Jim Jarmusch’s seventh narrative feature (1999) focuses on a solitary inner-city maverick and hit man (Forest Whitaker) who lives on a rooftop with pigeons and has trained himself as a samurai according to the 18th-century book Hagakure: The Way of the Samurai, pledging loyalty to a New Jersey gangster (John Tormey) who once saved his life, whom he communicates with mainly by carrier pigeon. Like some of Jarmusch’s other films, this is essentially a poetic comic fantasy that has a lot to say about contemporary global culture; it’s beautifully cast and filmed (cinematography by the matchless Robby M