Month: January 2017

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Super Bowl LI: Who Are the Falcons?

CREDIT: Atlanta Falcons Instagram

Atlanta Falcons Instagram

Let’s play a game of association. In historical terms, who is the face of the Atlanta Falcons franchise?

Gotta be a quick and easy answer.

New York Jets: Joe Namath. Miami Dolphins: Dan Marino. Detroit Lions: Barry Sanders.

Some answers stir debate. Chicago Bears: Walter Payton or Dick Butkus? San Francisco 49ers: Jerry Rice or Joe Montana? Buffalo Bills: O.J. Simpson or Jim Kelly?

Now back to the original question: Who is the face of the Atlanta Falcons?

This Sunday in Houston, a franchise born the same season we first had a Super Bowl (1966) will play in the big game for just the second time. The most memorable Falcon moment from Super Bowl XXXIII actually happened the night before kickoff: safety Eugene Robinson’s arrest for soliciting prostitution. Denver demolished Atlanta, 34-19.

The Falcons have played more than half a century of football, yet have precisely one former player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame who can be identified indisputably as a Falcon. Defensive end Claude Humphrey played 11 years with Atlanta (1968-78) and was a two-time All-Pro pass rusher. Humphrey didn’t gain enshrinement in the Hall of Fame until 2014, 33 years after he played his final game (with the Philadelphia Eagles). If you identified Claude Humphrey as the face of the Falcons franchise, you do your football homework better than Phil Simms, Troy Aikman, or any other analyst you see this time of year.

The truth, of course, is that the Falcons’ current quarterback, Matt Ryan, is fast becoming the answer to this barstool question. And Ryan will lock up the tag if he’s named MVP for the 2016 season, as many expect he will be. In leading the top-scoring team in the NFL, the 31-year-old Ryan passed for 4,944 yards and 38 touchdowns, with only seven interceptions. Making Ryan’s Super Bowl debut even juicier, of course, is his counterpart with the New England Patriots.

Tom Brady, it can be carved in stone, is the easiest, most definitive “face of the franchise” for any of the NFL’s 32 teams. The two-time MVP is Ryan’s chief competition for this year’s honor, having passed for 3,554 yards with 28 touchdowns and but two interceptions despite missing the Pats’ first four games while serving his suspension for “Deflategate.” (If you don’t know, look it up. It’s now a miserably distracting part of NFL history. No more on it here.)

Brady will start his seventh Super Bowl, as many as Joe Montana and Troy Aikman did combined. He aims to become the first signal-caller with five Super Bowl rings (Montana and Terry Bradshaw have four each). He’s as Boston as Beacon Hill, as New England as maple syrup. Fact is, if we had to name a “face of the Super Bowl,” Tom Brady would be the guy.

I lived three years of my early childhood in Atlanta. (My sister was born there, ten days before Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record.) I lived nine years in New England, my college days in Boston during a time Steve Grogan was remembered as the quarterbacking standard and Sundays had entertainment options besides football. (Faneuil Hall anyone?) Those days are long gone; so say the Patriots’ trophy case and the color of my whiskers. I’ll be torn come kickoff Sunday, but will likely lean toward the team still trying — after half a century — to make a face for itself in the gallery of pro football history.

The Pick

The most points scored by a Super Bowl loser are 31 (Dallas in Super Bowl XIII and San Francisco in Super Bowl XLVII). That could change Sunday. The Falcons scored more points (540) than any of the 50 Super Bowl winners. The Patriots finished third in the league in scoring (27.6 points per game). The trouble for Atlanta is the Patriot defense. Not packed with stars — Devin McCourty? Dont’a Hightower? — New England allowed the fewest points in the NFL (15.6 per game). There will be some irony when Brady becomes the first quarterback to win five Super Bowls . . . and has his defense to thank.

