Permanent Vacation

Jarmuschs first ever film is this project based movie in Permanent Vacation and I can say, it exceeded my expectations. It is about a young man seemingly going on about his life in the way he wants to live, which equals to endless freedom. Not much of anything happens in this movie but aren't a lot of Jarmusch movies like this? So this one is no different. For how little you get to know about Allie, the main character, he is a great fit and I enjoyed his every scene. I would've liked to see the actor, Chris Parker, in some other Jarmusch movies but this is the only one he's credited in or likely ever been in. This was, however, the start of John Lurie's short but successful acting career in the Jarmusch film universe. That was nice to see. I had very low expectations for this movie and I almost never bothered to see it but I'm glad I did and it's better then I thought it would be.

The monologue in the middle of this film is just about the most beautiful story I have ever heard. The only fault in the whole of this film is the point at the end where he says "I guess I'm just... on a Permanent Vacation, " and the fault here is really the actor's for overplaying this line, not Jarmusch's.

This film was a little hard to get through, although my jet-lag probably contributed to this. It did have that student film quality to it and the "permanent vacation" line was bad. I could have done without the poorly executed voice over, the content of which contributed to an amateurish nature. Then again, is immaturity necessarily a bad thing in movies? Perhaps in this one it perfects the depressed pretentious adolescent mood, whether intentional or not. This feeling and certain images from the film, dancing, the apartment, the girl (especially), the mother, the destroyed landscape, have stayed with me this past week ... a good sign. Not one for the impatient viewer.

'the other's don't have planes' as he wades through rubble, on his way to a mental hospital to find his mum, yet after having gone to see some woman (gf?, sister?)who strikes up a staggeringly beautiful pose (for some reason or other), waking up on some rooftop, meeting some loony bin woman hysterical, passing by a musician on the street, meeting his Parisian other, leaving that staggeringly beautiful woman behind, getting on the boat and leaving us with a beautiful portrayal of NY in the last image. it's an apolitical film- indeed, spiritual- far from the silly pseudo-intellectual tripe of a woody allen or of the silly paranoid-race one of spike lee. one to be treasured.

People seem to like this movie only because it's a Jim Jarmusch movie. Now, i'm not knocking Jarmusch, I loved Down by Law, but sometimes his films get a tad too pretentious for me. But I can usually overlook that. But this movie! I hated the main actor, I hated the dialogue (seriously, not even most hipsters talk like that!)and I hated the plot. There were some good shots in there, but all in all I found it irritating, and Aloysius reminded me of why I hate hipsters so much. Every time he opened his mouth I wanted to punch him in the face. Whenever he tried to act cook in front of the girl, I wanted to close my laptop screen and just abandon it. I ended up making it through about forty minutes before turning it off. So I don't know, maybe this was a hidden masterpiece. But I sincerely doubt it, and I don't intend on re watching it to find out. I rate it as a three only because of some of the cinematography.

Coming to NYU? Going to live in the village? Perplexed by old timers talking about 'how the village/lower east side has gentrified? Watch this in the background as you sip your mocha with soy care of gentrification. The background shots are for real. See how parts of NY looked back in the day. Serves as brilliant photo-journal as that time but with motion. I moved to to village in 1980 away from Europe and this brought back so many memories not just of the urban landscape but the characters. It was the perfect antidote to the stale suburbs and perfect environment to write, act, dance, play music, make love and generally 'Express Yo'Self!'