Paterson

Paterson (Driver) is a meek bus driver who dabbles in poetry. He makes his way around his route every day (Paterson, New Jersey as it turns out), finding pockets of time to scribble down some lines. Back home, live-in girlfriend Laura (Farahani, About Elly), whose artistic creativity extends to her cooking (cheese and sprouts pie?), urges him to make copies of his poems…

And that's about it. What happens next? isn't exactly a question that bothers Jim Jarmusch here: this is one of the quietist, easy-going, laid-back films you’ll see this year and might go some way to explain why The Stooges documentary was such bizarrely chilled affair –Jarmusch was probably still prostrate after this. Paterson likes to sit down, take a load off, smell the roses, as Jarmusch resists the temptation to follow through on a line in one of Paterson’s poems: "So sober and furious, stubbornly ready to burst into flames." Paterson doesn't burst into flames, never comes close to it in fact: when his bus breaks down due to an electrical fault the passengers fear the bus may blow up but the reassuring Paterson tells them there's no way that could happen. And no way does it.

Events are kept ordinary. Like Paterson's call-it-like-you-see-it simplistic poetry, the film finds beauty and comfort in the banal and repetition. He wakes up, walks the same way to work every day, has the same conversation with his boss, eavesdrops on conversations on the bus, and straightens his leaning mailbox post. Even the neighbourhood is dotted with likeable characters – the kindly barman (Barry Shabaka Henley), the lovelorn Everett (William Jackson Harper) desperate to win back the affections of Marie (Chaston Harmon); even the look hoods who cruise up and down the street compliment Paterson on his dog. It's a love poem to a simpler, quieter life.

All of the above could undersell Paterson but these perceived failings are actually its strengths too. Yes, there is a wish that it would give itself a kick up the bum and do something, and yes there comes a point where the inactivity becomes an issue, but the relaxed vibe has a such pleasant effect. It's the film equivalent of those chill-out compilations. Despite not being asked to do much, Driver's understated turn becomes mesmeric, a world away from his itchy Girls character. Adam Driver, in effect, is asked not to be Adam Driver.

Slow but enchanting.