Patriots 35, Falcons 27

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Memphis Immigration Lawyers Fear the Worst, Look to Congress for Relief

Greg Siskind (l); Barry Frager

President Trump’s executive order creating new immigration bans has not left Memphis unscathed. Among the affected are the proprietors of two local law firms specializing in immigration matters, although both see their clientele as being the true victims, not themselves.

“These are harsh actions by the Trump administration, and they are already affecting a lot of people, by their tone as much as by their action,” said Barry Frager of the Frager Law firm. “People will fear leaving the U.S. on trips, uncertain as to whether they can get back. All this is increasing fear in the immigrant community as a whole, especially among the Muslim community.

Muslims constitute maybe 15 percent of his firm’s trade, said Frager. And he estimated that the effects of his practice would be a “wash,” given the balance between some emergency work that will come his way and the expected reduction in calls for the routine assistance that his firm provides — visas, green cards, and general compliance with a host of normal immigration requirements.

“Clearly, people will respond when they are afraid,” Frager said. “But under the Trump administration we do not expect a friendly environment where we’ll be able to help more people. I’m concerned that well be able to help less people be successful in matters affecting their status.”

Greg Siskind of Siskind Susser, another firm specializing in immigration matters, expressed similar thoughts. In the short term, “it’s not impacting us financially,” Siskind said of the Trump ban, which, for a projected 90-day period, has put a stop, regardless of visa category, to normal travel of non-citizens back and forth between the U.S. and seven Middle Eastern nations — Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Suden, Libya, and Syria.

The Trump ban also includes an absolute 120-day halt to admission to the United States of refugees fleeing the consequences of the civil war in Syria.

Siskind estimates that his Muslim clientele constitutes “from 15 to 25 percent” of his firm’s total.

Amid impassioned protests at several American airport locations, a federal judge in Massachusetts on Saturday night ordered a stay in enforcement of the Trump ban that had the effect of freeing up several hundred non-citizens who had been blocked on their re-arrival in America from trips to several of the seven affected nations.

But that accomplished only partial relief, noted Siskind. “For every person who was stuck in the airport here, there are probably 100 people abroad who can’t get back in.” That included “dual nationals,” people with passports from Canada as well as from one of the affected nations. “We do a lot of work for doctors, and a lot of them are from Iran or Syria,” said Siskind. He estimated that “from 5 to 7 of the top 10” physicians’ cases that his firm handles involve immigrants from Syria.

Like Frager, Siskind is dubious about the constitutionality of Trump’s actions, which both lawyers saw as targeted at Muslims, despite pro forma denials from the administration. On the basis of such additional news as was available on Sunday, Siskind did express a hope that immigrants from the seven affected nations who already possess green cards might find the barriers to their travel relaxed.

Both Frager and Siskind held their optimism in check, however, pending further developments. Both were hopeful that legal actions from the A.C.L.U and other opponents of the ban could accomplish some relief, but both saw Senator Jeff Sessions, President Trump’s Attorney General-designate, as the animating source of the President’s action, and both feared the worst on that account.

Both lawyers were also dubious about Congress’ ability to affect the outcome.

Said Frager: “My feeling is that the establishment portions of both the Democratic and Republican parties don’t quite know what to do right now with Donald Trump’s Presidency. I believe that the establishment doesn’t agree with the Trump administration but doesn’t know what to do about it.”

Siskind has similar sentiments — with a pointed edge to them. “I’d like to see what Congress will do, but they, and the normal agencies of government, seem to be sidelined, including our two Senators,” he said on Sunday. “I know where [9th District Congressman Steve] Cohen stands.” (The Memphis Democrat is vehemently opposed to Trump’s action.} “I’d like to see where [Republican 8th District] Congressman [David] Kustoff stands. They’ll be judged for a lot of years on what they do in the next week or two.

“If Congress just stands by and lets this happen, it’s a bad sign for what we’re going to see for the next couple of years.”

