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Paterson is the film is a young man called Paterson, who drives a bus in the town of Paterson, New Jersey.
Taking in a week of his life, Adam Driver (Kylo Ren in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens) narrates a series of poems he writes on a daily basis, but he won’t show these to anyone else including his hot, artistic girlfriend, Laura (Golshifteh Farahani). Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, only he could get away with a film about a man who finds beauty in even the smallest details of a box of Ohio Blue Tip matches… which the couple appear to have in spades despite neither of them being smokers.
Along the way, he observes the passengers on his bus, and as he chats to the barman in the evening, who’s plays chess against himself, the proprietor declares “I’m getting my ass kicked today!”. Situations like that show how the film hints at telling you to take in the random conversations we have with people as it shows the unique variety life can give us. In addition, at times these feel like the inconsequential conversations we heard in Richard Linklater’s Waking Life.
Led by a character who eschews ownership of a mobile phone, Paterson is a gentle film that’s certainly worth a watch but I don’t know if it’s worth a purchase. However, Jarmusch has a lot of fans, so a lot of people will.
The film is presented in the original 1.85:1 widescreen theatrical ratio and is in 1080p high definition, and has zero issues with the picture, as you’d expect from a modern film.
The sound is in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and as it’s a drama, there aren’t any split-surround moments of note. It’s a dialogue piece, mainly, although it does have a pleasing, complementary score.
The extras are brief, but there are some decent ones, here:
- Q&A with Adam Driver (19:48): An interesting extra – one question I was thinking of, since the film runs one day after another – was it all shot in sequence? Well, it’s a no, as there are a number of locations used each ‘day’, so they’ll do all the shots of each location one at a time.
Oddly, this takes place WHILE the end credits of the film are playing behind them. Wouldn’t they wait if it was a serious setup?
- Theatrical trailer (1:53): In the original 1.85:1 ratio.
- Also by Jim Jarmusch (13:32): Trailers for Stranger Than Paradise, Down By Law, Mystery Train, Night On Earth, Dead Man and Only Lovers LEft Alive.
- Audio description: does exactly what it says on the tin.
It’s annoying that, while most films only get a poor 12 chapters, there’s only 8, here: 7 for the film and one for the end credits. Okay, you could say that seven days is worth seven chapters… but I’d always give more.
Subtitles are in English, only, and the menu features a a static image – the same as the cover artwork, with a small piece of the theme running in the background.
Paterson is released tomorrow on Blu-ray and DVD, and click on the packshot for the full-size image.
You can also buy a 6-movie Jim Jarmusch Blu-ray Boxset for around £30, featuring Permanent Vacation, Stranger Than Paradise, Down By Law, Mystery Train, Night On Earth and Dead Man.
|
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
7 10 7 4 |
| OVERALL | 7 |
Cert: 
Running time: 118 minutes
Year: 2016
Distributor: Soda Pictures
Cat.no: SODA343DR0
Released: March 27th 2017
Chapters: 8
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 1.85:1 (ProRes 4:4:4 (2K))
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Producers: Joshua Astrachan and Carter Logan
Screenplay: Jim Jarmusch
Music: Jim Jarmusch, Carter Logan and Sqürl
Cast:
Paterson: Adam Driver
Laura: Golshifteh Farahani
Marvin: Nellie
Donny: Rizwan Manji
Boy on Bus 1: Dominic Liriano
Boy on Bus 2: Jaden Michael Jaden Michael …
Boy on Bus 2: Barry Shabaka Henley
Sam: Trevor Parham
Dave: Troy T Parham
Jimmy: Brian McCarthy
Luis: Frank Harts
Blood in Convertible: Luis Da Silva Jr
Marie: Chasten Harmon
Everett: William Jackson Harper
Himself: Method Man (as Cliff Smith)
Woman in Red: Kacey Cockett
Female Student: Kara Hayward
Male Student: Jared Gilman
Young Poet: Sterling Jerins
Doc’s Wife: Johnnie Mae
Older Woman 1: Helen-Jean Arthur
Older Woman 2: Joan Kendall
Small Boy 1: Owen Asztalos
Small Boy 2: Jorge Vega
Small Girl: Sophia Muller
Japanese Poet: Masatoshi Nagase
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.