Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

COFFEE AND CIGARETTES

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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+

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X-RAMR-ID: 37787
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1281585
X-RT-TitleID: 1132523
X-RT-SourceID: 386
X-RT-AuthorID: 1487
X-RT-RatingText: C+