Uneven and a bit too self-indulgent

Rating: 4/10 (3 March 2005)

The 11 comic conversations over coffee and cancer sticks comprising Jim Jarmusch's latest are shot in beautiful monochrome with great incidental music but prove disappointingly uneven.
Made piecemeal since 1986, they put together combinations such as Jack and Meg White, Iggy Pop and Tom Waits, Steve Wright and Roberto Benigni, but too often feel contrived and flat when they should have buzzed with banter.
That said, when they work they really motor. Steve Coogan and Alfred Molina share a deliciously uncomfortable and perfectly played encounter when the latter finds they're related, Cate Blanchett is funny as herself and her cousin in a discussion about the nature of celebrity while Bill Murray goes on a wry caffeine binge with Wu Tang Clanners RZA and GZA.