Produced over several years following the completion of his NYU student film PERMANENT VACATION, Jim Jarmusch’s proper feature debut became a key flashpoint in the 1980s independent film movement by merging European cinematic sensibilities with the DIY ethos of American underground culture.

New York City layabout Willie (John Lurie) and his dopey sidekick, Eddie (Richard Edson), get by on TV dinners and beer financed by haphazard card-sharking. Willie gets an unwelcome visit from his Hungarian teen cousin, Eva (Eszter Balint), but, just as he warms to her, she ditches him for her aunt in Cleveland. Impulsively, Willie and Eddie take a road trip to pick up Eva, after which they head out to find fortune and paradise in Florida — or at least alleviation from their constant boredom.

“Daring in its conception but made with a watchmaker’s care, STRANGER THAN PARADISE is a playfully eclectic, formally perfect gem. It is also a persistently funny film that owes as much to ‘The Honeymooners’ as it does to the avant-garde.” – Washington Post

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