For the record, Senator Lamar Alexander issued this statement later on Sunday:

“This vetting proposal itself needed more vetting. More scrutiny of those traveling from war-torn countries to the United States is wise. But this broad and confusing order seems to ban legal, permanent residents with ‘green cards,’ and might turn away Iraqis, for example, who were translators and helped save lives of Americans troops and who could be killed if they stay in Iraq. And while not explicitly a religious test, it comes close to one which is inconsistent with our American character.”

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Tigers 57, East Carolina 50

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Triple-doubles are rare in college basketball, particularly the variety delivered by K.J. Lawson Saturday afternoon at FedExForum. The Tigers’ freshman forward scored 12 points, established a new personal high with 19 rebounds . . . and missed 18 shots. (Tiger coach Tubby Smith made the case that “he got back seven of ’em,” Lawson’s offensive rebounds making him merely five-of-16 from the field instead of an atrocious five-of-23.) Memphis survived its ugliest half of the season — 19 points and 25-percent shooting in the first twenty minutes — to beat ECU and improve to 16-6 (6-3 in the American Athletic Conference). Top scorer Dedric Lawson didn’t have a solitary point in the first half, but finished the game with eight to go along with 14 rebounds.

The point total is the Tigers’ lowest in a win this season. They shot 30 percent from the field, not all that surprising as the Pirates entered the game as one of the tightest defending teams in the country (38-percent opponents’ field-goal-percentage). “I was impressed in watching tape, how hard East Carolina plays,” said Smith. “We knew it would be a dog fight. When you have a rim-protector like Andre Washington, it makes a big difference. But we’ve got a good rim protector, too, in Jeremiah Martin.”
Larry Kuzniewski

K.J. Lawson

The mention of his point guard as a shot blocker drew some chuckles from gathered media, but Smith wasn’t exaggerating Saturday. The sophomore from Mitchell High School blocked three shots (two fewer than Washington), set a career high with six steals, and committed only one turnover in 40 minutes of action.

“The point of attack is always important,” said Smith. “Jeremiah is long enough, quick enough, and smart enough. He took some chances. Success can sometimes make you think you can do it more often than you should. Continue to look for those opportunities to force a turnover. Not many times can a player take the ball off someone at this level. The team usually creates steals.”

Memphis trailed 22-19 at halftime. Markel Crawford scored his first points of the game — a two-pointer, followed by a three-pointer, each from the right side — to seize the lead for the Tigers (30-27) just over four minutes into the second half. Dedric Lawson connected with his older brother for a breakaway dunk, then followed with his own field goal to extend the Tigers’ lead to 41-32 with 12 minutes to play. A pair of free throws by K.J. Lawson made it 51-40 with 5:37 to go and the U of M cruised — as best you can define such in as ugly a game as this one — the rest of the way.

“We weren’t screening well,” said Smith. “We weren’t utilizing the screens properly. We weren’t able to get into our up-tempo press because we couldn’t make shots. You’re always in retreat mode. We weren’t pushing the ball up the floor or attacking the paint. We were trying to shoot [the ball] over them, and that wasn’t going to work.”

Junior forward Jimario Rivers scored 15 points for the Tigers, making the team now 7-0 when Rivers scores at least 10.

Kentrell Barkley and Jeremy Sheppard led ECU with 13 points each. The Pirates are now 10-12 (2-7 in the AAC).

The Tigers travel to Florida for a pair of games next week, Thursday at USF and Saturday at UCF.

Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

Take The 39 Steps, Please: Theatre Memphis Roasts Hitchcock

(l to r) Gabe Beutel-Gunn, Lena Wallace Black, Kinon Kiplinger and Chase Ring perform in the comedic adaptation of the Alfred Hitchcock movie The 39 Steps at Theatre Memphis, January 20 – February 5

Style only goes so far. But sometimes “so far” is a long, long way. Theatre Memphis’ take on The 39 Steps, an homage to cinematic suspense, murders any opportunity for tension or coherent storytelling, but the wounds bleed laughter. Style and some very good acting carry the day even when it’s impossible to follow the plot. At every surprising twist and unforeseeable turn it looks great doing whatever it is it does.

