SummaryA comic series of short vignettes in which Jarmusch delves into the normal pace of the world from an extraordinary angle, showing just how absorbing the obsessions, joys and addictions of life can be. (MGM/UA)
SummaryA comic series of short vignettes in which Jarmusch delves into the normal pace of the world from an extraordinary angle, showing just how absorbing the obsessions, joys and addictions of life can be. (MGM/UA)
Like dark chocolate -- not semi-sweet, but the exotic, nearly black stuff -- Coffee and Cigarettes won't appeal to everyone. Jarmusch is the 70 percent cacao of contemporary filmmakers, and people who love this kind of chocolate swear by it.
Known for an elegant visual style, Jarmusch has a great gift for playing actors against one another, for finding complementary eccentrics (Murray and RZA) and uncovering rare gems (Bill Rice and Taylor Mead in "Champagne").
Sometimes movies tire us by trying too relentlessly to pound us with their brilliance and energy. Here is a movie pitched at about the energy level of a coffee break. That the people are oddly assorted and sometimes very strange is not so very unusual, considering some of the conversations you overhear in Starbucks.
Like "Mystery Train" and "Night on Earth," this feature by Jim Jarmusch is a short story collection, but it's funnier and more formally adventurous than either--also ultimately greater than the sum of its parts.