Stranger Than Paradise poster & wallpaper

Cecillia Stark, Danny Rosen, Eszter Balint

A couple of East Village loafers decide to embark on a road trip to Ohio to re-team up with one of their female cousins. The trio then find themselves in Florida, looking for a get-rich-quick scheme.

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89% liked it

10,758 ratings

Critics

95% liked it

19 critics

R, 1 hr. 29 min.

Directed by: Jim Jarmusch

Release Date: July 25, 1984

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DVD Release Date: September 5, 2000

Stats: 672 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (672)

  • ebs90
    August 19, 2009
    ebs90

    Stranger than Paradise can come off as shallow because it doesn't really say anything. There isn't enough dialogue that conducts to psychological profiles of the characters. There isn't a particularly great challenge or crisis they must face that can tell us anything ab

    ...( read more)out them that we haven't already seen. No. Still, this doesn't make the film shallow, it makes it like life itself: we don't know everything about people we meet or friends we've made, but they remain of interest to us for whichever reasons, among which is, quite simply, that they are real and we can relate to them. In Stranger than Paradise, Willie, his cousin Eva -just off the plane from Hungary-, and his friend Eddie, do and say very normal things in a limited space (the entire film is composed of one-shot scenes; zero camera movement), but their moments together are so well acted and written that they reach levels of intimacy very close to real life. I suppose that's what has given this film as many lovers as detractors; how you experience it has a lot to do with your own perception of day-to-day existence.
    Willie and Eddie live in New York, they want to get rich, which is why they're always gambling or something, and when they aren't excited about betting, happy about winning or sad about losing, they drink beer in silence and sit in an ennui they don't quite comprehend. A feeling of insatisfaction and desire for change envelops the entire "plot". One day, Willie's cousin Eva, from Hungary, arrives at NYC and stays with him for a few days before going to live with their aunt in Cleveland. Initially she is quite the nuisance, but her being a brand new element in an otherwise old and bleak panorama entices Willie and Eddie's interest. A year later they decide to embark on a road trip to visit her, and then decide to escape the Cleveland winter and drive with her down to Florida.

    Cinematically, roadtrips always go hand in hand with change, realizations, etc. Stranger than Paradise doesn't follow exactly along those lines, although it reaches an ending between tragic and hilarious that definitely involves change. It is a very unique film in that it goes nowhere; even locations as different as New York and Florida, filmed in stark black and white, "seem the same".


    The 'meaning' behind it is unclear, although I wonder, MUST it have a meaning? Can't it just be like a photograph or an entry in someone's diary, a recollection of the truth as it is, of the moment as it happened, and nothing else? With that in mind, Stranger than Paradise is engrossing. It has laugh out loud moments and angering displays of human stubborness and stupidity. It's dark, slow, and honest. Willie, Eva and Eddie are played by very talented, charismatic actors who could be out of a new wave film, if they weren't so distinctly American (except for Eva maybe), although I can't quite explain why. This movie is undoubtedly American, infused with its culture, but the filmmaking style is far from the usual in American cinema (although Jarmusch does owe Cassavetes plenty, I know he was not American but his films are landmarks of independent film made in America). Jarmusch may have progressed towards the more 'standard' indie style that predominates today, but this is testament to his capacity and originality, and my personal favorite among his works.
  • mistershinobi
    July 7, 2008
    mistershinobi
    Technical 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 differenc...( read more)e 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)
  • pier007
    April 27, 2008
    pier007
    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.
  • dooritor1
    April 20, 2008
    dooritor1
    Kind of... Off.. but great camera work and such.
  • drago25
    March 5, 2007
    drago25
    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 wann...( read more)abe 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.
  • timovanbarneveld
    November 24, 2009
    timovanbarneveld
    Deze film is meerdere malen te bekijken
  • Firstdog
    November 1, 2009
    Firstdog
    fuck jarmusch in the eye
  • laskaHimself
    October 29, 2009
    laskaHimself
    The New World is not as miserable as in Herzog's Stroszek but quite miserable nonentheless. The locations are both actual and extremely ordinary, almost random, which I find really cool. No urge to go to Hills And I want some braces, too.
  • waika0505
    August 26, 2009
    waika0505
    ?you come to some place new, and everything looks just the same.?
  • lupaup
    July 10, 2009
    lupaup
    1001 filmes para ver antes de morrer

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