The 39-Steps is a tough proposition. It’s a balancing act between Hitchcocky storytelling and self-aware gags in the vein of a Seth Macfarlane cartoon. Only, instead of Family Guy‘s celebrity drop-ins, be on the lookout for allusions to other films, particularly those by the old master himself. Add to all that an impressive stunt factor:  Four actors  play somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 characters, revisiting events from movies that should be impossible to recreate onstage. Airplane chases, anybody? (Airplane chases anybody?)

Director Tony Isbell has built a chaotic clown show, chock full of cheap theatrics and owing as much to the Marx Brothers as it does to Hitchcock. Of course his cast of clowns are deadly serious, especially when they’re being absolutely ridiculous. The show’s train-top chase is a purely theatrical joy, as is the climactic moment when the villain is flung from the balcony. And if you think that’s a spoiler, you may not fully grasp the fact that the plot just does not matter here at all. Besides, while unessential, it’s more fun if you’ve seen the film already. If, by some chance, I’ve now spoiled the film for you, it’s like 80-years-old, you had your chance.

Take The 39 Steps, Please: Theatre Memphis Roasts Hitchcock

The 39 Steps  tells the story of an ordinary, if almost impossibly handsome Londoner, who, while going about the everydays, stumbles bum-behind-teakettle into rollocking spy-infested misadventure. This go-round said Londoner is played by Kinon Keplinger, and it’s a perfect fit. Keplinger’s a versatile character actor trapped in the person of a lost-in-time leading man. He’s a solid anchor — the one actor not jumping from role to role, holding all the play’s threads together , even when things threaten to become unmoored.

Gabe Beutel-Gunn, Lena Wallace Black, and Chase Ring play everybody else with an eye toward the original film, and heel toward the banana peel. But not really. I’d never spoil a good banana peel gag.

I don’t know how well the 39-Steps works in Theatre Memphis’ big space. It’s a big little show. It wants to be big, and it looks great on the stage. But it’s also a show that benefits from intimacy. It wants to include the house, and Isbell’s hyper-aware production ups the ante on all that. The deep, narrow space with its gulf between upper and lower seating doesn’t prevent this sort of thing, but it’s not ideal either.

The 39-Steps is one of those shows where pieces outshine the whole, and the gags are the best thing going. To that end it’s a little like vaudeville. And, as the setting should make perfectly clear, it knows it.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Trail Blazers 112, Grizzlies 109: Sonnet Recap

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

The Grizzlies mounted a comeback in Portland last night but fell apart down the stretch. In honor of the three-point loss, a sonnet in the Petrarchan form.

On The Grizzlies’ Disjointed But Hard-Fought Loss To The Trail Blazers of Portland on the Twenty-Seventh of January, AD 2017.

Last night the Grizzlies could not quite come back;
From op’ning tip they dug themselves a hole.
With Tony Brothers’ calls out of control,
In crunch time our Bears mounted no attack.
The Grindfather’s decisions showed a lack
Of care for things like stopping pick and roll,
And though he is the Grizzlies’ heart and soul,
He’s got to score when going to the rack.

With Conley clearly not in his top form,
And defense failing to communicate,
The wonder is they made a game at all.
The danger if this game becomes the norm
Is that by only playing second-rate,
From seventh place the Griz will surely fall.

Categories
Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

What Didn’t the Police Find in His Anal Cavity?

Although your Pesky Fly has been a Memphis resident since Reagan was in the White House, I do occasionally like to check in on news from back home. Especially news like this story of a man falsely accused by the police of carrying a carton of Newport cigarettes, a broken glass pipe, and a tire gauge in his anal cavity. Turns out (surprise, surprise) the arrest warrant was a bit off base. According to a report from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s office, those items were all found on Jason Dondi Littleton. He was just carrying them in his clothing, not in his butt.

To give the officers the benefit of the doubt, this is also the facial expression I make when I’m trying to be nonchalant with 20 packs of menthols in the trunk.

