Permanent Vacation Reviews

Not to be mistaken with W. Scott Peake's 2007 film (which flixster seem to have done judging by the description, doh!). Jim Jarmusch's first feature film is both very amateur and very mature, although looking through Jarmusch's other films, maybe it's not as amateur as looks and maybe intentionally so. This film only has three elements to it as far as I could see. New York, Chris Parker and the script. All three are brilliant. New York looks dirty and lonely but big and magnificent, Chris Parker is completely believable as the young man looking for the answers and the script (was it scripted?), is pure Jarmusch. Bleak, thought-provoking and too cool for school. The film's title is taken from a lyric in the song "My Boyfriend's Back", by The Angels; "If I were you, I'd take a permanent vacation" which reminds me, the music was amazing too!

Good God was this a hard film to sit through. Conceptually, it's a good idea (a kooky dude aimlessly wandering around the dingier parts of lower Manhattan interacting with people as nutty as himself) in small doses or fragments, but to have the whole film be nothing but that...damn. Stranger Than Paradise had no real plot, but at least had some semblance of a structure. This is totally plotless and free form. I probably would have liked this more had I viewewed it in an altered state of mind. To put things in perspective though, it was made 100% on the cheap, is the essence of independent cinema, and was Jarmusch's first film, so some of this is forgiveable. It pretty much an intriguing student film that shows signs of creativity, even if things aren't completely there yet. This work heavily forshadows the future of Jarmusch's career, but I won't recommend this as a starting place for people wanting to get into his work. This is definitely for hardcore fans only.

One thing's for sure: Writer-director Jim Jarmusch relished long silences and deathly slow pacing from the start. "Permanent Vacation," his no-budget debut, lasts a mere 75 minutes but feels more like 175. There is no tangible plot -- only a ducktailed drifter named Allie (Chris Parker) who wanders around seedy New York, having light encounters with various subculture characters. Recurrent Jarmusch collaborators Sara Driver and John Lurie are among the cast, and Lurie also wrote the score. "Stranger than Paradise" fans (hopefully, this includes everyone?) will notice the two films have similar endings.

"Permanent Vacation" is much more of an endurance test, however. Parker dominates the screen time yet, unfortunately, he may be the film's least interesting actor. His prime handicap is a thin, whiny voice that would quickly turn unbearable if not for him having so few lines. Really, the film's most notable aspect may be its sound. The score is dominated by odd, droning lines that sound like church bells ringing underwater, and low-flying planes and ambient noise often obscure the dialogue. The mix's chance imperfections are almost avant-garde.

Jim Jarmusch's first film seem more experimental than major compared to his other films. Permanent Vacation shows of Jarmusch's cinematic expression with poetic nature and calm atomosphere. The story Follows a young man his views in life and the world he personally live in, full of likable scenarios and and self discovery. The pacing may be a bit slow, but it a small film with a lot of potential and really shows off what Jarmusch did before his more superior features. Recomended for those familiar with Jarmusch's films.

Jarmusch's first film doesn't possess the charm of his later ones, but his freewheeling episodic approach to storytelling is already evident.

Pure independent filmmaking, but only worth watching for fans of Jarmusch's later work. Chris's visit with his mother is memorable, but otherwise it's a lot of talk for an 80 minute film.

This is the second Jarmusch film I'm going to slag off in less than twelve hours. How awesome am I?

This is Jarmusch's first film and, honestly, I think it's more successful than Stranger Than Paradise. Visually, it's a fairly solid movie. For a first time director, he's got a handle on color that I truly envy. To bad there's little substance.

I KNOW! MINIMALIST! But to me, minimalist doesn't translate out to "crap." Because that's what most of this movie is. There's nothing tying this movie together. It's just a dude walking around. At least with Stranger than Paradise, we had a rough shell of a plot and there was some kind of character decision. Our main character doesn't have any kind of back story whatsoever. He's got no needs or no drive. He just talks without really saying much of anything. It's the philosophy of nothing.

There is one moment that I enjoyed. The irony of the whole scene was that if it was in any other movie, I would have criticised it for telling its message through monologue instead of action. But since this movie really didn't feed me anything else, I guess I have to settle for this soliloquy. There's a scene in a movie theater where a guy tells a story of a suicide case playing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." That story was really well written and (even if it was told somewhere else before), I felt it tied our lead character to someone else in a real way. All of the other interactions in this movie are people playing crazy and miserable.

But back to the main character. The titular line reveals that the main character is looking for nothing to do for the rest of his life. But we don't really get an insight into why he's so downtrodden. He works hard to maintain his laziness, but that isn't even the focus of the piece. Hell, I think that's even a great idea to make a movie out of but that isn't the theme of this movie. This movie just...

...is.

The only meaningful thing about this movie is the opening and closing statement. But what can I say about Jim Jarmusch, he is good at making this strolling film interesting, when he made a film that actually has a purpose it ended up boring.

'Permanent Vacation' is a grainy, low-budget affair. The acting is often amateurish; the plot more than a little aimless and meandering. Still, it shows early signs of the Jim Jarmusch's flair for deadpan humour and stark observation; required viewing for fans of his work.

Its the start of a lot of great work. It was a good and simple and while it is incredibly film school work, it is good film school work, especially for one who dropped out and went to paris to deliver paintings around. Jim is an artist and a good one at that. Worth a watch if you can stand a slow flick with little direction.

"Some people, you know, they - they can distract themselves with ambitions and motivation to work, you know, but not me." Those opening lines by the lead character were enough to suck me in and keep me glued to Jim Jarmusch's first (student) film. Suffers at points from slow pacing and loose dialogue but overall it's a drifting slacker's dream.

Personally, I was very enthralled by this film. The story isn't too great, and the theories narrated of the story aren't very unique. But, everything still manages to be interesting. This being Jim Jarmusch's first full-length feature, the thoughts are understandably not tied together as well as his next film "Stranger than Paradise", which is very well constructed. Things do become more developed as the film goes along, but it still has loose thoughts hanging throughout. This film shouldn't be considered a masterpiece, not even by big Jarmusch fans, but it should be regarded as a terrible film. I would say the one thing that really caught my attention was the visuals. Especially that last long shot. It's recommended for people who admire Jarmusch's work.

Jim Jarmusch's first film seem more experimental than major compared to his other films. Permanent Vacation shows of Jarmusch's cinematic expression with poetic nature and calm atomosphere. The story Follows a young man his views in life and the world he personally live in, full of likable scenarios and and self discovery. The pacing may be a bit slow, but it a small film with a lot of potential and really shows off what Jarmusch did before his more superior features. Recomended for those familiar with Jarmusch's films.

Haunting, I was entirely captured with this film. It stayed with me still after a few weeks of viewing. Could call it a mini-masterpiece. Jim Jarmusch is a great!

The sound was amateurish and the scenes were bland. I'd had enough after twenty minutes and turned it off.

At times betrays its low budget, especially in the frankly awful location sound recording, and some of the scenes in which Allie is shown wandering the streets make even the modest duration seem to stretch out.

Jim Jarmusch's first movie is no masterpiece, but it still has his trademark style.

Permanent Vacation feels like a few pages from Dean Moriarty?s secret teenage diary were found, scripted and directed in a new decade where all the ?kicks? had gone. The eerie abstract jazz score feels like Somewhere Over The Rainbow played backwards through a time machine of a forgotten America.