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Coffee and Cigarettes (Smokescreen Films)
Review by Sparrow

If the name Jarmusch is involved with a film, I automatically have incredibly high expectations. Jim has directed some of the best movies in the past two decades, including two of my favourites "Down by Law" and "Night on Earth". His directing and writing is a tad off the wall for your standard movie goer though. His latest movie though may disappoint the hardcore Jarmusch fan, as well as the average person who checks it out for the star value of the people involved.

 
 
"Coffee and Cigarettes" has great potential but suffers from being altogether too slow during the first half of the movie. It is a series of vignettes where people are relating over coffee and cigarettes (clever title). The choices for those that are interacting is the key element of the movie. Jim has taken a fairly odd mixture of people and thrown them together to see what kind of chemistry can come of it. Well, at times sparks do fly...and then others it is quite the opposite.
 

You have to keep in mind, prior to watching this movie, that the vignettes are supposed to build upon one another. If you
don't do that than you will end up walking away from it because of sheer boredom. And this is something that astounds me because the actors used during the first half are acting and music legends, who each have incredible personalities apart from their talents. People like Roberto

Two of the most intruiging people in music and Jarmusch couldn't get them to say anything even remotely interesting.
Benigni, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, and Steven Wright each have very distinct personalities that Jim Jarmusch has trouble bringing out on film. Their vignettes become tired very quickly.
 
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