Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)

 

Almost a decade on, Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson remains a sublime counterpoint to prevailing concerns and moods, its protagonist exemplifying the elevating capacities of a focus on small pleasures. That individual, Paterson (a perfectly calibrated Adam Driver) is a bus driver in Paterson, New Jersey, and also a poet, writing in his little notebook before each shift, during breaks, composing as he walks and in his little basement space at home. Paterson has at least one foot in a bygone age: he doesn’t have a smartphone – during an emergency he has to borrow one from a kid – and although we’re told his wife Laura has one, I’m not sure we ever glimpse it; in contrast, the shots of him holding and turning over beloved volumes of poetry carry a beautiful, unfussy weight, and when the couple goes to the movies, it’s to the 1932 Island of Lost Souls. Laura (a very sweet Golshifteh Farahani) is equally creative, but in a less-applied manner, more focused on notions of fame and money; during the film we see her paint (the apartment, the shower curtain, her clothes), start to learn the guitar, bake masses of cup cakes for a new stand at the farmer’s market, experiment with new recipes, all of which he’s supportive of in a sometimes rather nonplussed-seeming manner (we never learn how they got together, and the nature of their bond is a little mysterious, but unquestionably real and durable). Paterson, the city, probably isn’t many people’s idea of a must-visit, but the film establishes various points of beauty, and a diverse cultural history including as the birthplace both of Lou Costello and of a prominent Italian anarchist, the broader point being that even the most circumscribed life may find enrichment both through heightened attention to local possibilities, and by drawing on shared heritage. No doubt there’s an idealized aspect to the film, exemplified by how Paterson randomly meets not one but two fellow poets within a few days of each other, but the cumulative effect is at the very least warming, if not transcending.