Permanent Vacation

Assured first film from Jarmusch is pretty tough viewing to begin with. Slow moving or not moving at all and ponderous, seeming inconsequential dialogue but then somewhere along the line we find ourselves captivated. Beautifully shot with ugly/beautiful still shots of back streets of New York. Apart from a scene showing the lead guy spray painting a sub title for the film and thereby seeming to plant the film within the late 70s or 80s, the rest of the 'action' gives more the impression of taking place in the late 60s/early 70s. It may well be that Jarmusch has not set the film in the past but that his cinematic influences are from that period. In any event this is well worth a watch and as with all the man's films there is a fiercely compassionate element. Even when the characters appear completely unappealing, we are somehow encouraged to feel some degree of empathy.

Jim Jarmusch is a filmmaker I'll always admire and will see anything he puts out. Perhaps though my expectations of his student film, Permanent Vacation, were a little high as I thought this could be the link to Stranger Than Paradise as Who's That Knocking and Mean Streets were perfectly connected for Scorsese. This is not the case, at least from what I got from the film. It's an exercise in the mundane and plot less, a tale of a vagabond type character who may or may not be nuts, who has an insane mother, and usually just loafs around the more deconstructed and decaying parts of lower Manhattan. There are some chances for it becoming more interesting than it does, and it's really because it's a case of a filmmaker finding his footing and not getting there yet.

A few bits are noteworthy in the kind of fascination that comes with watching Jarmusch's characters- like when Allie (Chris Parker) dances to the jazz record in his apartment, or the very random scene on the island. And there's a grin for a bit part for John Lurie. But there almost comes a point where the randomness becomes too diverting, and the script and (obvious) amateurs don't help matters. A monologue in a movie theater- which another commenter said was beautiful- is rambling and loses its point even as Jarmusch sorta goes back to it. Part of that scene is interesting, but it's before the monologue with the Nicholas Ray movie. Parker as an actor has that cool, quiet swagger that would be found in Stranger Than Paradise, but he also can't carry the dialog that well (particularly in the odd voice-overs).

The end of the film caps it off as he just decides to leave New York City for good on a ship. This might have a little more resonance if what led up to it had one feeling much more for Parker than distance. Permanent Vacation is like a condensed, rough, patch-work example of everything that is wrong and sometimes right with Jarmusch's work, like an early demo from some rocker who hasn't quite got the gist of everything from his inspirations. What's right with the work is that it's very well shot, particularly for an ultra low-budget drama, co-DP'd by later talent Tom DiCillo. In the end, I almost found that the film was like a Godard work, though the ones really from the 80s as opposed to those of the 60s. It's got an artist's eye and the occasional touch of grace, but it's also a jumble of a sketchpad of what's really in the filmmaker's gifts. It is unique in that you can tell who made it, that it's not another write-off of a future hack. That it doesn't really spell the promise of Jarmusch's other 80's classics is harder to figure.

Since this is considered a student film, I must admit that I cannot come up with a better reason to fall asleep during class.

"Permanent Vacation" is the darkly comic debut of acclaimed indie filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, and is unfortunately a somewhat boring film. It had plenty of things going for it, an unsettling and hypnotic musical score, a wild sense of dark humor, an interesting cast of side characters, and a beautiful visual style. However, Jarmusch sadly decided to craft this film's final product into a seemingly incomplete, ridiculously slow paced ride that is scattered with moments of genius throughout. There is plenty I liked about this movie, but it was just so TEDIOUS and DULL-this is a 70 minute long movie that really should have only been a 40 minute long movie. The main character is annoying and pretentious, a lot of the dialogue is cringe inducing (while some of it is actually pretty amazing), and by the end I just wanted to take a nap. This could have easily been a great film if Jarmusch decided to work a little bit more on crafting a main character that is at least somewhat bearable (he doesn't have to be likable, but please don't make him boring and obnoxious!), and made it less goddamn SLOW! I am all for slow movies ("Satantango" is one of my absolute favorite films), and there are a few scenes in this film that are excruciatingly slow paced but manage to work due to the slowness adding to the emotional depth and black humor of those scenes. However, a vast majority of the excruciatingly slow sequences in this film just made me want to beat my head against a brick wall so I could be entertained for once!

This isn't a bad film at all, and I would recommend it to some degree for anyone whose interested, but I would still have to recommend it with caution because it is so, so very flawed and at times unbearably boring. But, at the very least there is a lot of great humor, visual flare, quirky side characters, and beautifully discomforting background music.

Luckily, Jarmusch would improve his ways and skills by the time he made his follow up, break out feature "Stranger Than Paradise", which is not only one of the funniest movies of all time, but also one of my absolute FAVORITES!

Leave it to Jim Jarmusch to create haunting and elusive visual stories with static camera and sparse dialogue. 'Permanent Vacation' is no masterpiece and stands far from Jarmusch's greatest movies, but it clearly has the magic touch that makes the film live, and it doesn't feel boring.

Jim Jarmusch made the film right after he dropped out of film school, and it is clear that he already had his unique vision and way of telling stories. The story follows slacker Allie (Chris Parker) on his quest to find the meaning of life. The film is seemingly plotless, without proper beginning and ending, not to mention the conclusion, but it has nice flow that ties all the quirky characters and pretentious philosophical conversations into whole.

'Permanent Vacation' is very important to see if you are interested where Jim Jarmusch come from (and also Richard Linklater as 'Permanent Vacation' was major influence to his own 'Slacker').

Jim Jarmusch's debut 'Permanent Vacation' is said to be his student film. It does have a certain student-film feel to it mostly because of the minimalism and the actors. It is an exceptionally well shot film. However, it also felt somewhat sketchy and a few dialogues felt out of place.

In a way, 'Permanent Vacation' reminded me of 'Catcher In The Rye' as the story here follows a slacker in search for meaning in New York city (it's refreshing to see the non-glamorous, non-typical Hollywoodized but rawer side of the city) before taking a permanent vacation. The plot does sound simplistic and perhaps even uninteresting to some but the film is engaging as Jarmusch immediately gets his viewers involved into the subjective world of Allie. Whereas most of Jarmusch's films are conversational, 'Permanent Vacation' is more of a wandering. The story itself may be familiar in the filmworld but it also applies to today's society. The film's also tedious at times.

Chris Parker is quite effective as Allie Parker. The rest of the actors, with the exception of Frankie Faison, aren't particularly impressive but that doesn't ruin the film.

Although it may have some faults, Jarmusch's first experimental film is quite a compelling debut.