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Rating Averages
My Friends |
Not rated. () |
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All Flixster |
(2747) |
907 |
3795 |
Female |
(698) |
231 |
964 |
Male |
(2049) |
676 |
2831 |
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| Night on Earth (60%) |
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Plot:
Willie (John Lurie) isn't exactly thrilled when Eva (Eszter Balint), his cousin from Hungary, comes to stay with him in New York. Eva eventually earns his begrudging respect, and months later Willie a...( read more 
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:September 13, 2008
There was an aura of charm to this movie. Kinda slow at first, but the quirky details and occurances towards the end made it forgivable.
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MCT:September 9, 2008Sweet,dark,insatiably compelling in its low-budget.Jarmusch needs no introductions,he's the living king of autonomous film-making in the United States,with another exception of John Sayles.Fantastic facial expression of the characters' dullness,loafing around in complete sanity.
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MCT:August 24, 2008
He used to make good movies before he became a self-stylized minimalist. This good movie is a sad reminder.
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MCT:July 7, 2008Technical dexterity and flawless cinematography in each scene, where everything's measured to perfection and every single frame becomes a surreal photograph of reality. Everything's in its right place. Sounds like a cold, academic, film school movie? Well, it's not. The difference being that Jarmusch talent to shoot everyday life and awkward moments of boredom (with a huge sense of humour, the father of contemporary weird-indie-comedies) falls into the "perfect-technique-with-a-lot-of-heart" category, and that's saying a lot.
I often (if not always) reject "old directors" (let's just say I haven't seen a pre-80s film... for real) because I feel they're so great in technique (cinematography and sense of narrative and framing everything in each scene) that their stories are cold and not close to me. But I always knew Jarmusch was different and this movie proves it over and over again. While he masters everything the Great Directors (you know... those old fellas) had to show his generation, he also masters what He, Mr Jim "White Hair" Jarmusch, has to show to the new generation: how to portray OUR own reality into film.
We don't have to go to a galaxy far, far away or to the Middle Earth or to some weird suburb with kinky housewives and psychopaths with sharp knives chasing hot high school chicks. We just have to look around us and we'll find interesting stories to put on film, and keep on doing our own version of "Stranger than Paradise", which (if you haven't seen the film) you'll soon realize every "indie" movie has being doing that since this came out.
Long live the King!
(Now I have to pay a visit to Grandpa Cassavettes) -
MCT:June 15, 2008
The very definition of art house. Nothing much happens and it could use a bunch more dialogue than it has. Great ending though.
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MCT:June 5, 2008
El primer opus de Jim Jarmusch es un ejemplo de que es posible hacer una obra trascendente con poco presupuesto. Está película fue premiada en el Festival de Cannes 1984 con la Cámara de Oro. Tres personajes, fotografía en blanco y negro, una sola cámara y una historia muy sencilla (un viaje a Florida para apostar 500 dólares en las carreras de caballos) son los ingredientes que le dieron a Jarmusch un nombre en el panorama cinematográfico mundial.
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MCT:May 16, 2008Jarmusch constructs from basic ingredients a complex of narrative symmetry and existential ennui pointing to something far more resonant than the sum of its parts.
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MCT:April 27, 2008
As all of Jim Jarmusch works, the meaning of the story is kind of diffuse. however, this slow episodic drama has some very enjoyable moments of intimacy, quietness and even hilarity.
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MCT:March 7, 2008
The film feels so intimate because it plays out with a fascinating and rare feeling of reality I have only seem Jarmusch accomplish so expertly; a feeling of how nothing eve really happens in life and something I have trouble explaining to myself but draws me with intensity.
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MCT:March 3, 2008
It says so much about life and human relations without actually saying anything. How life is a mere addition of meaningless events, but also how we come to bind with people who feel the same way as we do and how our insecurities prevent us to strive for reaching the unknown. Even though we're raised to have morals ingrown, we feel lost anyway. "You know it's funny, you come to some place new and everything looks just the same."
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MCT:February 28, 2008
Jarmusch is minimalist to the core with this one, and yet manages to pull off a solid story. A small black and white gem that deserves a larger audience
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MCT:February 23, 2008I thought I would be a Jarmusch fan. I honestly did. I'm one of the few people out there who genuinely liked Broken Flowers. I'm also a guy who can tank through films. I mean, Berlin Alexanderplatz is fifteen hours. Interesting hours, but fifteen hours nevertheless. (Maybe a better example would be YiYi for three boring hours. But I liked that at least.) No, Stranger Than Paradise is one movie that I hate to say is just boring.
Yeah, I know what it did for cinema. I do get the jokes, thank you very much. But this movie is just boring. I chuckled a few times, but I thought this movie was just a bad choice. Jarmusch's trademark still cam made scenes painfully long and uninteresting. The music, I'm sorry, is very forced and repetetive. Some people might call that a callback, I call it squaresville, people.
And what was the point? Now, not everything should have points, but this movie left me with a big "so what" at the end of the film. Maybe I'm just not a minimalist. Perhaps it's just me. (I did give Jarmusch another chance two days later with Permanent Vacation. I don't change my mind.)
I don't like this kind of filmmaking. This is really early stuff. I am a little confused because I feel like Jarmusch really chose this format to make a point. While I was also wildly bored with Permanent Vacation, at least it was a better shot movie. It was far more fluid and chopped together than Stranger than Paradise.
This has probably been one of my more negatively reviewed Criterions. It has purpose and is valid, but I wouldn't put it with the greats. It's a very slow, very dull movie that just doesn't do anything for me. -
MCT:December 20, 2007
Wim Wenders Director Assistant, the young Jarmusch, got the Black and Wythe negative leftovers from one of his boss?s films. He only has 2 hours "raw" film, just enough for a short film. The producers went crazy when they found out that he was doing a feature film. "Is impossible" they say "we won?t have either a short or a feature film, he's screwing it". But Jim knew what he was up to. He rehearses all day long for a "sequence scene" to be shot at the end of every day.
