Directed by Jim Jarmusch • 1984 • United States, Germany
Starring John Lurie, Richard Edson, Eszter Balint
With this breakout film, Jim Jarmusch established himself as one of the most exciting voices in the burgeoning independent-film scene, a road-movie poet with an affinity for Americana at its most offbeat. Jarmusch follows rootless Hungarian émigré Willie (John Lurie), his pal Eddie (Richard Edson), and his visiting sixteen-year-old cousin, Eva (Eszter Balint), as they drift from New York’s Lower East Side to the snowy expanses of Lake Erie and the drab beaches of Florida, always managing to make the least of wherever they end up. Structured as a series of master-shot vignettes etched in black and white by cinematographer Tom DiCillo, STRANGER THAN PARADISE is a nonchalant masterpiece of deadpan comedy and perfectly calibrated minimalism.
Up Next in American Independents
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Frances Ha
Directed by Noah Baumbach • 2013 • United States
Starring Greta Gerwig, Mickey SumnerGreta Gerwig is radiant as Frances, a woman in her late twenties in contemporary New York trying to sort out her ambitions, her finances, and, above all, her intimate but shifting bond with her best friend, Sop...
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Slacker
Directed by Richard Linklater • 1991 • United States
Starring Richard Linklater, Kathy McCarty, Rudy BasquezSLACKER, directed by Richard Linklater, presents a day in the life of a loose-knit Austin, Texas, subculture populated by eccentric and overeducated young people. Shooting on 16 mm for a ...
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Metropolitan
Directed by Whit Stillman • 1990 • United States
Starring Carolyn Farina, Edward Clements, Taylor NicholsOne of the great American independent films of the 1990s, the surprise hit METROPOLITAN, by writer-director Whit Stillman, is a sparkling comedic chronicle of a young man’s romantic misadven...
