coffee talk without the dogs or daughters

Rating: 8/10 (1 June 2005)

Many years in the making, it is great to see Jarmusch finally release these shorts and turn them into a feature. His cool minimal style allows viewers to enjoy these odd and amusing conversations. What's more interesting , (that is if you take film seriously) you will notice certain patterns between the shorts. It is nothing too deep or profound but simply an existential approach between habits and thoughts. Certain dialog's or topics are repeated in other stories and at one point we hear Meg of the White Stripes contemplate that the world is a collection of "acoustical resonance". The characters and their environments seem somewhat flat and two dimensional as if they came out of a comic strip. Throughout the film, we also see Aeriel shots of checkered coffee tables with cups clanking and butts smoking which seems to symbolize communication as a game of chess. That was my impression anyway. It flows in a very awkward experimental way where some conversations are lively and others are just dead. Iggy and Waits are an odd combination but the more I watched this scene, the funnier it gets. Everyone loves the Molina and Coogan scene probably because it has a very overt ending to it. My personal favorite was with Cate Blanchett. I never paid much attention to her as an actress but now I see how appealing she can be especially since she is talking to herself. Steven Wright and Begnini are hilarious in their strange miscommunication.
It is refreshing to see a film that takes chances, does'nt try too hard and certainly doesn't try to blend in with typical Hollywood films. Jarmusch still stands out as one of America's most original modern directors.