Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

The film that set the template for American indie deadpan. Jim Jarmusch shot each scene in a single long take with no standard coverage and cut between them with stretches of black screen, so every joke arrives, hangs in the air and then vanishes into darkness. Three bored people drift from New York to Cleveland and beyond, and nothing much happens anywhere, which is exactly the point. It won the Caméra d'Or for debut films at Cannes in 1984 and is preserved in the National Film Registry. Start here to find out whether you have the patience for the slower films on this list.