Coffee and Cigarettes
Length: 1 hour, 36 minutes
Studio: United Artists
Website: http://www.coffeeandcigarettesmovie.com/
Release Date: 2004-07-23
Cast: Roberto Benigni, Cate Blanchett, Steve Buscemi, Steve Coogan, Alfred Molina
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Screenwriter: Jim Jarmusch
WorkNameSort: Coffee and Cigarettes
Our Rating: 4.00
The latest quirk-cinema treat by Jim Jarmusch would make ideal fodder for a smart midnight-movie program, if this town had anything like one. Setting up coffee dates for 24 celebrities (or reasonable facsimiles of same), Jarmusch concocts a comedic anthology that’s calculated, arbitrary and inconsistent – and so hilarious when it works that you’ll forget any regrets before the last cup is downed.
In 11 black-and-white vignettes, quotable notables meet to chew the fat over joe and smokes. The first segment is a squirmy pas de deux between Roberto Benigni and Steven Wright; they’re obviously intended to embody opposite ends of the personal-energy spectrum, and does it ever work. Watching these two struggle against their disparate natures to form some kind of a bond sets up a motif of uneasy A-list cross-pollination that persists for much of the film. When Iggy Pop shares a table with Tom Waits, we’re treated to the revelation that the “real” Igster is as an idiotically grinning get-along guy who can’t help putting his foot in his mouth in ways that unfailingly offend short-tempered fellas like Waits.
Tinseltown politics fuel a split-screen stunt that has Cate Blanchett playing her own cousin, who’s as resentful of her relative’s renown as Cate is unable to connect with a commoner. In a timely match-up, the stars of two of the summer’s big releases – Steve Coogan of Around the World in 80 Days and Alfred Molina of Spider-Man 2 – find themselves locked in an old-fashioned Hollywood power game. Molina gamely assumes the role of an ingratiating milquetoast, though you’ll long to see a mechanical tendril snake out from under his side of the table and whack the supercilious Coogan upside the head.
About a third of the playlets aren’t up to much: Aged toughs Vinny Vella and Joe Rigano debate the nature of substance addiction to no effect beyond boredom. But for every such flameout, there’s a triumph like the priceless meeting between Bill Murray and GZA and RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. While Murray, whom the rappers persistently address as “Billmuwwy,” exhibits a deep familiarity with their work that’s wildly improbable, they appear to know him only from his most commercial roles. (Remember when Eddie Murphy insisted on referring to Saturday Night Live guest host Ron Howard as “Opie Cunningham”?)
Seen here four months ago as a not-so-secret “secret preview” at the Florida Film Festival, Coffee and Cigarettes is a real “because I can” movie – the kind a filmmaker puts together mostly to show off the diversity of the personalities in his cell-phone memory. But with friends like these, you’ll be happy to be included in the java call.
This article appears in Jul 21-27, 2004.