Review of Paterson (2016) by Dirigiblepulp — 24 Feb 2017
The beauty in the routine of everyday life. The most Japanese American movie ever made. Paterson is shaped like a poem, with its repeating structure of slight everyday variation, and suggests that, maybe, if we stopped to think about it once in a while, we could see the beauty in most things. Everything isn't poetry until we stop to see it as such, to think about it as such, to express it as such.
This is the most pleasant of films, filled with likable characters and pleasing conversation. You don't really want it to end, much like life, and it's not always the most thrilling -- except when it is, sometimes at the most inopportune of times -- much like life. Paterson and Laura have a perfectly dichotomous relationship -- representing the need for balance, for helping to see the world from a different point of view -- with Driver and Farahani having nice chemistry.
Paterson doesn't care if his (or its) poetry is any good. What matters is the strive for it and the need for it. Poetry doesn't have to be elitist, dense, high-brow, etc. It can be what you make of it. Maybe that's too simplistic, but this is just the one point of view, of many.
This review of Paterson (2016) was written by Dirigiblepulp on 24 Feb 2017.
Paterson has generally received very positive reviews.
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