alanjj

"Paterson" is largely filmed in the old industrial town of Paterson, New Jersey, and pays homage to Paterson and all the people who came from there, in particular, William Carlos Williams. Adam Driver plays a bus driver named Paterson, who drives a bus through a downtown route in Paterson. He writes poetry, and lives in Paterson (his house might have been filmed in Yonkers, alas) with his wife who stays at home and paints everything in the house black and white. They have a dog, Marvin, who is another star of this movie. Yeah, it's charming and delightful, yet it's by the icy-cold Jim Jarmusch, go figure. It's about poetry and poets and people who come from Paterson, like Lou Costello and Allen Ginsburg and Hurricane Carter and Frederick Reines, the Nobel Prize- winning physicist who co-discovered the neutrino. Several scenes are filmed at the beautiful Passaic Falls (unfortunately, it must have been a dry season, the falls are a bit trickly). It's a deadpan comic delight-- and there is nothing in the whole movie about crime or decay or corruption or evil. It's wholly sweet, and especially sweet for North Jerseyites, who often fail to see the poetry around them.