Paterson 🚍
Happy Monday! I hope had a great weekend.
Today’s movie is Jim Jarmusch’s drama Paterson (2016)—streaming on Prime Video. My favorite thing about Jarmusch is that he finds that less his more. For him, beauty is in the simplicity. Paterson is the perfect example of that. It premiered at Cannes and won what is perhaps the most prestigious award—the Palm Dog Award (yes, there’s a cute dog in it). Here’s the trailer.
Paterson is about a bus driver named Paterson (Adam Driver) who lives in Paterson, New Jersey (my home state!!). We follow him as he spends his days writing poetry, going to the local bar, talking to his artist wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), and dealing with his pesky bulldog. It’s 118 minutes long.
What I love about Paterson is how unhurried it is, just like life. No one wakes up expecting their day to be extraordinary. Movies tend to be about those rare days that are. Paterson does the opposite and is about days that aren’t, that are mundane.
Instead, it relies on Paterson’s creative observation as a poet to find the beauty in the normalcy of everyday life—something we’re all probably craving right now. However, it also shows how something completely commonplace could be impactful in one’s day—like a conversation with a stranger or an unfortunate mishap with the family dog.
Paterson is streaming exclusively on Prime Video.
Pair it with 🍷
Short Term 12: Grace (Brie Larson), a worker at a foster care facility, is both passionate and good at her job—empathetic, sometimes to a fault, and caring. However, when a new arrival Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever) drudges up old memories for Grace, she begins to revert to old habits and faces her past.
In movie news: Fall festivals set their line-ups (yes, they’re still happening) 🎞
Movie theaters are still closed, but that’s not stopping the fall film festivals from dropping their lineups. Through a mix of digital and highly limited and socially distanced screenings, each of the major fall festivals—that mark a start to the Oscar season—are finding a way to premiere buzzy new films. Here are some things of note:
Oscar-winner Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock will open the New York Film Festival. Notably, it’s not going to be released in theaters and will instead air on BBC and Amazon Prime Video.
The Toronto International Film Festival was the only festival release their full lineup, which includes Oscar-winning actor Regina King’s directorial debut One Night in Miami and the Spike Lee-directed taping of David Byrne’s Broadway show American Utopia.
One Night in Miami will also headline the Venice Film Festival, setting it up for potential success at the delayed Oscars next year.
Say out loud right now that this week is going to be great. Did you do it? Good. Now, it is going to be great.
See you Thursday —
Karl (@karl_delo)