Coffee and Cigarettes (2004)

..are SPECTACULAR! There's some fantastic dialogue, performances, and cinematography displayed all throughout this fascinating semi-experimental comedy. This adventure through the strange mind of genius indie filmmaker Jim Jarmusch is a star studded, minimalist near- masterpiece full of fun and humor. However, not every skit is all too good, and at times the performers act a little too silly and funny-if certain actors played their scenes more straight and deadpan, the scenes would have come out much funnier.However, the goods definitely outweigh the bads here. This is a movie I would highly recommend for most people who enjoy slower, more dialogue heavy films, because I'm sure they'll get quite a few laughs out of this little movie. Some of the best segments are "Strange to Meet You" starring Steven Wright and Roberto Benigni, which is sort of odd and also hilarious, "Cousins" starring Cate Blanchett (who is great and brilliantly plays two very different characters at once), "Cousins?" (different than "Cousins", note the QUESTION MARK), starring Steve Coogan and Alfred Molina, which provides a wonderfully subtle sense of humor to the film, "Delirium" starring musicians GZA and RZA, as well as comedian/actor Bill Murray, which admittedly could have been a little better but is still great and funny as hell, and the final segment, which is "Champagne, starring William Rice and Andy Warhol superstar Taylor Mead, who does a brilliantly strange job at , basically, playing himself, which is the most odd, poetic little scene in the whole movie.

I can't remember why I bought Coffee and Cigarettes; I think it was when I had an obsession with the Cigarette-Smoking Man from The X-Files. Anyway, I watched it with my sister, who immediately got bored of it because it was filmed in black and white (she's a texting nut and cellphone zombie). I loved this movie though, it introduces you to an average variety of people from different walks of life, different genders, classes, races, but they each share one thing in common: they all visit a small city coffee shop, dingy and unpopular, and most of the characters have an addiction to either coffee, cigarettes or both.As the movie goes on, the characters complain about the small problems in their lives, indulging in their addictions and sort of looking down on one another unkindly, though other characters hit it off with each other. Still, despite these characters having next to nothing in common, many of their complaints and problems in life are similar, and they aren't alone in these issues. This movie doesn't really have much of a beginning, middle or end, it's more like an artistic view of how much we take the little things in life for granted, little things like friendly service in a diner, a nice compliment, the smell of freshly-brewed coffee and lit cigarettes, so many small things we often forget and overlook.Though I'm not entirely certain, I think it may take place in the late Fifties to early Sixties, the music style, scenery and fashion shown in the movie would point in that direction. The acting was outstanding and the soundtrack was nostalgic; the black and white film choice really puts more focus on the characters than the scenery so to fully enjoy this movie, you have to focus more on the script and what is being said, as well as the facial expressions and actions of the characters, to put the movie all together. I really loved this movie and I think it definitely deserves 10/10 stars, it's nice to avoid the melodrama of romance movies, cheap jump scares of horror movies and bad effects of sci-fi movies and just watch something simple yet so complex sometimes. In the end, it leaves a lingering depression and a new view on life that maybe in the fast-paced world of the city we often forget how much life is a gift and human kindness is worth a lot more than you'd think.

I am sure Jarmusch intended Coffee and Cigarettes to be better than the ordure that poured forth endlessly onto the screen before me - perhaps that was the realisation of the concept! I admired the attempt at something different, but frankly the result was eye wateringly awful with a bitter aftertaste. When even Steve Wright and Roberto Benigni can do no better than college level falseness and over acting you just know something ain't right. The African 'No Problem' sketch with the Dice Man undertones? Please tell me Jarmusch was being blackmailed by one of those two guys into including that stilted and inept nonsense into the final cut! Coogan and Molina, and Blanchet are the few that emerge from this execrable disaster with reputations intact. And Iggy, you just died, mate.The Passenger will never sound the same again.This film will be called wonderful by many, simply because of the cast, because of the Jarmusch reputation, and because love is blind. This was seen as a seriously off day for Jim by those of us that don't wear rose tinted or sun glasses in cinemas. The funniest line in all of this was actually posted right here on IMDb, with a poster explaining that Tarantino can't do great films like Coffee and Cigarettes because " Tarantino is a cinematographer not a writer (for film)". Thankyou that man. I am still chuckling now.

If John Sayles is the Stanley Kubrick of the American Independent film scene, able to get his sundry, tightly wrought, but distinct films to reach a sizable market, then Jim Jarmusch is its Martin Scorsese- whose restive films ever seem to probe the boundaries of form. Or, at least in Scorsese's case, up until his last few attempts at blockbuster melodrama. The latest Jarmuschian experiment is a series of eleven black and white short films that spanned a seventeen year range. Coffee And Cigarettes started out as a small black and white short that aired in 1986, on Saturday Night Live, and featured Steven Wright and Roberto Benigni in a rather pointless, unfunny, and forced piece in a shitty café. In this compilation, which takes its name from that original short, the first piece is retitled Strange To Meet You. Regardless, it is no better nor funnier under the new title. Luckily, Jarmusch decided to work on variations of the theme. His next attempt, and the next filmlet, is 1989's Twins (originally Coffee And Cigarettes, Memphis Version), which is a marginal improvement. Here, the real life siblings of filmmaker Spike Lee, Joie and Cinqué Lee, are arrogant pricks who are annoyed by and at waiter Steve Buscemi, who give a rambling defense of Elvis Presley against charges of racism by propounding an evil twin theory. The third entry is 1993's Coffee And Cigarettes- Somewhere In California, now just Somewhere In California. It's the first of the pieces that moves beyond mere gimmickry, as rockers Iggy Pop and Tom waits play themselves in a sly game of one-upsmanship at a café dive. It's the first of the films where the actors are actually playing themselves…. OK, critics either loved or hated this film, and the truth is it's not as bad nor good as either side says, because there is a great deal of amateurism involved, as well as daring. as I said, when really good actors and situations are put forth, there are gems of moments, such as in Cousins?, where Molina's slight shift of tone after Coogan's rebuff of his seeming sycophancy perfectly illustrates the fact that he knows he's higher in the Hollywood pecking order than his distant cousin. In Somewhere in California a similar moment is reached when Iggy Pop first tries to tell Tom Waits to call him Iggy and Waits, without missing a beat, calls him Jim- his real name. When not there is nothing distinct; its plotlessness really shows- as in Jack Shows Meg His Tesla Coil. Yet, there are segments like Those Things'll Kill Ya and No Problem where the utter barrenness of diurnal existence are both emulated and satirized by the aging mooks and the none-too-bright Jamaicans, whose conversations are so painfully weak, awkward, yet real, that the film-goer attuned to even the slight falsehoods of the minimally enlightened dialogue of Hollywood tripe can feel it, and wince. This film, at its best, avoids the needs to be boring to convey the power of boringness trope that affects much modern art, but its very hit and miss nature also undermines the cumulative effect that the best of it has to offer. In short, the film may be said to recapitulate Jarmusch's whole career….interesting; which is just the term I most often use when a work hits that middling ground that knows no name. There may be something to it, after all.