Some directors have a particular visual and narrative style that makes it so you can always spot their movies. They could do a western, or a mob movie, or a slasher film, and it would only take you about ten minutes to figure out who directed it. Jim Jarmusch is one of those people. While his style is not for everyone (indeed, either you like it or you hate it), it is certainly distinctive.

Not a heck of a lot happens in this film. Willie (John Lurie), nee Bela, is a descendant of Hungarian immigrants who lives in a tiny apartment in New York. His cousin Eva (Eszter Balint), fresh from Budapest, comes for a ten-day visit. They sit around the apartment. Willie is a jerk. We meet Eddie (Richard Edson), who reminded me of a cartoon dog mascot to a much bigger dog. He's friends with Willie, and he's not that bright, not that Willie is either. Toward the end of her stay, Willie starts to treat Eva better, perhaps realizing that her visit is the most interesting thing to happen to him in a long time. She leaves. A year later, Willie and Eddie decide to visit her in Cleveland. They stay a day or so, then decide to leave. They come up with the bright idea of going to Florida. They take Eva with them. They have not yet learned how to be interesting, so a lot of time is spent staring off into space. Willie and Eddie lose all their money at the track. Eva wanders off, and a stranger gives her a bundle of money, thinking she is someone else. She ditches the two losers. They realize that their lives were infinitely improved by having someone other than themselves in the room. The end.

It's not like I spoiled any surprises in the film by revealing the ending. The movie is not about plot. It is about mood, and to a lesser extent about character. Namely, it is about Willie and Eddie's lack of character. Toward the beginning of the film, Willie is talking to his aunt about Eva's impending arrival. He complains that he is putting his life on hold for her. We can tell relatively quickly that his life consists of long periods staring off into space, not because he's thinking, but because he is incapable of imagination. I doubt that he would have done anything different if Eva had not been there. Sleep, watch TV, stare at the walls. Eva is the best thing that ever happened to him, because it got him out of New York, let him see part of the country, and generally widened his horizons.

I mentioned the look of the film. There are very few, if any, cuts within scenes. There is very little camera movement. The only cuts are extended periods of black screen that separate each scene. I imagine that Jarmusch did this to emphasize that Willie and Eddie are basically stagnant pools of sludge, and that the camera does not have to move to encompass their worlds. They are pitiful creatures.