Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

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This is about a self-styled New York hipster (John Lurie of the Lounge Lizards) who is paid a suprise... (imdb)

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Directed By: Jim Jarmusch

Written By: Jim Jarmusch

Starring: Richard Edson, Tom DiCillo, John Lurie, Sara Driver, Eszter Balint, Rockets Redglare, Richard Boes, Harvey Perr, Brian J. Burchill, Cecillia Stark, Danny Rosen, Rammellzee

Genres: Comedy, Drama

Country: USA, West Germany

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Stranger Than Paradise belongs to 69 collections

1. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (collaborative: moderated by kozan26 - 234 stars)

2. Criterion Collection (collaborative: moderated by caffe - 167 stars)

3. Features under 91 minutes (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 56 stars)

4. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2008 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 39 stars)

5. Jonathan Rosenbaum's Top 1000 Movies (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 38 stars)

6. New York Times' The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made (collaborative: moderated by theficionado - 32 stars)

7. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2010 revision) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 32 stars)

8. National Film Registry (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 30 stars)

9. The Guardian's 1000 films to see before you die (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 30 stars)

10. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2014 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Jehan - 27 stars)

11. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2012 revision) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 25 stars)

12. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2017 revision) (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 22 stars)

13. Post-1960s black & white photography (collaborative: moderated by djross - 21 stars)

14. They Shoot Pictures' Recommended Viewing (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 19 stars)

15. Best of criticker: Drama (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 18 stars)

16. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2013 revision) (collaborative: moderated by rant1229 - 16 stars)

17. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2011 revision) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 14 stars)

18. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2020 revision) (public: djross - 14 stars)

19. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 13 stars)

20. Road Trip (collaborative: moderated by td888 - 12 stars)

21. Shorts Rated Over 8.0 on IMDb (public: astrakhan - 8 stars)

22. Jonathan Rosenbaum's Alternative Top 100 (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 7 stars)

23. Best of criticker: Comedy (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 7 stars)

24. TSPDT Top 200 Directors: Best Film (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 6 stars)

25. National Society of Film Critics: Best Film (collaborative: moderated by CCLZA - 4 stars)

26. Films divided into chapters (collaborative: moderated by djross - 4 stars)

27. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2007 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 4 stars)

28. BFI Screen Guides' 100 American Independent Films (collaborative: moderated by Coheed - 4 stars)

29. edkrak films to see (public: edkrak - 4 stars)

30. cultfilms (public: medium123 - 4 stars)

31. Little to no plot (collaborative: moderated by juandr - 3 stars)

32. Criterion Collection (Blu-ray and 4K) (public: PepeCamello - 3 stars)

33. Djross film as art (public: djross - 3 stars)

34. Akira Kurosawa's Top 100 Films (collaborative: moderated by CCLZA - 2 stars)

35. List: Empire's 50 Greatest American Independent Movies (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 2 stars)

36. Pre-Guiliani New York (collaborative: moderated by mattburgess - 2 stars)

37. The Next Picture Show Podcast (collaborative: moderated by trippingly - 2 stars)

38. Spike Lee's List Of Essential Films Every Filmmaker Must See (collaborative: moderated by comepelicula - 2 stars)

39. Djross English-language feature film of the year (public: djross - 2 stars)

40. Independent (collaborative - 1 star)

41. 30. istanbul film festival (collaborative: moderated by parcaliham - 1 star)

42. Sight and Sound 2002 (Single Vote) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 1 star)

43. A Year of Essential Cinema (collaborative: moderated by Ibetolis1 - 1 star)

44. Golden Leopard (Locarno) (collaborative: moderated by Thegoodboy - 1 star)

45. such watch list wow (public: Bullt - 1 star)

46. Paul Dano's Top 10 Criterion Collection Films (public: TychoCelchuu - 1 star)

47. Roger Ebert's Top 10 Films of 1984 (collaborative)

48. Camera d'Or (collaborative: moderated by toro913)

49. Available on Divicast (collaborative: moderated by Dunstan-xxx)

50. Deeveedee (public: The Goat)

51. Djross 1984 top ten (public: djross)

52. Films I watched in 2011 (public: jal90)

53. 1984: Year in Review (public: polanski28)

54. to watch [TG] (public: teckgecko)

55. Filmspotting Ratings Project: Week 29 (public: PeaceAnarchy)

56. BF-80 (public: caffe)

57. Movies to See: Drama (public: Lord Moe)

58. Urban Cinematics (book) (public: Ag0stoMesmer)

59. My Movie Collection (public: elhenzo)

60. Forrest Watch List (public: ForrestQ)

61. Films Dunstan Owns (public: Dunstan-xxx)

62. seen (public: gamzeknc)

63. the LIST (public: peyrin)

64. Półka (public: msa)

65. To See (public: Contreras)

66. C-1980 (public: cantahta)

67. Non-Professional Actors : entirely or mostly (public: Thegoodboy)

68. DoObejrzenia (public: peeroog)

69. Knoroz watchlist (public: knoroz)

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All Ratings | With Reviews

Order by:

TCI | Percentile | Date Rated | # Stars (Reviews)

Stars	User	Rating
6	Vertiggo	85 _76th
While the story is getting consistence, you slowly get the idea. It's a different film about comic boring situations, and it has an unusual relationship between the three main characters which has an interesting style, specially Eva and her 'I put a spell on you' ... It's certainly not a cliche...
4	XakkMaster	71 _43rd
This film is basically an observation of how mundane life can be if you go about things without much motivation, obsorbed in your own sense of self-importance. The main characters kind of float around and don't accomplish much. Eddie, the "best friend," sums up the movie best; "You know, it's funny... you come to someplace new, an'... and everything looks just the same." At the end, I felt happier for the life I have myself but I don't feel there's a need to ever watch this again.
3	doctor7	81 _74th
Starts off slow but after about 10 minutes the humour starts to really shine or rather you start to understand the humour and "get" the movie. After that point it does drag in places but there's more than enough hilarity to make up for any misgivings one may have for that. Highly enjoyable film.
2	Pickpocket	6 _55th
Drags at times but overall rewarding.
2	joseywales	65 _44th
John Lurie looks annoyed for 90 minutes while Jim Jarmusch films the boring parts of his life. This is also the third Jarmusch film I've seen with a hip hop artist on screen at some point.
2	psychedelicr	100 _99th
Eszter Balint is one of my favorite actresses, and she's not an actress. This Jarmusch piece has a lot of wonderful cinematography, and the ideas behind the film are also wonderful. It is a film about meaninglessness yet it has a lot of meaning. Also, it has an intriguing tone; a well-crafted mood film. There's nothing bad I can say about this film.
2	moraesfelipe	70 _72nd
The indie classic by Jarmusch features a plotless story about discovery, from a disattached but comfortable point of view. The film is somehow attractive (yet visually stunning) and funny because its director is absolutely uncompromising. Still, it lacks a rewarding dramatic core, and the narrative suffers from the excess of pedantism.
2	ribcage	78 _73rd
incredibly bleak except that its incredibly funny how Jarmusch makes his characters so plain so flat so stupid&oblivious.impressive how he has manipulated every aspect of the film to express this hopeless dumb boredom: it's black and white because it NEEDS to be. The cast speak their lines as if they don't really want to. The camera's too lazy to move. virtually no edits, just fades to black like the movie gets so bored it takes a nap and wakes up again to the same dull life being played out.
2	karamazov.	39 _51st
It's Screamin' Jay Hawkins and he's a wild man, so bug off.
1	Cyrus	100 _97th
The simplcity of the editing masks a much greater manipulation of formal narrative within American cinema. In making the film Jarmusch defined himself as the ultimate counter-popculture filmmaker -- unafraid to give voice to those Hollywood would shun.
1	PeaceAnarchy	81 _64th
Slow and downbeat, Jarmusch captures a certain 'take life as it comes' mood extremely well. The film's flow could be better but it's still a relatively rewarding experience.
1	AFlickering	8 _98th
i am the vee-ner.
1	tonydal	25 _4th
The only part I liked was the TV dinner thing.
1	Icarus	85 _79th
Oddly, I felt like while the movie got funnier as it went along, it also grew in seriousness. The wandering nature of these people's lives is contrasted nicely with the comedy that defines many of their interactions. Also loved the brief interludes between each scene--sounds continuing on, bleeding into the next scene--it really highlights the inner connectedness of these lives.
1	pompousass	40 _71st
There is a brief reference to Yasujiro Ozu, but the stylistic rigors of Jarmusch have little in common with those of Ozu (more with those of Warhol). However, the movie reaches a level of lowlife inaccessible to any but an underground film. And the poverty-row subject matter and production circumstances are such as to safely lower one's expectations. Numerous critics have done their worst to heighten these, but low expectations are surely the only sort that will be met and surpassed.
1	JordanDcFc	83 _76th
I don't really understand why I like this so much but I do. After about 10 minutes you get used to the idea that nothing is going to happen and just have to sit back and watch. It's funny enough for some reason, I really don't know how though.
1	dunbar	80 _73rd
Okay, yes, I'm on board with this, although I can see why some people can't get on board with it, but I wasn't bored per se, because I was on board you see? Yes of course you do, unless you weren't on board and then you were most likely bored.
1	TrixRabbi	87 _94th
This is one of the movies where you really can't tell why you liked it so much, or what it was that drew you in and kept you watching, all you know is that you walked away happy.
1	loc42	100 _99th
Jarmusch seems to be inspired by the road movies of Wenders and his trials to discover the ontology of the world by a very down to earth camera, in that sense Jarmusch -as his references for Ozu at the end reflect- slows down the rhytm and observes the time passing by, and the absurdity of the existence. Through its colour and texture, deadpan acting and minimal mise-en-scenes this movie offers a meditative Zen experience on the ephemerality of life.
1	feublo	90 _90th
Through vignettes, existence feels so cool, casual and purposeful. Life’s ups and downs through Jarmusch’s lens have a collective minimalist feel that makes this great.

Average Percentile 66.31% from 1878 Ratings