Stranger Than Paradise (1984, US/W. Germ.)

In co-writer/director Jim Jarmusch's minimalist, odd-ball, stark B/W indie road film - it was his breakthrough film and only his second feature film, providing a timeless, insightful snapshot of mid-1980s ennui, stagnation, anomie, and disillusionment about the myth and failure of the American dream. The influential, low-budget, essentially plotless comedy-drama and arthouse film was popular with film buffs and cult-film enthusiasts.

The quirky and idiosyncratic film mixed the feel of a Jack Kerouac road film, a Waiting for Godot-like script written by Samuel Beckett, post-beatnik hipster 'coolness', and the slow pace of an Andy Warhol movie. It was an intense study in alienation amongst outcasts or outsiders, shot mostly in a dead-pan style (without fancy camera movements), with scenes that began and ended with simple fade-ins and fade-outs. There were a total of 67 single-shot, unbroken takes or scenes, mostly disconnected and episodic. It was very atypical of most films due to its unconventional and static nature, its unedited and uncut lengthy takes, its strung-together vignettes, and its lack of a dense plot.

The independent film's main stylistic message was the aimless, uncommunicative, boring, repetitious and listless goals of its two main characters who were on a disaffected, pointless, and low-key search for some kind of paradise. Nevertheless, they formed a compelling, tight affectionate bond with each other, in three separate locations that delineated the three-part film:

• NY (NY) ("The New World")
• Cleveland (OH) ("One Year Later")
• Miami (FL) ("Paradise")

Jarmusch's simple narrative of a film - shot on a micro-budget of $90,000 - became a surprise hit, grossing almost $2.5 million. It was the winner of the Palm d'Or in 1984 in Cannes.

• the grainy B/W film followed the aimless existence of Willie (John Lurie), a hipster or slacker who lived a boring and monotonous lifestyle in a small NYC apartment on the Lower East Side; the unemployed, self-absorbed, small-time gambler was originally from Hungary, but had distanced himself from his heritage, and refused to speak anything but English; his life consisted of sleeping in, watching TV, smoking Chesterfield cigarettes, playing solitaire, cheating at poker, and eating TV dinners
• in the film's opening, Willie received a phone call from his elderly, feisty, Hungarian-accented sister Aunt Lottie (Cecillia Stark) from Cleveland, OH, who explained how he would have to take in his teenaged, distant Hungarian cousin Eva Molnar (Eszter Balint in her film debut) for about a week; Eva was arriving shortly and couldn't stay with the recently-hospitalized Aunt Lottie
• Willie vainly complained how the intrusive visit would disrupt his routine life: "I never agreed to that. I can't possibly babysit for her for ten days. No, look, it's disrupting my whole life. I don't even consider myself a part of the family, do you understand?"
• dressed in black and carrying her suitcase, Eva arrived at Willie's apartment by foot; she walked down the gray, desolate and lonely NYC streets with her large boom-box tape recorder playing Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I've Got a Spell on You"; she looked around and observed a burned-down gas station with the sign 'Quality You Can Trust', and graffiti ("U.S. out of everywhere! Go home!")
• Eva's Americanized cousin Willie was initially passively hostile and indifferent to her presence, and basically ignored her and let her fend for herself; instead, he spent time with his misfit hustler buddy Eddie (Richard Edson) by - as usual - going to movies or betting at the races
• during their brief time together, Willie attempted to introduce Eva to American football, and to TV dinners: "This is the way we eat in America. I got my meat, I got my potatoes, I got my vegetables, I got my dessert, and I don't even have to wash the dishes"
• however, over the 10 day period, Willie actually established a small but awkward affectionate bond with Eva, was impressed by her shoplifting of cigarettes and packaged food from a nearby store, and even bought her a new floral print dress; but now that her time was up, Eva would be leaving by train to be with Aunt Lottie
• one year later, after more boring days, Willie and Eddie had won some money by cheating at poker, and decided to borrow a 1965 Dodge Coronet to drive to Cleveland, OH for a surprise visit with Eva; she had found work tending a fast-food hot dog stand
• during their monotonously-boring visit, they came upon the stark winter dullness and coldness near the frozen wasteland of Lake Erie; gazing at the sight of the lake, Eddie commented: "You know, it’s funny, you come to someplace new, and everything looks just the same"
• one day, Eva, her boyfriend, and the two pals attended a Kung-Fu movie
• after their visit in the cold, alien and inhospitable area of Northern Ohio, the two took off for the warmer climes of Florida, then returned and had Eva join them after showing off a picture-postcard of Florida's paradise; the threesome took an off-kilter trek to the tacky world of Miami, Florida where they stayed in a drab and low-cost motel, and again experienced the same flatness, homogeneity and sameness of everything
• while the unambitious Willie and Eddie fell back again into a routine of alienation, and were out betting on dog races (and lost almost everything in one race), Eva went walking on a beach; she was misidentified as a drug dealer by a stranger and handed lots of money; she decided to take an airplane flight back to Europe, and left a note explaining her opportunistic plan to the two males; however, once she was at the airport, she changed her mind about leaving on the only flight left for the day (to Budapest) and returned to the motel
• meanwhile, Eddie and Willie had won betting with their last bit of money at the horse races, and after reading Eva's note, decided to attempt to stop her from leaving; at the airport, Willie suggested that they buy tickets, get on the plane and convince Eva to remain
• in the film's bizarre and possibly life-changing transformative ending, Willie bought the only remaining seat on the plane, and Eddie watched as the plane departed; he spoke the film's final line of dialogue to himself: "Aw, Willie. I had a bad feeling. Damn. What the hell are you gonna do in Budapest?"; by this time, Eva had returned to the empty motel room