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Fun Bunny Weekend At The Brooks Museum

Intrude, the fantastic outdoor/indoor exhibit at the Brooks Museum of Art, concludes this weekend. The group of giant, inflatable bunnies create a delightful presence in Overton Park and inside the museum, and they carry an important message about the perils of environmental degradation in our crowded, connected world. Amanda Parer chose rabbits as her subject because they are an invasive species in her native Australia, driving native wildlife from their natural habitat. Sure, the giant inflatable bunnies are cute, but when you get up close to them, you can’t help but feel small and a little threatened.

A 23-foot tall bunny stalks Overton Park in Australian artist Amanda Parer’s installation Intrude.

To honor the last weekend of the exhibit, the Brooks is presenting two fun, bunny-themed films. On Saturday at 2 PM, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie brings the world’s most famous rabbit to the big screen. First released in 1979, the film is a compilation of classic Warner Brothers cartoons, most of which would have been familiar to young audiences from Saturday morning animation blocs on network television. Included in the 20+ shorts are some stone-cold classics of Western culture, including “Rabbit Fire”, the 1951 Bugs/Daffy combo picture that introduced the Looney Tunes answer to the “Who’s On First?” sketch, the “Rabbit Season/Duck Season” routine. If nothing else, the screening will be worth it for the rare opportunity to see Chuck Jones’ masterpiece “What’s Opera Doc?”, six minutes of mind-blowing mid century modernist design supporting a cross-dressing parody of Wagnerian pomp, on the big screen.

Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny in ‘What’s Opera Doc?’

On Sunday afternoon, another all-time comedy classic with a star turn by a rabbit. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the 1975 film that broke the British comedy troupe into the mainstream in America, and still stands as one of the funniest films ever created. The episodic adventures of King Arthur (Graham Chapman) and his inept Knights of the Round Table, played by various members of the Pythons, includes a memorable scene in which the tiny Rabbit of Caerbannog punches way above its weight. The film begins at 2 PM in the Brooks’ lower level theater.

Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

Wild, Wild, Wild: Rock of Ages Revisits the Reagan Era

CREDIT: McDonald/Simmers

McDonald/Simmers

Just a small town girl…

It’s confession time. I haven’t been a fan of 80’s top-40 music since way back in the 80’s when my high school class wanted to make the sappy Phil Collins hit “Against All Odds,” the song we marched into at graduation. Unironically. So, it should come as no surprise, of all the jukebox musicals out there — good, bad, and terrible — I’ve always had the hardest time giving Rock of Ages a fair shake. It’s like somebody went out of their way to pick all the music I rebelled against and force-fit it into a thinly plotted romantic comedy set in the sleazy, testosterone-flooded hair metal scene of LA’s Sunset Strip. The first viewing I endured like torture, and swore it would be the last. The show’s campy edge couldn’t shake off the slime, and the few songs I do legitimately enjoy (Motering…) couldn’t escape the horrible gravity of Starship’s “We Built This City,” which, I think we can all agree, is at least a least a semi-finalist in the worst song in history contest. So imagine my surprise when I found myself (mostly) enjoying Playhouse on the Square’s energetic homage to the Reagan era, when everything was awful.

The story goes something like this: The economy is wrecked, city cores are crumbling, but it’s morning in America so foreign investors are snapping up property and transforming local flavor into upscale homogeneity. Into the scene walks Sherrie, a young girl from the heartland, in painted on cut-off  McDonald/Simmers

Born, raised in S. Detroit.

jeans, dreaming of work on the silver screen, even while she works the pole in a gentleman’s club. A 5-minute stand with a burnout rockstar in the men’s room of the Bourbon Room (a stand-in for the Whiskey-a-Go-Go) has wrecked her chances for real love, and brought her to a place she never thought she’d be. Now she’s holding out for a hero.