So meticulously done, is a very fine piece of art. -
MCT:November 4, 2007
a subtle, charming debut from one of Americas most unique directors...shot beautifully in Jarmuschs trademark black and white...this is a comedy meant for intelligent people like most of his work, which means its definitely not for everyone
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MCT:October 2, 2007
Every shot is something I would put on my wall. Every scene could stand alone as a short film. Aunt Lotte is someone I want in my extended family.
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MCT:September 9, 2007
Jarmusch's style is born in this independent masterwork. This is the epitome of understatement. Hilarious, bold and completely original in its "ordinary" approach.
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MCT:September 1, 2007
The first of what has become a long line of transidental arthouse films by Jim Jarmusch is about as DIY as one can get without making a mockumentary. Jarmusch's main concept was simply that every shot of this 90 minute selection of stage scenes would be a master shot. Hence, the majority of the film consists of little more than a random selection of photographic static shots with the occasional pan thrown in for good messure. These rather meagre scenes are punctuated with brief periods of balck screen for the purpose of avoiding the costly incovenience of editing. This method also attempts to frame the drama as their own isolated narratives and provide respite during the passage of time. Whilst this technique is very European and avant guarde, its appeal is lost to me since scenes are allowed to drag and often scenes are included where the actors do almost nothing at all, so it seems as though one is simply looking at a magazine image. Jarmusch may wear his Goddard aspirations on his sleave throughout, and it is admirable for a director to be so open about his influences. However, he fails to grasp the importance that came with Goddard's use of continuity scripting so as to provide drive for the narrative. Even fellow transindental artist Gus Van Sant was able to provide some sense of drive to his fiction when he directed the similarly freeform Last Days. In saying this, Stranger Than Paradise's saving grace comes from its ability to draw attention to the fact that Jarmusch is still a truly unique and talented artist. Whilst his characters retain the pretensious and often obnoxious swagger of Goddard's work, they are still characters we can engage with on an everyday level rather than in any moral or philosophical way. Fans of Goddard and other European cinema renaissance vets may find Stranger Than Paradise to be their dream film. The rest of us should simply stick to Jarmusch's more dramatically engaging fair like Coffee and Cigarettes or Deadman.
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MCT:June 26, 2007
Jim Jarmusch's debut film about low lifes Willie and Eddie, and Willie's hungarian cousin Eva, who has just immigrated. The three hit the road for an unforgettable trip...
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MCT:June 2, 2007
This movie is brilliant! Really loved it! BACKTRACK: I don't know why or who set the guidlines (Or maybe something in the subconscience) but It's the typical concept or the dam same mentality of "American Films" in the "traditional textbook" way that American films are made. Why the majority of people in the U.S. watch films done this way or make films done this way is fucking mind blowing. "Stranger than Paradise" breaks those guidlines, those rules and the "typical" way American films are made. Every SCENE in this movie is done in one shot. One shot, it's all he did. All he did to introduce a character, to establish a location, to explain the STORY! Jarmusch was introduced to me by my good friend Perez (Comandante Marcos) back in film school. The first time I saw one of his movies, I asked "where is the director from?" Thinking he was French or Austrian or something, because of the style of the director. I guess I'm sick of hollywood shoving those crappy films or ridiculous remakes that are spit out every 5 minutes. For the true lovers of CINEMA please, watch this film and pay attention to the composition and the "One shot" direction. Jim Jarmusch is one underated and great American director!
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MCT:May 31, 2007
A movie essentially about slackers. This is an amazing film on many different levels, superb direction, acting (in particular lurie) and cinematogrophy. The script is filled with Jarmusch's quirky humour. Very cool.
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MCT:May 25, 2007
He was never as good as he was out of the gate. Really a perfect film for what it is. Oddball in the best sense. Totally original.
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MCT:April 15, 2007
Je sais que j'ai bien aimé ce film, mais je ne saurais dire exactement pourquoi. Il faut bien l'admettre, il ne s'y passe pas grand-chose. Les dialogues ne sont pas très accrocheurs, le scénario non plus, et les acteurs sont corrects, sans plus. Le résumé à l'arrière de la boîte est plus captivant que l'histoire en soi. Mais tout de même, l'aspect petit budget du film et la simplicité de sa réalisation ont un charme indéniable. On finit par s'attacher aux personnages et à cesser d'attendre qu'un événement sensationnel se produise. On s'écrase et on se la coule douce avec eux.
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MCT:March 5, 2007
A slick, gritty little film that had me truly appreciating for the work of Jim Jarmusch for probably the first time. This is a fervently realistic look at the day-to-day lives and adventures of three aimless souls: Willie and his best friend Eddie, two New York hipsters (and wannabe hustlers) , and Willie's Hungarian cousin, Eva. It is told in an episodic manner, with several main sections and each scene like a mini sub-chapter, with fades to black between each. I think that was one of the things I liked most, is the structure - it's really neat. Another thing I appreciated was the fact that Jarmusch chose not to take the obvious sexual/romantic path many other directors would with this story. Instead, he maintains the (somewhat minimal but still present) sexual tension throughout the entire film. The acting is quite flat, but this only added to the down-to-the-grit realism. Its a slow movie with no real payoff or consequences, minimal conflict. It doesn't really go anywhere (though, I think this is the natural path for these particular characters to take), and while that didn't bother me it probably would a lot of people. A great movie if you're in the mood for a laid back indie road movie.
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