Hilarious

Rating: 8/10 (2 September 2006)

This is probably the most successful of Jarmusch's long series of one-take conversation pieces. As usual the themes are of permanent vacations, of being a stranger at home, of the chess game of social niceties, and of the unity of triviality. Here though each conversation has a series of motifs that underpin the whole, aide de memoires not readily found in Jarmusch's other non-narrative pieces. More importantly most of the vignettes here are hugely entertaining, usually playing on perceived images of the actors themselves (Cate Blanchett playing dual roles as movie star and overly down to earth jealous cousin; Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan playing tag team Englishness on the Hollywood ladder; Jack White showing Meg White his Tesla coil...). It's a great conversation starter of a film.