This is a genuine, bonafide, full-blooded slice of life. A week-long, insightful slice.

Anecdote time: One of my nicknames in high school was simply "Norman," because it sounded like "normal." Clever right? I promise that’s absolutely true. The peer who dubbed me so (who's now a good friend) tagged the name on me because he noted how I was always observed as a plain regular Joe with a rather vanilla, ordinary personality.

Paterson, as noted, is a week in the life of a guy named Paterson, who lives... in Paterson. His hobbies include writing poetry, keeping to himself, and being content. He's a bus driver with a ritualistic daily routine and he doesn't talk more than he must. Such a character (surprise surprise) really resonated with me.

I did end up tapping the brakes and thinking "Okay, well is it really worth congratulating a movie that can be relatable for one type of person?" The truth is, Paterson's simple life makes the human concern with identity that much more centerstage, proving how it persists even when it doesn't look like much from the outside.

Yet, he still doesn't have this dramatic arc. Why not? What can we possibly learn from that? According to the film, quite a lot. Paterson's true love, Laura, is also his foil: she has plenty of ambitions and finds a new building block in her personality every day, bent to turn the black-and-white hand life has dealt her into the most gorgeous patterns she can. Laura, at least to me, represents much of the collective spirit of her age (and much of that younger than her) that refuses to settle for convention. While this extroverted be-yourself character can be an extremely beneficial one to the youth, who can otherwise be pressed to follow unwanted paths, there is so much to be said about those who do not want more. Not because they're ignorant (heck, Paterson has the embodiment of this culture in his own house—in his own bed), but because it's not the life they want to live.

Paterson may be idle locally, but he is not so spiritually. He works, thinks, loves, writes, and feels with an understated passion that can sometimes only be found by slowing down and falling into a... yes, limited... but appreciated groove. Each day, Paterson encounters those little intricacies of life—just past normalcy, but just short of being interesting—those slight coincidences that make you remember you're alive. Are there other ways to feel alive? Sure. But if someone has the full knowledge and capability of "grander" lifestyles and wishes instead to take up the lost art of being contemplative, I think this film makes a poetic case for why this is not just okay, but beautiful.

Adam Driver delivers a minimalistic but effective performance as the eponymous role, and frankly, everyone shines here. Each character feels like a facet of each actor's personalities from how naturally they are conveyed (not from the likelihood that's true). The film is well paced and realistic and reveals that little beauties exist all around us, whether we relate to Paterson or not. He's found a simple yet productive identity, and his growth comes from what parts of his life he ends up choosing to embrace. If those aren't the same as some viewers', that's fine. If they are, though... it's moving to know that his microcosm isn't turning a blind eye to the great wonders of life, it's just merely paying attention to the small ones.

That's all I got. I'm off to write poems in my notebook and let no one read them.

Edit: I don't know what Jim Jarmusch's official affiliation with the Wu-Tang Clan is but I'm so glad it exists.