In this case, the real bad guy isn’t the asshole rock star — a cross between David Lee Roth of Van Halen and Axl Rose. We recognize him from first meeting, as someone spiraling toward oblivion and probably a toilet filled with his own vomit. The villain is a German real estate speculator with no compunctions about bulldozing rock clubs and putting up a retail shopping destination. The hero is busboy and would-be metal god, Drew Boley, who only wants to rock. And maybe sip some wine coolers with a nice girl now and then.

Scott Ferguson is a favorite among directors. I like how he stuffs scenes to their bursting point with life, color, and texture, although sometimes storylines get swallowed up in all the fun. This go-round, he keeps the action up front, and the conflicts clear while working with choreographer Travis Bradley to build body shots, stage dives, and lots of windblown hair into the production numbers.  Even the muddled second act races along like a crazy train, always threatening to slip off the rails.

There’s always been a little teeny-tiny hint of Threepenny Opera in Rock of Ages, and Ferguson, and a rock solid ensemble, find grace and meaning in LA’s slimy underbelly. Maybe even a hard life lesson or two.

Kathryn Kilger is a fine fit for Sherrie, the good girl in a bad situation, and Chris Steinmetz is appropriately cringe-inducing as Stacee Jaxx, a pretty, petty boozed up sack of garbage in too-tight pants. Isaac Middleton sometimes struggles with the range and brute force the songs require, but he overcomes all obstacles including the character’s own piggish instincts. He makes you love him, and makes the music work.

The glue holding everything together, however, is Stephen Garrett, who’s back on stage in Memphis after a brief hiatus. It is a welcome and auspicious return. Garrett specializes in emotionally detached smart guys, smartasses, and smarmsters with hearts of gold. This go-round he’s Lonny, a rock-and-roll lifer, living for the city and the scene: A little bit middle aged Jim Morrison, a little bit roadie for Spinal Tap. But the way he leads both the audience, and his fellow characters through the show is more like stoner Bugs Bunny leading Elmer Fudd on a wild rabbit chase. You just know somebody’s gonna get a big ol’ kiss. It may be my favorite musical performance by Garrett since he Christian rocked the house in the band satire Alter Boyz.

If there’s anything I dislike more than Hair Metal it’s Huey Lewis & the New’s Sports LP. But if there is a Heart of Rock & Roll it’s Jarrad Baker as the Bourbon’s true believing owner, trying to hold on to that feeling and everything else that matters, even if he can’t hold on to his club. Jonathan Christian turns in a strong supporting performance as Hertz, the teutonic moneyman, as does dancing machine Daniel Stuart Nelson who channels the spirit of Klaus Nomi as Hertz’s son Franz. Brooke Papritz mugs a little too much in her role as a cartoon activist, but also displays comic instincts reminiscent of Laugh In-era Ruth Buzzi.

Annie Freres has a voice that can’t be ignored, and her too-brief moments on stage are worth the ticket price. “Shadows of the Night,” could have gone on much, much longer.

I’m never going to be a Journey fan. Or a Bon Jovi fan. Or all that into Quiet Riot. But if every production of Rock of Ages was as full and fun as this one, I could warm up to it pretty quickly — Against all Odds.

Anywhere

Apologies: Brooke Papritz was originally misidentified because somebody clearly can’t read a program. (Me)

Categories
News News Blog

MATA Ex-CEO Ron Garrison Arrested in TBI Human Trafficking Sting

Ron Garrison, CEO of MATA, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly soliciting a prostitute.

Memphis Area Transit Authority CEO Ron Garrison resigned yesterday following his arrest for allegedly patronizing a prostitute.

Garrison’s initial resignation statement cited “personal health problems”, but by Thursday news of his arrest had broke.

Garrison’s arrest was one out of 42 — 38 men and four women — resulting from a three day human trafficking sting carried out by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. TBI reported that 475 men contacted undercover agents during the sting. Two female juvenile trafficking victims were rescued as a result of the sting. Garrison’s solicitation did not involve a juvenile.

MATA issued a statement after news of Garrion’s arrest broke.

“As it relates to today’s announcement from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation regarding former MATA CEO Ron Garrison, this is no way diminishes the contributions of Mr. Garrison during his tenure over his last few years.”

