This is an absolute Gem that holds up even better some 21 years after its release. A sign of a true classic this film will forever be an insightful look into a certain slice of the American experience of the time period in which it was made and yet speaks to all time. I don't think people say they like this film to be cool or hip. Just possibly they like it because they are able to perceive its brilliant depth conveyed with minimal dialogue and profound simplicity. What the characters are going through, the extent of their boredom and disillusionment is so palpable. The best humor is not that of jokes and punch lines but in the irony and bemusement of the way things transpire. The revealing way people go about their lives. There can be a smile within the desolate, maybe it's a more profound sense of humor, that gets inside one when they begin to see it and they're whole world perception is altered. Less judgmental, more aware, an understanding of how sublime and absurd the human condition can be at the same time. Jim Jarmusch's movies are always an alternate reality within the one we all pretend to walk around in. He's a refreshing original, I'm grateful he's around making the movies he does in the mist of the formulaic, conventional heap of fodder the Hollywood machine tends to churn out.
Review of Stranger Than Paradise
