Paterson

Jim Jarmusch's minimalism can be disconcerting to someone who is, as I've mentioned elsewhere, as massively-plot-focussed as I am. It seems to work best either in films that have a short-film structure (either directly, like "Night on Earth" or "Coffee and Cigarettes", or mildly hidden, like "Broken Flowers", which essentially restarts the plot every time Bill Murray encounters another character), or films that have a genre-through line that keeps them engaging ("Down By Law" has the prison escape, "Ghost Dog" has the samurai/revenge plot). "Paterson" has little of these (maybe a little of the hidden short-film structure) but instead has a Monday-Sunday structure dealing with Paterson's everyday life as a bus-driver, occasional private poet, and partner to the more ostentatiously artistic Laura. The everydayness (and repetitiveness) can be a little wearying in the early stages, though there is a zen-like calmness and acceptance that comes (it possibly helps that the incidents on Friday, Saturday and Sunday feel a little bigger and more impactful than the early stages).

Adam Driver spends a lot of the film reacting rather than necessarily taking particularly active action, but he's a solid protagonist to lay everything else on (and there is one hysterical moment where he tries to keep down an unspeakable meal that Laura makes for him). I wound up quite enjoying this, although I do still feel that the opening thirty-or-so minutes are a bit of a slog (and will admit to having shut-eye during some of them). And this is a small story about a mild man of mild accomplishments. But it does have that certain human something that feels generous of soul.