Review of Stranger Than Paradise (1984) by Jason M — 16 Mar 2010

This deceptively simple movie, Jim Jarmusch's first, has been called the first modern independent film. Shot in black and white, it follows the nonadventures of three completely aimless characters, Willie, Eddie and Willie's cousin Eva.

The first scenes mostly show Willie lying in bed or smoking a cigarette in his dingy Brooklyn apartment. His friend Eddie visits and they sit silently drinking beer. When Cousin Eva from Hungary arrives, the three of them sit around watching television.

Not very exciting maybe, but there is a subtle genius to the way this film progresses. Eva goes to Cleveland to live with her aunt; Eddie and Willie decide to visit her. Soon the three drive down to Florida.

Each landscape is portrayed as desolate and depressing. The shots look like black and white photos from the Old West, or perhaps the depression. Gradually the three interact and display emotion, though it is all within the rigid confines of their incredibly limited existence.

There is quite a bit of deadpan humor, which works precisely because the actors seem unaware of it. The performances are all completely natural and understated, containing none of the self-conscious hipness of many more recent art films.

This is probably the closest any film has come to portraying a pure existentialism that is both funny and tragic. These characters utterly lack any sense of purpose, ambition or connectedness to a wider world.

What's more and what is a little disturbing is the way this film, if you get into the spirit of it, makes you seriously question whether anyone can truly break through these limits. On one level, we can wonder at and laugh at the apparent stupidity of these people as they sit in silence or engage in ridiculous conversations about nothing.

On another level these scenes have an honesty and simple intensity that makes you (or me at least) suspect that the grandiose plans, action and meaning that fills the screen in most other films is mainly pomp and vanity.

I admire the way Jarmusch allows nothing to happen much of the time. It's a refreshing contrast to mainstream films filled with mindless action, tediously hip dialogue and "meaningful" relationships.

Not that all films should be like Stranger Than Paradise; but its unique style puts other films --and life--into a new and greater perspective.