Stranger Than Paradise

Considering how many movies I’ve been able to watch during this semester, this weekend has been a productive movie watchin weekend for me; I’ve seen three movies so far (or maybe two and a half since one was a collection of shorts). On Friday I watched Rataouille and Pixar Short Film Collection, not too much to say, entertaining and typical Disney, I found Ratatouille especially to be quite classic Disney, but I don’t really know what made me feel that way. I needed to balance this entertainment and easyness out with Jim Jarmusch’s 1984 indie film Stranger Than Paradise, a movie about a stiff relationship between Hungarian cousins. The movie is quite theatrical, many of the scenes are long and take place on the same set. The movie starts with a long scene at the main character Willie’s apartment and then turns into a sort of road movie with Willie and his friend Eddie. The two friends and later Willie’s cousin Eva go on a road trip to New York, Cleveland and Florida and the movie presents these places as very similar. It is a pretty stiff film, not too much happens but there is always that tension throughout the movie that Jim Jarmusch is so good at. I can definitely recommend this movie if you are a fan of Jarmusch or independent film.