Night on Earth surpassed my expectations. I always love character studies and this is like having five, mini-character studies in one film. Each segment as good as the last.

We are taken to Los Angeles, NYC, Paris, Rome and Helsinki. Each story has it's own personality, much like the individual person driving the taxi, the individuals as passengers and the city themselves are given a perfect opportunity to show their individual personalities too, through the people who live and work there and not to mention the beautiful shots captured on film, city landscapes from the hood of the car and wide shots of the city itself.

Jim Jarmusch did a wonderful job filming each city too, the audience feels as…

The Ultimate Challenge - Film #2
Added to: People-being-People List

It's clear that I haven't watched enough Jarmusch yet. Night on Earth is one of the most enjoyable cinematic experiences I've ever had and that only comes from one thing: it's unbridled realism. Yes, there are some overtly expressive characters in here and some ridiculous cases of black humor but I feel (feel, as this is only my second Jarmusch) that this is exactly the thing that makes his films so worthwhile.

My only other experience with his cinema was his 2014 feature Only Lovers Left Alive, a bleak interpretation of the vampire myth, that lives on its humane undertone in these inexplicable creatures. With Night on Earth this is…

There are parts that evoked a lot of emotion with some thought provoking philosophical questions, along with some very comedic moments as well, but it wasn't quite enough to justify the runtime and filler in between for me. On a few of the episodes it cuts away to a transitional sequence and you think it's over, only to go back to the driver and passenger talking about the same thing in a different way. It felt unnecessarily long.

The second and fifth episodes were my favorite. Despite how much I admire Gena Rowlands the first episode felt really awkward and unnatural, especially with Winona's performance. I think this had more to do with the script and direction. Maybe it was…

Been on a real Jarmusch kick lately. His films have slowly trickled into my brain over the years. I think starting with Ghost Dog. This is maybe the 8th of his I've seen and I love most all of them.

Not surprisingly, the one thing Jim describes as being important, characters, is also the one aspect that makes his films so engaging. Seperate from the writing itself (although that is typically strong as well), these characters can carry the weight of the entire films.

Meditative is a word that comes to mind when describing his stuff. While his films are generally "quieter" they aren't always, which makes it even stranger in my mind that I can describe them as meditative.…