Tom Never heard of this film but it came around on Turner Classic Movies so I figured I'd give it a shot. It boggles the mind how so many reviewers on here say how much of a masterpiece something is whenever the late Ebert said something similar. Those same people most likely thought 2001 A Space Odyssey was a masterpiece too simply because they were afraid to admit they had no idea what the *bleep* it was about.Stranger Than Paradise is a complete mess from beginning to end. Read the other *expert* reviews for the story line, what there is of a story line anyway. When the final credits rolled I just stared at the TV and mumbled, what was the point of that drivel?

fred freeze A good number of rotten tomatoes for this one but it's so bad it's redeemable and watchable for a second time. The cost of making this film must have been rock bottom. At the end I wish this depressing soap opera continued following the lives of these depressing individuals and their bleak existence. I can see the classic cult appeal to this sad excuse for a motion picture. But I liked it.No sex and almost no bad language. A glimpse into a life of poverty and boredom. A week long trip seeking adventure in dreary Cleveland and traveling to a cheap motel in Florida. I got a good laugh when cousin Eva showed the two dead beats the view of Lake Erie.Suicide Alert - If you're depressed this movie could push you over the edge. :)

inioi This is my favorite Jim Jarmusch movie by far. The acting of John Lurie (Willie), Eszter Balint (Eva) and Richard Edson (Eddie) are extremely believable, to the extent that looks almost documentary, and is easy for the viewer to get familiarize with them.The relationships between the characters are quite realistic, with an extra surreal touch, due to their opposite personalities: Willie and Eddie don't agree about decision making. On the other hand, find it hard to show their feelings about Eva. This fact leads funny and bizarre situations. Despite the "tough guy" look of Willie, he is quite insecure. He even resigns of his own nationality: Hungarian.Some reviewers points that Eszter Balint performance is quite discreet. I disagree. She acts very naturally, with the feeling of a teenager who came alone for the first time from Hungary to New York Jungle.9/10

Davalon-Davalon I read the raves on this, including the 4-star one from Roger Ebert, who I always trust (even though he's no longer with us), so I thought, "Okay, it's going to be great." I and my husband stared in slack-jawed amazement at a poorly-shot, horribly edited, plot-less, pointless exercise in... what? I was willing to give it every break, even up to the final scene... and then I thought, WTF? A woman comes from Hungary to apparently visit her aunt, but because the aunt is going to the hospital, she's forced to stay with her Neanderthal cousin who has as much intelligence as a mentally challenged toddler. The cousin's friend, with his Eddie Cantor eye movements and constant rubbernecking, had slightly less intelligence. At first I felt sorry for the woman, because she seemed trapped by the whims and the stupid decisions of her cousin and his idiot friend. But then she does something near the end of the film that, while it's understandable, erased all the goodwill I had built up towards her. Also, I cannot understand how any of the three "adults" in this "story" could think it would be acceptable to leave an elderly aunt living alone in a god-awful snowy city with apparently no friends and very little English-speaking ability. I thought it was heartless. I felt the woman, as an actress and as a real person, would have never ever accepted the insults and stupidity she was presented with, but she willed herself to do it for whatever minor paycheck she received. For a while I was getting into the "Twilight Zone" spartan environment of it all. The empty streets and landscapes. The desolation, the isolation, the overwhelming deadliness of these people's lives. But since the two men in particular seemed just mind-bogglingly stupid, it was hard to care for one second what happened to them. In fact, the only person who actually seemed to have any definable feelings was "Billy" the young man who apparently had a crush on the Hungarian cousin. I do not know why this has received the raves it has received. If you want to stare for 90 minutes at shoddy black and white footage, of scenes that are cut unnaturally, of dialog that is painfully and obviously improvised in hopes of finding a common thread that makes sense, if you want to invest your emotional energy into people that really don't deserve it (although the female character does... she just doesn't end up being smart enough to get out while she can), then, please, go ahead and have the time of your life. When it ended so abruptly and unbelievably , it just left me with a sick pit in my stomach. If this is what people call "art," then I still have a chance to pursue my creative dreams, which, yes, I believe are far superior to this leaden fake film.