Paterson (Adam Driver) is a bus driver and poet living in Paterson, New Jersey, the home of William Carlos Williams and Lou Costello. This is the thrust of the film Paterson, which depicts his mostly content home life with his whimsical-but-doting wife (Iranian-French actress Golshifteh Farahani) and their English bulldog, as well as his nightly visits to an out-of-the-way local bar. It also pauses now and then to present one of his secretly penned poems (via voice-over and on-screen handwriting) over images of the town's industrial areas and waterfalls. Among contemporary cinema's iconic art-house directors, Jim Jarmusch has always both intrigued me and left me slightly bemused and cold, and this trend continues here. I understand the film's craft and integrity from a distance. I could say, "Yes, it wisely searches for absurd humor, meaningful patterns, and subtle pathos in the quotidian minutiae of day-to-day suburban life. Yes, Driver has a unique screen presence, at once deeply sympathetic and slightly otherworldly and aloof. Yes, there are a lot of interesting faces on the periphery (Japanese character actor Masatoshi Nagase, legendary hip-hop artist Method Man...as himself...in a laundromat)." These are true statements, but I also cannot deny the film's insistently measured and undramatic nature began to wear on and alienate me, and I left mostly unmoved and a tad bit exhausted.

C+

You should have liked it more.

Paterson

It's so-so. Very slow and pretty much nothing happens. I kept hoping something would, or there would be the essence of a plot, but it never materialised. The poetry sections were a tough sit. There are some good scenes, though. There's just no point to it all. Paterson is a wet weekend of a character. Paterson the city (though it looks more like a town), however, seems like a pleasant place.

C-

Its just too slow and repetitive which could be good for some movie but here that's just the entire movie. I understand what the director was trying to do here but it never feels like a movie and nothing really happens other than dog eating his book. Its neither deeply moving and while it is a good character study I do not think we needed 2 hours for that. Adam Driver is really good in here but this character is something most actors would do well IMO, it feels like something you would be taught in acting 101 class. I liked the poetry here and there but it wasn't always engrossing.

B-