Ironically, the only living being in Paterson is the bulldog. The one who's trying to shake things up by tearing apart the sacred notebook and pushing the post box slightly to the side. It's a small town you may have heard in Songs For Drella, but this one you actually see.
Adam Driver is fantastic - in fact, that's exactly how you do small-town apathy by acting it. The characters are, well, characters, and the humour comes in deadpan spurts, but what sticks out is the brilliance of the script that has such great care for the detail.
Because Jim Jarmusch knows that style and taste are nothing without substance. And whatever little hope he gives us at the end, what with the mundane miracle elegised in 'The Line' poem and the promise of an empty page, it all comes crashing down the moment you see the frame of yet another Monday morning.
