This is not the average flick and therefore not for the average viewer. If you’ve got close to two hours with nothing better to do than I suggest you check out this strange, strange montage about the classical mechanisms of wasting time. The iconic Generation X image (drinking coffee and smoking continuously) is repeatedly highlighted through ten black and white vignettes. The line up is amazing, director Jim Jarmusch gathered together people like Steve Buscemi, Roberto Benigni, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Kate Blanchett, Jack White, Bill Murray and so many, many more. With all of potential in the raw material one might have big expectations. The acting tends more towards the physical then verbal, character interaction and the short films are strangely motionless.
Difficult to watch and even harder to look away “Coffee and Cigarettes” forever keeps one eye on the brink of anticipation just waiting for something really amazing to happen. The circumstances are bizarre, the thin character sketches are curious (but not overly intriguing) and the tone of the entire collection is…well, I don’t know what it is. Frustrating maybe because I wanted so much more from the actors then Jarmusch delivered. At times sharp black humour tightened up the production and I would feel the necessity of staying for the whole show. Eventually though, the entire collection was so dark and non-descript that one would have to see the world through more then the dark glass to feel comfortable in Jarmusch’s mind. It is strangely minimalist and antithetical to those qualities that make a movie enjoyable (intense, dramatic, empathetic, logical…). This piece focuses directly on people who are not very nice human beings, most of them are rather rotten actually and linger like the aftertastes of too many cups of coffee and smoked cigarettes.
Special Features:
-Original Coffee and Cigarettes Trailer
-Interview with Taylor Mead