Garrison has served as MATA’s CEO since 2014.

The Memphis Flyer is seeking comment from both Garrison and MATA. This story will be updated with additional information.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Paterson

To soothe my jangled, post-election nerves, I recently rewatched Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train. Released in 1989, the film was on the vanguard of the American indie revolution. It pioneered the indie trope of preferring multiple, small stories over one, big, overarching plot, providing an inspiration to Richard Linklater’s 1991 Slacker; as well as the interlocking, time-shifted narrative structure that Quentin Tarantino would put to effective use in 1994’s Pulp Fiction. Jarmusch’s quiet, humane, observational style would resonate in films from Harmony Korine’s Kids (1995) to Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003). It was also the Big Bang for a lot of Memphis filmmakers who caught the bug while working on the South Main set or chased rumors of Joe Strummer shooting pool at the P&H.

Jarmusch’s new film, Paterson, is something of a spiritual successor to Mystery Train. It is a celebration of place, only where Mystery Train winds through Memphis’ mythicized landscape, Paterson rambles through the working class town of Paterson, New Jersey, in a battered old bus. Both films have a time constraint: Mystery Train takes place in the course of one eventful day at the flophouse, while Paterson is one week’s worth of poetic journal entries. The biggest difference between the two films is perspective. Mystery Train views Memphis through the eyes of rockabilly-obsessed Japanese tourists and down-on-their-luck street thugs. Paterson‘s POV stays strictly with its protagonist, a bus driver named, appropriately enough, Paterson, played by Adam Driver.

Paterson (the character) is a quiet introvert. In the opening shots, Jarmusch establishes him as a highly ordered, simple, light sleeper who is, like the actor who portrays him, a Marine veteran. We watch him go about the rhythms of his day: He gets to work early, jots down a few lines of poetry in his journal while he’s waiting to roll out of the station, exchanges words with his perpetually aggrieved supervisor, Donny (Rizwan Manji), drives the good people of New Jersey around on their daily chores, returns home to dinner with his wife, Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), and then walks Marvin, their bulldog, to the neighborhood watering hole, run by Doc (Barry Shabaka Henley), where he nurses a single beer.

It’s a simple life, but it suits Paterson just fine, because it gives him time to pay attention to the two things he is devoted to: his poetry and Laura. I am wary of movies about writers for a couple of reasons. First, movies are written by writers, and writers can self-mythologize in pretty ugly ways. Second, there is the inevitable scene where the guy (it’s almost always a guy) whom the movie has been setting up as a genius finally reads his writing aloud, and it’s terrible. Refreshingly, Paterson focuses on the poet’s process. Lines appear onscreen as they are written in Paterson’s journal, and we see the fits and starts followed by a sudden outpouring of words. Even better, the poetry actually sounds like it was written by a talented bus driver who idolizes William Carlos Williams.

Driver’s stoic, subtle performance will go a long way towards cementing his status as America’s Dreamy Boyfriend. On the surface, Farahani’s character skews toward manic pixie dream girl territory, but it becomes clear that we’re seeing her through the eyes of Paterson, who adores her unconditionally. She’s not perfect, he just paints over her foibles and doesn’t mind that she’s not as good a cook as she thinks she is. The third outstanding performance is from the dog, Marvin, who consistently brings the best schtick to this low-key, almost comedy.

If the rise of Trump signals a resurgence of toxic masculinity, Paterson brings an antidote. Driver’s Paterson is a compassionate, intelligent everyman without a greedy bone in his body. He’s quietly interested in the people around him — the conversations he overhears on the bus and at the bar provide Jarmusch’s signature micro narrative moments — and is heroic in the Hemingway sense of the word: He does his duty. Paterson is not a self-aggrandizing world conqueror, but one of the quiet heroes with hidden depth that make the world go around. Paterson may end up being one of the definitive films of our time, a careful character study of a man who makes a tough job look easy, kinda like Jarmusch himself.