Coffee And Cigarettes Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)May 17th, 2004
COFFEE AND CIGARETTES
---------------------
Writer/director Jim Jarmusch ("Stranger Than Paradise"), an American independent original, gathers together friends and former collaborators in an omnibus of eleven short films to explore the universality of "Coffee and Cigarettes."
Things kick off with "Strange to Meet You," a short made in 1986 at the request of Saturday Night Live starring the brilliantly paired hyperactive Roberto Benigni (Jarmusch's "Down by Law") and the spiritually laid back Steven Wright ("So I Married an Axe Murderer") as strangers who trade chairs and a dentist appointment. This mildly amusing vignette (Benigni hadn't formed the manic persona he has become known by since) is followed by one of the film's even lesser segments, "Twins," shot while Jarmusch was making "Mystery Train" in Memphis. Spike siblings Joie ("She's Gotta Have It") and Cinqué Lee ("Mystery Train") trade barbs while a weird waiter (Steve Buscemi, in one of the film's only fully fictionalized roles) defends Elvis Presley with a bizarre story involving an evil twin.
In 1992, "Somewhere in California" features the first meeting of Iggy Pop and Tom Waits in what becomes a game of passive aggression that will be repeated in subsequent episodes. An eager to please, almost geeky Iggy is toyed with by Waits, who claims to have performed childbirth and an emergency tracheotomy in his second career as a doctor on the way to their meeting. Another odd waiter is featured in "Renee" in the person of musician E.J. Rodriguez, who displeases Renee French by giving a heater to her perfectly blended cup o' joe. Renee is a cool customer, who passively leafs through aggressively masculine literature like gun manuals and hunting knife catalogs while "Crimson and Clover" plays out in the background. "No Problem" stars Alex Descas ("Lumumba") and Isaach De Bankolé (Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog") in a simple concept stretched longer than a short will bear.
The final half dozen films were all shot in 2003 and, with the exception of the first, are where "Coffee and Cigarettes" becomes energized. Cate Blanchett plays a less confident version of herself meeting up with cousin Shelby (also Blanchett) in a hotel lobby during a press junket. Shelby guilt trips Cate, then is unceremoniously put back in her place when her famous relative leaves the table. Blanchett has fun riffing on two very different, if simply drawn, characters. The White Stripes' Jack takes on the nerd mantle in "Jack Shows Meg His Tesla Coil" while his sister Meg plays the droll hipster in perhaps the most uncharacteristic episode (Tesla's perception of the earth as a conductor of acoustic resonance does catch a second wave in the final short). "Cousins?" is hands down the best segment of the film. A puppy doggish Alfred Molina (Jarmusch's "Dead Man") acts like an awed fan at an arranged meeting with the stuck up Steve Coogan ("24 Hour Party People") who cuts down his companion until he discovers a connection to Spike Jonze. This is followed by a hilarious meeting between Wu Tang Clan's RZA (Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog") and GZA with a barely in cognito Bill Murray, who gulps coffee straight from the carafe while looking like a cross between a lunch counterman and Popeye. RZA riffs on Waits as a practitioner of 'alternative medicine' while he and G ingeniously make Murray's very name a repeated punch line. "Champagne" is an oddly melancholy yet funny denouement featuring Bill Rice and the fabulously eccentric Taylor Mead.
Several different cinematographers (Tom DiCillo, Frederick Elmes, Ellen Kuras and Robby Müller) maintain visual fluidity with black and white photography and consistent overhead shots of each segment's table. Jarmusch weaves strange little themes, like musicians who doctor on the side and checkerboard patterned cafe tables, without really delving into the properties of coffee or cigarettes - in fact, Molina and Coogan drink tea. In about half the episodes, there are more cups on the table than customers, another oddity that appears to have no meaning.
Taken as a whole, "Coffee and Cigarettes" plays like a half-baked indulgence, a hip in-joke that the audience is never made privy to, but those who remain patient through the film's several dry spells will be richly rewarded in the end stretch.
C+
For more Reeling reviews visit http://www.reelingreviews.com
More on 'Coffee And Cigarettes'...
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
