Northwest Film Forum

Jim Jarmusch made his debut with a film rich in autobiographical references, featuring the "misfits" who would go on to populate most of his cinema. The gaze is contemplative, the movements are linked to precise meanings and the influence of European authors is clear. Made with the help of friends and artists of New York's underground scene, like John Lurie and the future director Tom DiCillo, the film was presented at the European festivals of Rotterdam and Mannheim. It's an oblique study of a young man (Chris Parker) adrift on the streets of New York. As he roams, he has chance encounters with a car thief, a saxophone player and a grizzled war veteran, among others. Learning their stories, he begins to seem more and more isolated.

"Jarmusch has a rare feeling for urban desolation, lives at the mercy of randomness, entropy, and disperal." ­—David Thomson