Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

Coffee and Cigarettes was worthless, which is why I'm glad someone else paid for me to see it. If you actually liked this movie, I would love to talk to you, because you are just kidding yourself. You think it's cool to like movies that you don't understand, when really you don't understand them because they are crap and there's nothing there to understand. Here is a summary of Coffee and Cigarettes: The movie opens and it is shot in that terrible teen angst black and white that kids who can't take pictures like to photoshop their digital photos into because they think it will salvage an otherwise crappy color photo. It doesn't salvage s***, and it just made me realize that the movie was going to be pretentious crap, just like all those pretentious look-at-me-I- develop-my-own-pictures-in-black-and-white kids' pictures of kids playing in playgrounds photographed through the chain-links of the fence, with the links in focus. The movie is filled with a bunch of mini-scenes of mediocre B-list celebrities/actors having coffee and smoking cigarettes and talking about coffee and cigarettes and occasionally making a comment about how coffee and cigarettes isn't a very healthy lunch. It's artsy how they keep repeating the title. Oh, and it's artsy how all the tables are black and white checkered. 'Cause the movie is in black and white, get it? But wait. It's even more artsy to change the whole premise of the movie halfway through when the tables stop having black and white checkers and the coffee turns into tea and the cigarettes turn into one person smoking and the other commenting on how cigarettes are terrible. Oh, and I bet it would be artsy if we insert a scene where Jack and Meg White (they're hot right now - they have that hit new album that in retrospect no one really liked that much, but they wanted to like it to be alternative and artsy - oh, there's that artsy thing again) are playing with a Tesla Coil. Then, Jack should quote Tesla about the world being a conductor of audiophonic harmony because he's a musician. Then Meg white repeats the quote and hits a spoon on a coffee cup and it makes an annoying ringing noise and then she does it again and everyone is like "stop it." The movie carries on like this. The final scene is two old guys, both of which you've seen before but you're not quite sure where, talking about some piece of classical music. This is the scene where the movie tries to redeem itself by having some deeper underlying meaning. The one old guy says he wants to take a nap, then he just dies. The classical music plays, obviously, and the movie ends. Maybe he died from lung cancer, or caffeine overdose, is that the point? Pathetic. The only redeeming scenes in the movie are the scenes with Steve Coogan and Alfred Molina and Rza, Gza, and Bill Murray. But they are bookended by the most worthless, pretentious, art-rock, deeper-meaning, repetitive, awkward crap I've seen in a long time.

Fmovies: my impression of the film is that jarmusch wasn't really trying very hard. perhaps i'll be proven wrong and this film will one day be shown to have an understated genius about it, but i doubt it. the film is merely a collection of shorts that jarmusch has been putting together since 1986. the first one was the first one shot and the later ones seem to be filmed more recently (judging by the age of bill murray, and inclusion of alfred molina or meg/jack white, for example), but i can't verify that it was presented in the chronological filming order. at any rate, the film revolves around various people discussing various things over coffee (or tea) and cigarettes. more than anything the film made me want to go to a diner and have a coffee with some apple pie a la mode. unlike 'stranger than paradise' or 'down by law' this film had very little lasting effect on me. i had fun while i was watching it - jarmusch always has a quiet humor to his films, producing more chuckles than outright laughs - but it didn't leave me thinking like some of his others have. i like the molina/coogan and rza/gza/murray shorts the most. i don't mean to give the impression that the film is bad or that i don't like jarmusch because both are incorrect, it's just that jarmusch has done better and the film was mostly good fluff. B-.

I read a whole host of reviews on this site before renting this film, and despite all the warnings, I gave it a chance. Hell, I gave this film more than a chance. I had low expectations but this collection still failed to impress. First of all, I can't even believe some of the reviewers on here had to point out that the shorts are, in fact, connected. Wow, really? With every sketch featuring coffee and cigarettes, dialogue that is reiterated in a number of sketches, and every single damn sketch dealing with a part of the spectrum of social awkwardness; interpreting the themes in this film and making your own connections does not make you an appreciator of finer things, no it merely confirms that you aren't completely retarded.

So let's get off our high horse and stop using the words "metaphysical", "surreal", and "existential" for a moment, and look at what this film does have to offer. Yes, the Molina/Coogan sketch is absolutely brilliant and hilarious. Had this been the only short released to the public, then I never would have anything bad to say about Jarmusch. The Iggy Pop/Tom Waits meeting comes in a close second comedy-wise. Not just a piece of great casting, Waits gives such a natural performance that takes dry humor to a whole new level. Cate Blanchett's dual role is pretty cool and fun to watch, but compared to Nic Cage's dual role in Adaptation (which also came out in 03), this doesn't even come close.

