BEFORE: I know very little about this film, and honestly, that's the way I prefer it. Who wants to know too much? Then, why even bother watching the damn thing? This one came out in 2016 and seems to have REALLY flown below the radar - though it did win a small prize at Cannes and got a bunch of other random nominations. I haven't seen it airing on cable, though it's been three years since it was released, and I didn't find it on any streaming service until I brought home the Academy screener, as that seemed to be the only way I was ever going to get to see it. But I checked Amazon Prime just on a whim, and there it was, so I'm not even skirting the law tonight in order to watch.
Adam Driver carries over from "BlacKkKlansman" - one more film with him in September after tonight, and then he'll be back in December for "Star Wars: Episode IX".
THE PLOT: A week in the life of a New Jersey bus drivers is an observation of the triumphs and defeats of daily life, along with the poetry evident in its smallest details.
AFTER: Well, now I know why this film was so under the radar - it's just a quiet little indie film with no car crashes, no alien invasion, no bank robberies or bounty hunters on a suspect's trail. There's this bus driver in Paterson, New Jersey, and he - get this - drives his bus. He wakes up every day at the same time, he has some breakfast, he goes to work, and every day there are different people on his bus and they talk about different things. That's about it, so if that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, then you can probably skip this one and move along, and not even feel guilty about it.
Wait, he also writes poetry, though it doesn't rhyme, but I guess it doesn't have to - and he comes home to his girlfriend and he listens to her plans to learn to play guitar, or bake cupcakes to sell at the farmer's market, or paint various objects in the house, and he also walks his dog, usually down to the corner bar, where he's a regular and he drinks beer and talks with the bartender and the other regulars.
There are hints that this might turn into something, like there are some gang members (?) who admire his bulldog, and they make a joking remark about how somebody might steal the dog (I think) and then there's an ongoing love-feud at the bar where some woman wants to be just friends, but her friend keeps proclaiming his love for her. And the bartender's wife is made because he "borrowed" her money so he could enter a chess tournament. Any of these things could have turned into an important plot point, but it's just not that kind of movie.
In a way, this is a bit like a poem itself - just as a poem is a collection of words that may fit together in a pleasing way, or they may not, the scenes here form a collection of moments in this man's life, and you may find that they come together in a pleasing way, or you may not. I know that after an hour I was desperate for a car crash, or an alien invasion, or a bank robbery - ANYTHING to perk this film up a little bit, but any of those things would have been horribly out of place here. I don't know, maybe you can appreciate a quiet little film about a (relatively) boring life, maybe you will see yourself in this man, or maybe not. Maybe this film will annoy the heck out of you because of all the things that DON'T happen in it.
But again, it's got the rhythm of a life, which is a bit like the rhythm of a poem - you get up, you eat, you go to work, you do what you do there, you go home, you watch a TV show or a movie, you talk with your spouse/lover/roommate, you walk your dog or feed your cat, you go to bed. Or maybe you do some of those things, or none of those things, but you probably have your own systems, your own rhythms. If you do it right there's a zen-like quality to it, and so there's also a zen-like quality to this movie. I tried to sit back and relax and enjoy it, once I realized that nothing major was likely to happen.
A couple of things - the character is named Paterson, and he lives in Paterson, the town. It's hard to say if this is just a coincidence, or if it means something. Does he embody the spirit of the town? Are we who we are because of where we live? Or do we live where we live because of who we are? Maybe this is just a convenience or a contrivance and has no higher symbolic meaning.
Also, something bad does (eventually) happen. I won't get into it here, because they certainly telegraphed it enough, so it's not hard to see it coming. It's a personal sort of setback that could happen to anyone, it's a tragedy that also has something of a comic element to it, and who knows, maybe it's for the best that it happened. It's all a matter of perspective, or it's based on how much you like or hate amateur poetry.
Also, be prepared to learn a LOT about the famous people who were born in (or temporarily lived in) Paterson, NJ. Like Lou Costello, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Allen Ginsberg, "Uncle" Floyd Vivino, William Carlos Williams, and Fetty Wap. But they really only scratched the surface, I guess there wasn't enough time to name-check Teresa Giudice, MAD magazine cartoonist Don Martin, "West Wing" actor John Spencer, Patrick Warburton, Bruce Vilanch and sci-fi/comic book writer J. Michael Straczynski.
But this film also reunites the two young stars of "Moonrise Kingdom", who play two teens having a conversation on Paterson's bus, discussing Italian anarchist Gaetano Bresci, who also briefly lived in Paterson. I met Jared Gilman a couple of times, he came to our booth at New York Comic Con two years in a row with his parents. I think the first time was only a few months after I'd seen "Moonrise Kingdom", so it was a bit of a thrill. I don't think he's been in many movies since, which is sort of smart if he's choosing his projects carefully, but if an actor doesn't make that many movies he also runs the risk of Hollywood forgetting who he is - some might argue that you have to appear in as many movies as you can before you wear out your welcome.
As for Adam Driver, it seems like he balances those high-profile appearances in the "Star Wars" movies by appearing in little indie films like this one (or "Frances Ha", or "The Meyerowitz Stories (New & Selected)". Good for him, I suppose. It's important to stay well-rounded.
Also starring Golshifteh Farahani (last seen in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales"), Barry Shabaka Henley (last seen in "A Star Is Born"), William Jackson Harper (last seen in "True Story"), Chasten Harmon, Rizwan Manji (last seen in "Don Jon"), Masatoshi Nagase, Kara Hayward (last heard in "Isle of Dogs"), Jared Gilman (last seen in "Moonrise Kingdom"), Method Man (last seen in "The Wackness"), Trev Parham, Troy Parham, Johnnie Mae (last seen in "The Family Fang"), Frank Harts (ditto), Sterling Jerins, Brian McCarthy, Luis Da Silva Jr. (last seen in "Mr. Right") and Nellie (the bulldog).
RATING: 5 out of 10 slices of "secret pie"
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