COFFEE AND CIGARETTES

A Jim Jarmusch film. His DOWN BY LAW is a Recommended Entertainment... maybe even a must-see. STRANGER THAN PARADISE was a wonderful independent when I saw it, but it has since faded in my memory. MYSTERY TRAIN is fun for me mostly because it features Tom Waits, who is an unforgettable face and character... a Humphrey Bogart for me. GHOST DOG and NIGHT ON EARTH are disappointments for me. I enjoyed watching them, but they paled by comparison with the impact of the earlier films. And I would have to see DOWN BY LAW again before touting it too highly. It may have been exotic in its day, but less effective than I remember... though Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni are still fresh in my mind as amazing and vivid characters. [And I love black and white films.]

So COFFEE AND CIGARETTES is black and white, and has some fine characters and performances. It's a set of short comic sketches, and some I fast-forwarded through. It's the sort of thing I'd rent for a Rolston movie night, then show only two or three of the segments like cartoons before the feature. That's how I'd recommend it for netflix viewers. Watch it on the same night as some other film, and fast forward to the Iggy Pop-Tom Waits sketch, the Bill Murray sketch, the Cate Blanchette sketch [remarkable], and the very last sketch with two actors I don't know, but which I found irresistibly delicious. Treat it like a film festival of short films. It's challenging, in that it yields up its rewards not from easy narrative and fast pacing. And I also think its themes are too light to justify more than a 'entertaining' label. And it may have a special appeal to anyone who has once smoked but who has abandoned the habit. [I never smoked, so I may not appreciate the film's true savor.]