Pretend it's Champagne

Rating: Null/10 (22 May 2004)

One could and should expect a lot out of a movie with a title like "Coffee and Cigarettes". Personally, I thought it would be a series of scenes in which profound ideas were discussed and were later intertwined in a mind-blowing way. Not getting this from the movie was slightly disappointing. Very slightly. "Coffee and Cigarettes" consists of a bunch of random vignettes with random characters discussing really random rubbish. The scenes don't really go anywhere. At all. But that's okay. It's perfect. Because as soon as the movie starts and Roberto Benini says his first line, you know exactly what the movie's going to be like. And you want that. You want to see what happens when Roberto Benini drinks four cups of espresso in a row, you want to hear Steve Buscemi talk about Elvis' twin brother, or Iggy Pop justify how now that he's quit smoking he can smoke as much as he wants, or the Italian men talk about Japanese pepper beans, or Meg and Jack white talk about Telsa, or WuTang talk about holistic medicine. And the last scene is so intensely poignant that it makes you realize just how sad the movie actually was. It was brilliant. However, I only recommend this movie if you are either addicted to caffeine or nicotine. Preferably both. Because you will be the people in the audience who eat up the subtle humour of the film. Otherwise, you will be just like the people who sat in front of us, walked out during Cate Blanchet's profoundly sad scene and thanked us for being obnoxious. Because, I suppose, you will find all of the caffeine-addicts and smokers who laugh at every line and actually get the movie very annoying. So, to sum it up, "Coffee and Cigarettes" is the most random movie I've seen in a very long time, and the best (film of the "random" genre, not in general). If you smoke and drink coffee, go see it as soon as humanly possible.