Not unlike his cigar-shop patter with Harvey Keitel in Blue in the Face, the great American filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has now released a feature-length collection of café-style conversations. It consists of 11 segments, the first three of which were released as short films in 1986, '89 and '93. In each, various agents of cool meet at cafes for the title beverage and its symbiotic smokes.
The participants are as well known as Stephen Wright, Roberto Benigni, Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, Cinque and Joie Lee, Steve Buscemi, Steve Coogan, Alfred Molina, Bill Murray, the RZA and the GZA, or like the gorgeous Renée French, they are unknown to everyone except Jarmusch and a small cache of insiders. No less a talent than Cate Blanchett appears opposite herself, playing both a movie star and the movie star's lesser-known cousin.
Nothing much holds the segments together, other than their luscious black-and-white photography—shot by several cinematographers over the years—that only emphasizes the eternal coolness of smart people sitting around and talking about nothing. Certain lines of dialogue pop up more than once, and more often than not, the talkers don't really connect on either a verbal or spiritual level; most of the conversations are lively disagreements and none of the world's problems get solved.
Occasionally, a segment is just so darn odd that it makes you laugh long after the film is over, such as when Jack and Meg White of the White Stripes meet in a café. "Why don't you tell me about your Tesla coil," Meg asks, and Jack does, producing a working Tesla coil balanced carefully on a little red wagon.
Most of Jarmusch's work consists of segments rather than narrative flow, and here we get something akin to a jam session rather than a finished masterwork. But few American directors are talented enough to exhibit their bootleg tapes or private journals alongside more polished works by lesser artists and come out ahead.
Coffee and Cigarettes may inspire a shrug from most viewers, but for the initiated, it tends to linger, growing sillier and more charming all the time. It offers a kind of Zen state, in which the patter of meaningless conversation lulls you into meditative bliss. Nothing is being sold to you and nobody is trying to convince you of anything. Either you get it or you don't and it's too cool to care.