"You know, it's funny... you come to someplace new, and everything looks just the same."
People are often saying they want to move someplace new, to see the world, to get away from home, but often times nothing much changes. They are as bored, alone, or lost in their new surroundings as they were back home. What's the point in going to a beach in Florida if it's going to be the same as wintery cold Cleveland?
Stranger Than Paradise is a wonderful little film whose characters are floating through life aimlessly. Willie is a Hungarian immigrant living in New York living the life. He's perfected the life of slacker whose idea of American living is eating TV dinners and watching TV, not necessarily at the same time, and is annoyed with the idea of his cousin Eva coming to visit him for ten days before she departs to Cleveland to live with her aunt. She arrives in grand fashion, bringing out a cassette player and playing it for all to hear, as she walks down the street. I've always wanted to have a soundtrack to my life. She does.
The first act deals with Willie and Eva's interactions. Not much goes on. They sit around annoyed at each other. He thinks she's just a dumb kid. She finds his way of life dull. Watching football on TV she simply remarks, "I think this game is really stupid." Fade out to the next scene. The entire film is shot with these random scenes filled with such deadpan humor and expression that it is a revelation when anything remotely interesting occurs in their lives, a smile, an act of kindness, anything. That isn't to say that the film is boring, far from the truth. I found the film fascinating and I loved watching them just get by living their lives. In one scene, some day later (we never really have a grasp of time in the film), Eva comes back to the apartment and starts unloading things from a grocery store. Willie comments, "I thought you had no money." Without a hint of irony in her voice, she says, "I got this stuff with no money." I laughed, really hard.
By the second act, one year later, Eva has moved away to Cleveland. Willie and his friend Eddie are just hanging around hustling poker games. (As is typical, the poker scene is about as unrealistic as it gets but this isn't a poker movie.) They got $600 between them. They are rich men, but with nothing to do. Remembering his cousin in Cleveland, Willie suggests they head out to Cleveland for vacation. In an earlier scene Eddie once told Eva that he heard Cleveland was beautiful. I've never been to Cleveland before, but a friend of mine moved there a couple years ago, from New York incidentally, and I'd imagine he'd like to occasionally hang himself. No one in their right mind would go from New York to Cleveland and think of it as a wonderful place. But these characters do not know better. They assume a new place will lead to new experiences when in truth, if you don't actively change something about yourself, where ever you go will be the same as where ever you left. So the two do a little road trip to Cleveland and meet up with Eva who seems delighted to see them. Needless to say, life in Cleveland isn't all that. The highlight of this act is when they all go to watch a kung fu movie. The expressions on their faces are hilarious.
Deciding that Cleveland wasn't everything it was cracked out to be, Willie and Eddie spontaneously decide to bring Eva along and drive to Florida, to paradise. Even paradise isn't everything it's cracked out to be. They wind up hanging around a dingy motel with interior shots not much different from Willie's apartment back in New York. Things go sour and nobody seems to be having any fun. In a series of mishaps and misunderstandings the three road buddies somehow end up in different directions. You are left puzzled yet excited by what you just saw.
I loved how unique the film felt, how seemingly nothing goes on, yet you stay so intrigued with what's happening or being said. I loved the dry banter and deadpan expressions. All the performances are brilliant in their own ways. All and all, a great film.
Grade: A
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