Paterson

What a lovely film Jim Jarmusch's "Paterson" is. An ode to finding the miracles in everyday life, the film dissects the beauty of the quotidian with so much compassion and sincerity that the result is beyond overwhelming.

The film takes us through a single week in the life of a bus driver in Paterson, New Jersey. His name, also Paterson, is the type of gimmick one would expect from a film of far lesser quality, but this particular work never succumbs to superficial storytelling.

We weave through Paterson's day-to-day with the same fluidity as the poetry he composes in his "secret notebook" during the down hours of his days -- the minutes before he departs on his daily route, his lunch breaks with a waterfall view, his strolls between the bus station and his home.

Paterson's poetry finds splendor in the simplest of things. An early poem he writes, about a box of Ohio Blue Tip matches, transforms into a love poem so gorgeous and moving that you'd never believe a miniscule matchbox inspired it.

Paterson's life is filled with uniformity and a repetitive rhythm, but Jarmusch extracts and amplifies the music within the monotony. Adam Driver plays the title character with a warm, introverted candor that is complemented wonderfully by the eccentricities and outward expression of his artist wife, Laura (Golshifteh Farahani).

There's a rare joy to be found in the relationship of this couple, who begin every day of this movie sleeping, dreaming, occasionally with their bodies intertwined. Their ability to dream is contrasted grandly -- he holds his poetry close to the hip, she expresses her passions wildly with what seems like a new dream taking ahold of her pursuits every day-but they work so well together in that they're dreaming extraordinary things within the confines of their ordinary lives.

The film's Blu-ray release comes with zero bonus features, and while a commentary from Jarmusch would've been quite welcome, the lack of surplus material feels oddly fitting for a movie of this nature. Life doesn't have bonus features, it just is. And the movie has enough bonuses during every rich second of its running time to satisfy a lifetime.

"Paterson"
Blu-ray and Digital HD
$26.98
https://www.uphe.com/movies/paterson