Review of Stranger Than Paradise (1984) by Andhika B — 14 Jun 2010
You'd be tempted to call long-shot + long-take realism if you didn't know that all directors are automatically formalists; that is, all directors that care about what they're doing are formalists, and the rest aren't even really artists.
So, Jim Jarmusch is one of the most realist formalists (or was at one point), and this movie is one of the best illustrations of that. It appears that nothing is being accomplished from scene to scene, yet tiny things never stop developing, and because the actors imitate life so well, it's easy to keep watching, even while wondering why you keep watching.
I've just been in a debate over the movie "Lost In Translation," citing the lack of eventfullness as the reason people dislike it, even though it's amazing. "Stranger Than Paradise" is like "Lost In Translation" divided by 10.
Even less happens, yet the direction is unmistakably good. "Stranger Than Paradise" is like a photograph of early '80s life without trying to hard to seem like a photograph of early '80s life.
Where does that fall on the scale of pretension? Wellllllll, actually it's fine that movies like this exist. Even though "nothing" happens, it's galaxies more entertaining than empty trash like "I, Robot.
" That's right. Galaxies. What now?
This review of Stranger Than Paradise (1984) was written by Andhika B on 14 Jun 2010.
Stranger Than Paradise has generally received very positive reviews.
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