July 09, 2004
Coffee and Cigarettes
Coffee and Cigarettes is a movie with many opportunities for great dialogue. Yet, it starts out with so many awkward silences and conversations that it had me doubting. I mean, how does one make Roberto Begnini boring?
The film is set up in small segments, each showing people meeting over cofee (one time it was tea) and smoking. We've got people like Roberto Begnini, Steve Coogan, Alfred Molina, Cate Blanchett, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Bill Murray, the White Stripes, WuTang, and more... Sometimes the meetings seem like they were set up for no reason in particular other than to put two interesting people in a room together and see how the conversation goes. The better segments give a reason behind the meeting and have less awkward silences.
In the beginning, the film felt pretty shaky, and a little bit drawn out/boring. I think the movie relied a little bit much on "star power", or the presence of interesting people on the screen.
About halfway through, it started picking up speed. The conversations were better, the situations seem more established, and the themes were more concrete. Visually, I like the movie: in black and white, in various locations, and the checkers. Little details, like the variety of music playing also added to the ambience of each vignette.
The official website for this movie claims that Jarmusch shows "just how absorbing the obsessions, joys, and addictions of life can be." I'm not sure how absorbing he showed many things to be, but he did create a movie with some interesting ideas and characters, that was certainly a lot more involving in its second half.
My favorite scenes were with Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan, Bill Murray with the guys from WuTang, and the two old men who drink coffee like it's champagne.
Overall, I enjoyed it, but wouldn't necessarily tell you to drive 20-30 miles to see it.
Posted by wendytime at July 9, 2004 09:59 AM | TrackBack