What’s in a name?

Adam Driver is a bus driver named Paterson in Paterson, New Jersey in Paterson, the new Jim Jarmusch film that earned a whopping five stars from Scott this week. Me, I’m holding out for Miles Teller as a cheerful bank teller named Happy Accident in Accident, Maryland who gets his hand caught in the bill sorter and then falls in love with his physical therapist in the heartwarming rom-com Happy Accident. No sense in half-measures.

In other news, Winfried Conradi’s Toni Erdmann in Toni Erdmann is no Tony Clifton. (If that doesn’t signify, here’s a clip of Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman as Tony Clifton in Man on the Moon to further confuse the issue.) But Scott didn’t hate it, so that’s something. Just like I didn’t hate Gold, even if for every sharp moment, there was another featuring hammer-force dullness. Half-right, half-right half-right, amirite?

What I did hate was A Dog’s Purpose. And I love dogs.

Finally, I want to speak a word of encouragement to Hollywood to stop yelling about Donald Trump and get down to the business of making movies about him. Alchemizing pain and rage into art is what you people are so very, very good at, and I’m betting that more people will pay attention that way. I was not at all surprised to see that someone already mashed him up with Dune’s Baron Harkonnen. How about working that into the upcoming remake? And speaking of body horror, I rather liked The Autopsy of Jane Doe, at least until they figured everything out and stopped being quietly terrified.

That’ll do for now. Scott’s off at the final Resident Evil film; look for his review sooner than later. (In the meantime, here’s his interview with the director.)