Beyond those three sketches, I don't know what to say. Bill Murray gives a great performance that is ruined by two rappers who clearly needed better direction, there's a sketch titled "Renee" that sets up a character who is almost OCD about her coffee and then goes nowhere with it, "Those Things'll Kill Ya" plays like a scrapped Seinfeld sketch, "Twins" features more bickering that is clearly meant to be comical but never works because there is no chemistry between the actors (who are twins for Christ's sake). I could go on but its a waste of time. The problem is that Jarmusch keeps trying to tell a joke, gets halfway there, and then abandons the punchline because he's trying to paint a bigger picture. It's like sitting through 90 minutes of someone saying, "Knock knock, who's there? We all get defensive when we're uncomfortable". And there is the biggest problem. This was never meant to be released as a movie. There's a lot to like about these sketches individually. Lots of tiny little nuances in the acting and very subtle humor that works for the short film format. But these should have been released on Youtube for people to discover on their own, not as a film that has a character deliver a nice hamfisted epiphany at the end.

Coffee and Cigarettes fmovies. Finally, a movie my sister can get behind! With a title like 'Coffee And Cigarettes', health nuts must be having a collective heart attack. And the title isn't ironic. Every single episode in this string-of-vignettes movie has enough java and smokes to murder a truck driver. Bizarro writer/director Jim Jarmusch shot the flick over many years, gathering a wildly disparate cast to co-star in his black and white art film. No scenes are connected (except by the ever-present cigs & a cup o' joe) and each quirky sequence functions as its own self-contained act.

Most of the character's names are just the actor's names, but that doesn't mean they're playing themselves. In reality, Bill Murray might moonlight as a waiter and hang out with the Wu-Tang Clan (who always refer to him as "billmurray", one word). Jack & Meg White from the White Stripes might have a remarkable interest in science. And Cate Blachett might have a resentful, rebellious cousin who looks exactly like her (because she's playing both of them). But I doubt it. Those are just a few of the oddball sketches in this movie. In fact, I mentioned those ones first because, of the scenes with the big-name celebrities, they're probably the weakest.

Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan work together in the longest sequence. Molina is courteous and affable, Coogan aloof and mildly interested in why Doc Ock has asked for this meeting. In a gem of warp-speed character development, Molina goes from shy to eager to crushed to bitter. Both men are excellent. Also, musicians Tom Waits and Iggy Pop have similar oil/water chemistry, which is what makes their culture-clash one-upsmanship memorable. Roberto Benigni and Steven Wright set the tone with their jittery, nonsensical opening scene. There's more, but I've forgotten the rest already.

So I didn't reveal much plot. What's there to tell, though? The terrific Molina/Coogan sequence could be lengthened into its own movie, but the rest of this picture wouldn't work if the short scenes played any longer. 'Coffee And Cigarettes' isn't really even about smoke rings or the caffeine rush. Jarmusch and the cast use those as props to create some zany bits with an "opposites attract...or not" motif. The flick is funny, a bit too long, and light years away from the mainstream. I enjoyed myself, found my interest bobbing & weaving, then left the theatre. That's okay. Even art films are allowed to be fast food.

"Coffee and Cigarettes" (2004) written and directed by Jim Jarmush is a very simple movie shot in B/W, a typical in the good sense independent movie. It is a collection of eleven shorts where famous actors, comedians, rock-stars, and musicians played themselves. They drink coffee (lots of it), smoke, and talk. While each segment is short, we still can learn a lot about human nature.

I read some comments and was surprised that there are so many negative opinions. Some users think that the movie was slow - I did not even notice how the time flew. Of eleven shorts, six were wonderful, and the rest - quite watchable. After I finished watching it, I started all over and watched the ones that I loved for a second time. The best, IMO are "Somewhere in California" with Iggy Pop and Tom Waits, "Cousins" - (Cate Blanchette plays a dual role - herself and her not so successful cousin, and she is as good as ever in the dual performance); "These Things Will Kill You" (Joe Rigano, Vinny Vella, and Vinny Vella, Jr), "Cousins?" – easily the best in the bunch (Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan), "Delirious" – the funniest (RZA, GZA, and Bill Murray), and the final one, the elegiac "Champagne" – (Bill Rice and Taylor Mead).

This movie is better than the first reviewer claims. The context of the movie is definitely social, but the humor is only superficially based on the character's real-life celebrity. True, the background music is interesting if you are a film buff. But, take my advice, watch this movies after a couple drinks, at a social gathering, to really enjoy it. The humor is better than in most full length feature comedies. I laughed loud and hard and had a lot of fun when I caught this at the university of Chicago's student movie theater.

the real interest in this film is the social awkwardness created when people meet under false pretense or forced circumstance, versus the natural comfort that is obvious between longtime friends who enjoy each others company.. The gestures and facial expressions by these great actors more than make up for the weaknesses of the film. The brother/sister pairs show boredom and typical familial nit-picking. Iggy and Tom waits are brilliant. buschemi is a little misplaced in the scene where he shows up. my 2 favorite scenes, that i feel show the real genius of jarmusch, are 1.) the moment when molina's gestures have revealed that he is not, as indicated in the first review, a sycophant, but simply an honest and interested human being who is higher up in the scheme of things than the pretentious jerk he tries to befriend; and 2.)the scene where the old guy falls asleep and the camera zooms in on him for a moment, revealing a great moment of humanity.