NZIFF Film Review: "Paterson" (2016).

"Beauty is often found in the smallest details" in Paterson. This drama film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. A quiet observation of the triumphs and defeats of daily life, along with the poetry evident in its smallest details.

In April 2014, it was announced that Jarmusch would write and direct a film about a poet living in Paterson, New Jersey. By Fall 2015, it was revealed that Adam Driver and Golshifteh Farahani had been cast in the film. Driver went to bus driving school for his role in the film. Production crew was arranging for Driver to get a bus license, and while they were trying to organize it, he on his own figured it out and was already in the school. Driver became a licensed bus driver. He wanted to be able to be on "auto pilot" while driving the bus. It also meant that the film could feature more authentic footage opening up the possibilities for a greater variety of camera shots. He was taught over a period of three months in Queens, New York City, passing the test one week before filming began. William Jackson Harper, Barry Shabaka Henley, Masatoshi Nagase, Kara Hayward, Jared Gilman, Method Man, and Sterling Jerins rounded out the film's cast. Around the same time, principal photography commenced, and was shot over thirty days. Filming took place in Paterson, New Jersey and throughout New York.

The film stars Driver, Farahani, Harper, Henley, Nagase, Hayward, Gilman, Method Man, and Jerins. Driver shows us that what was behind his early-period raging youth persona was a sincere and sensitive man. After a career of extreme raging, Driver's impassive performance is still fresh, funny, sympathetic and restrained. Driver's performance is a highlight in a very entertaining drama. Like Murray, in Driver, Jarmusch has found his quintessential actor.

Driver's subtle and understated style complements Jarmusch's minimalist storytelling in this quirky, but deadpan comedy. Funny, bittersweet, its understatement yielding surprising depth charges, Paterson is a triumph of close observation and telling details. Many will relish the film's refusal to serve up a resolution; others will find it frustrating. Inevitably, that's Jarmusch: like Driver's character journey, the rewards lie in the small moments that fade as much as the ones that linger. Insightful, entertaining, and a worthy addition to the filmography of one of America's more interesting modern directors. Poignant, disciplined, and acted with great skill and warmth. Each encounter is a finely observed and beautifully performed vignette in its own right, but together they sketch out a past from which our grey Lothario has been irrevocably set adrift. A film of wry humour and wry observations. Subtle, warm direction from Jarmusch and an Oscar-worthy performance from Driver - will the Academy just give him a statue, already? It's about questions, not easy answers, and its refusal to provide them might frustrate some viewers unaccustomed to Jarmusch's elliptical style. However, the film, coming from a postcode of its own, doesn't quite deliver. A marvelous film, with Driver scoring in the realm of drama. It throbs with compressed emotion.

Simon says Paterson receives:

Also, see my review for Gimme Danger and Everybody Wants Some!!