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Coffee and Cigarettes - 5/14/04 - R - 101m
Bill Murray - Himself
Roberto Benigni - Himself
Iggy Pop - Himself
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Written by: Jim Jarmusch
Studio: MGM
Official
Website
LYN
Nutshell… It’s a film about Coffee and Cigarettes…duh? Expecting more? Yeah…well, I was.
Okay past the shell and more into the meat of the nut…
In 1987 the segment with ‘Roberto Benigni’ and ‘Steven Wright’ was filmed. In 1992, the segment with ‘Tom Waits’ and ‘Iggy Pop’ was filmed. Then somewhere in between and after these two events, spanning over a total of 17 years to present, the rest of these little vignettes between actors and musicians were filmed, to become the grand culmination that is our topic of discussion for the day. 17 years? You’ve got to be kidding me?
At first I thought that this was an unusual collection of actors and musicians, so how could it not be interesting? Easily, because it was an unusual collection of actors and musician talking about coffee and cigarettes, and that was pretty much it. Oh yes, there were those long uncomfortable pauses in conversation on screen, just like in real life, but not something I feel I need to pay 9 dollars to see. And when they were talking, I truly wished they weren’t because the conversations didn’t really go anywhere. And if to make matters worse, certain characters used the same sideline description of themselves that they were in fact in addition to whatever profession they had in real-life (that particular actor or musician), they were unbeknownst to everyone…doctors too! And because this was so amusing to find out early on in the movie that ‘Tom Waits’ was also an MD, so much so that the formula was repeated every 3rd or 4th vignette with other characters. My side’s were splitting…I was laughing so hard! 
Personally I believe Film-maker ‘Jim Jarmusch’ has some really cool friends and just wanted to show everyone how cool he is, by showing everyone how many cool friends he can get in this film that took him 17 years to make. Good for a home movie? Marginal. Good for the General Public? Not a chance!
I was hoping for little slices of life here with possible insight to the before mentioned, and instead got two friends whom haven’t seen each other for a while, with one trying to convince the other that nothing is wrong and he just wanted to see him, and the other trying to make believe he believed him. I felt stuck in the padded cell, straightjacketed, eyes wired open, and head fixed on the Pong™ machine flickering in the corner. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and…help…me…
Slices of Life? Sure, I just wasn’t expecting the long, drawn out, tedious, and somewhat boring parts of it.
Lyn
