Review of Stranger Than Paradise (1984) by Christopher C — 06 Oct 2010

I've enjoyed several of Jim Jarmusch's later films and I was looking forward to seeing his first big venture, STRANGER THAN PARADISE, which was released in 1984. There's little plot to speak off: young Willy (John Lurie) finds his East Village privacy invaded by his Hungarian cousin Eva (Eszter Balint), who has to crash at his place for 10 days before moving on to an aunt in Cleveland. Willy's pal Eddie (Richard Edson) shows up a couple of times and awkwardly flirts with this exotic beauty. Eventually, Eva moves on, but not before Willy's unhappiness at Eva's unexpected arrival has softened to an uneasy camaraderie. In the second and third episodes, STRANGER THAN PARADISE becomes a road movie, but what little action there is serves only to present the deadpan humour of the interaction between the characters.

STRANGER THAN PARADISE seems very immature compared to the confident DOWN BY LAW that followed only two years later. Most of the actors don't seem to know what they're doing here -- Jarmusch chose to use untrained actors, and the result is not unassuming and natural, but simply awkward. (Compare to DOWN BY LAW, where Lurie's role fit him like a glove.) The interaction between Willy and Eddie is far too similar to sitcom situations where the confident main character acts as a straight man to a seedy friend who wants to be hip but is just too congenitally goofy to manage it. That said, a few bits are quite funny, such as a cameo appearance by Rammellzee, or the aftermath of an evening at the cinema. Jarmusch also reveals great skill in framing shots with no camera movement necessary.

And from a vantage point three decades later, I find it remarkable that, for a Cold War-era film featuring characters from the Communist bloc, STRANGER THAN PARADISE never tries to portray Eva's new home as a promised land and her native Hungary as misery. (Anyone remember MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON?) Indeed, the America depicted by the film is a grim landscape of decrepit city streets or suburban industrial wastelands, and the aunt's life in the outskirts of Cleveland consists only of watching television.

I'd recommend this film mainly to fans of Jarmusch who have seen later, more successful productions.