Film review: "Coffee and Cigarettes"

Two guesses what the film “Coffee and Cigarettes” is about. Coffee? Check. Cigarettes? Definitely. But, like many films whose titles reference mundane ideas, this film is more than caffeine and cancer sticks. Jim Jarmusch captures the art of the conversation in “Coffee and Cigarettes,” a collection of diner banter vignettes. The scenes’ characters, a barrage of celebrities and rock stars, discuss a series of things—trivial or serious—including family trees (“Cousins?”), Elvis (“Twins”) and science (“Jack Shows Meg His Tesla Coil”), but almost always looking at the encompassing theme of the guilty-pleasure combination.

Intending to show the universal appreciation of coffee and cigarettes, the film jumps from Memphis to “somewhere in California.” The concept seems too lame and flimsy to carry on for more than an hour and a half, but Jarmusch’s expansion of shorts from the late ’80s thrives on slack conversations and fluid acting.

“Coffee and Cigarettes” finds its players in posh cafes and grubby restaurants and captures interactions the characters have with each other and those who are not at the table, ergo those who are unwelcome in the action. Such is the case as the server in “Renée,” whose faults include filling Renée French’s cup once she’d “gotten it to the right color and temperature” and asking about her lunch, which includes—you guessed it, coffee and cigarettes. “It’s not a very healthy lunch,” the waiter says in a failed attempt at conversation.

In an attempt to give the film an art-house touch (because awkward pauses in dialogue and a black-and-white palette weren’t obvious enough), Jarmusch adds aerial views to the scenes and tells the story and characters’ personalities from a tabletop littered with porcelain mugs, cig packs, lighters and relaxed hands against pristine or roughed-up surfaces. This is meant to be a part of the conversation and a reminder of theme, but ultimately is a voice unwelcomed by the audience, who wants in on the conversation between Jack and Meg White, not Jack and Meg White, and “annoying theme cleverly known as coffee and cigarettes.”

But, don’t allow a few above-head shots to ruin the star-studded party. The winning element is undoubtedly the characters and how their personalities are mirrored in the dialogue. The film allowed the stars and those who wouldn’t normally act explore fictional versions of themselves. Such was the case in two different scenes when musician Tom Waits and Wu-Tang Clan member Rza told their friends, Iggy Pop and Gza, respectively, they were doctors alongside their successful music careers.

Actress Cate Blanchett explored a dynamic of herself and an illusory cousin, the unconventional Shelly, in meeting at a hotel lounge in which Shelly was first denied entry for her crude garb. The disconnected Cate and Shelly don’t always see eye-to-eye on things, and not just because Shelly slouches while Cate keeps posture. It’s apparent the two had a similar upbringing but now lead different lives, as made prevalent in Shelly’s line, “It’s just...funny, don’t yah think, that when you can’t afford something it’s like really expensive but then when you can afford it it’s like, free? It’s kinda backwards, don’t yah think?”