Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016): Country: USA

Reviewed by Felix Palmqvist, Viewed at AFI Film Festival, 2016.

Interesting film! Different script and different way of film-making, with long static shots which I usually do not like too much but I think it worked out great in this movie. I would recommend you to watch this film because it opens up your mind to the middle class of America and their day to day life, ups and down, and interesting events even tough every day is the same, same job, same time, meet the same people.

I watched this screening at the AFI Film Festival in Hollywood, did not meet or listen to the director – Jim Jarmusch.

In the first act of the film, you will go thru a regular Monday of the life of a Paterson, New Jersey couple. The guy working as a local bus driver but is also a very dedicated to write poems – yet does not want to be called a poet. He is a very calm and orderly man in what seems to be his early 30’s. His girlfriend, couple years younger, really pretty girl. They seem to have a calm and steady relationship but there seems to be constant anxiety that she’s gonna leave him.

Then the rest goes by, day by day, takes you thru their life, a lot is the same from day to day, yet there is a lot of things that goes differently.
The whole week passes, a lot of things are happening, a lot of thoughts comes and goes thru the mind of the bus driver, which you find out by the poems he is writing every day.

This really reminds me of myself when I used to work at a similar job back in Sweden, how every day was the same, waking up at the same time, the same set-up. The only difference is that that life drove me crazy, but they seem to handle it perfectly, that is why I found this film very interesting.

Very entertaining film, even though nothing really happen, it did not follow the typical structure of a film, but it worked out well and that is very impressive.

Good film 7/10.