Jarmusch is a lover of poetry, carrying it by pigeon in this movie, naming the main character after a poet in Dead Man and having the main character be a poet in a city of poets in Paterson. This movie is a treasure chest of great things told economically, cleanly and beautifully as though through verse. I wasn’t ready for this the first time I saw it, not long after it came out, but now I’m more in touch with some of the references, from Frankenstein to Rashomon to RZA. This is a sweet spot movie that felt even more warm and fuzzy seen on a used DVD to give that old video rental feeling. I felt like I was in high school in the late ‘90’s again, minus the crippling anxiety of being a teenager.

PS it’s fun to realize Jarmusch’s career has included the best American samurai movie ever made, one of the top two vampire movies ever made, one of the strangest spy movies ever, and the best black and white western ever (Ghost Dog, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Limits of Control, Dead Man).