of Memphis, as it’s depicted in this film, is very weathered and run-down. I can confirm this from personal experience: I was there about 15 years after this was filmed, and it still looked like that. It wasn’t uninviting, it was just the least gaudy tourist town that I’ve ever been to. That wasn’t what you would expect, seeing as how Elvis was known for being flashy.

If I had to guess what this movie is actually about, it comes down to a contrast in the music history. In the film, the Japanese couple takes a very boring tour of Sun Studios. But then there’s also a scene featuring a boarded-up theater with “STAX” written all over it. If you know anything about Memphis, you know that Stax Records is where the really great stuff came out of, not Sun. Yet, Sun has this beautifully preserved studio, while Stax is boarded up. It’s like the ghost of Elvis is hanging over Memphis, but there was so much more to the city’s music. Of course, it all actually came out of the Black community, which doesn’t get the credit.

That’s just my interpretation of the film. It’s difficult to interpret Jarmusch, and you can just view it as a “slice of life” piece. I suppose I always have a little trouble figuring out what’s really going on in his movies.

When I was in Memphis, I expected to really be tripping out on the tackiness of Graceland, but I actually just felt kind of sad. They made us all put on these Walkmans to listen to a tape. You were totally isolated as you went through, living in your own world with no live tour guide.

Speaking of tour guides, the one at Sun Records in the film was incredibly lackluster. It actually reminded me of the tour guide at the Alamo in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

I have a few other distinct memories from that trip. My dad saw a pistol lying right in the street, and we didn’t stop to pick it up. I think he is still a little regretful of that in a silly way, because my dad is a silly guy.

I also remember they didn’t have a Walmart anywhere near where we were staying. You actually had to drive into Mississippi to find one. My friend and I decided that we wanted to play Trivial Pursuit in the middle of the night, so we drove all the way to Mississippi to hit the Walmart, and then drove back to our hotel on Elvis Presley Boulevard. There’s a casino right there on the Mississippi side, and then if you go over another bridge, you’re in Arkansas.

Memphis is a great place to visit, and you’re supposed to hear live music while you’re there. But when I went, the only band I could find playing on or near Beale Street was GWAR. So, that is my ultimate Memphis music story: seeing GWAR and eating fried pickles at a restaurant owned by B.B. King.

That’s Mystery Train for you: it’s still a mystery. The ghost of Elvis hangs over the entire film. There’s even a nightclub named “Shades” where some of the action takes place, and a “shade” is another word for a ghost. Plus, Rick Aviles, the guy who played the killer in Ghost, is in this movie. It is just ghosts, ghosts, ghosts.

If you want to catch Mystery Train, you have to see it before the end of the month before it leaves the Criterion Channel. I highly recommend that you do. Boo!