Oft-imitated, rarely bettered American cult director Jim Jarmusch's latest written and directed film, The Limits of Control is set for a February 4th release through Universal Pictures Home Video. Jarmusch has been making his customarily offbeat, quirky and memorable movies for thirty years. His 1980 debut Permanent Vacation details the existential adventures of a young jazz-loving Manhattanite loner, roaming through town, running into characters, and searching for The Meaning of Life (not the Monty Python film). Just by this brief synopsis, one gets to know what Jarmusch was, and is, all about. His films, aprticularly the early ones, are highly infuenced by the French new wave cinema of the '60s. And it goes without saying Jarmusch is not without his own influence on the next generation of US indie filmmakers like Richard Linklater and (early) Kevin Smith.

The film that really put Jarmusch on the map though is 1984's Stranger than Paradise, a film about yet another young New York hipster-slacker, who is paid a visit by his teenage Hungarian cousin. The two go on a road adventure to Cleveland to visit their aunty and then down to Florida, where they lose all their money then inadvertently gain a fortune. His early films are full of oddball characters, beautiful black-and-white photography and great music. Throughout the '80s his films attracted such out-of-left-field stars as musicians Tom Waits, Joe Strummer, John Lurie and Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Into the '90s the Hollywood establishment started paying more attention, with stars like Johnny Depp and Forest Whitaker as leads in Dead Man and Ghost Dog respectively, two of his more ambitious, fantastical movies.

Throughout the last decade a myriad of Hollywood mega-stars have been tripping over themselves to appear in Jarmusch's films, from Cate Blanchett to Bill Murray (in the idiosyncratic series of vignettes collectively known as Coffee and Cigarettes). Fast-forward to 2009 and The Limits of Control, starring the prolific but relatively obscure actor Isaach De Bankolé (from TV's 24, amongst many other things) in the lead role. He is a loner in Spain, on a mission that isn't initially divulged. He trusts no one on this surreal journey through the wonderfully shot streets of Spain and his own consciousness. Jarmusch takes to this film with trademark minimalism. The loner is a man of few words, to say the least (no pun intended), Eastwood's Man With No Name-like. The people he meets do the talking - and they're quite a bunch - Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray and John Hurt to name just a few.

The Limits of Control is, above all, a Jim Jarmusch film - and his fans ought to love it. It's in stores February 4th.