First Look: Adam Driver In Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Paterson’

Any year with a new Jim Jarmusch movie is a good year, and 2016 looks promising. The director returns with "Paterson," a new film starring Adam Driver, that he’s managed to keep a pretty low profile around. But with market at the Berlin International Film Festival coming up, where the picture will be up for grabs to foreign buyers, the box has opened up slightly around the movie.

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The first image has landed of Driver’s titular bus driver. The story seems to be small scale and intimate, tracking the relationship between Paterson and Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), with Kara Hayward and Sterling Jerins rounding out the cast. Here’s the official synopsis: 

Paterson (played by Driver) is a bus driver in the city of Paterson, New Jersey — they share the name. Every day, Paterson adheres to a simple routine: he drives his daily route, observing the city as it drifts across his windshield and overhearing fragments of conversation swirling around him; he writes poetry into a notebook; he walks his dog; he stops in a bar and drinks exactly one beer. He goes home to his wife, Laura (played by Farahani). By contrast, Laura’s world is ever changing. New dreams come to her almost daily, each a different and inspired project. Paterson loves Laura and she loves him. He supports her newfound ambitions; she champions his secret gift for poetry. The history and energy of the City of Paterson is a felt presence in the film and its simple structure unfolds over the course of a single week. The quiet triumphs and defeats of daily life are observed, along with the poetry evident in its smallest details.

Amazon will release "Paterson" in theaters this year, though I’d bank on a major festival appearance first (Cannes, perhaps?). [Final Reel]