Editor Reviews:

Description:
Celebrated writer-director Jim Jarmusch (Mystery Train) serves up this witty and intoxicating brew that's "as addictive as caffeine" (Richard Roeper, "Ebert & Roeper and the Movies") and "as buzzy and ephemeral as, well, coffee and cigarettes" (LA Weekly)! "Sneakily delirious [and] way cool" (Time), this "funny cluster of eleven stories" (Rolling Stone) delivers "inspired eccentric match-ups" (The Hollywood Reporter) from an incredible all-star cast, making Coffee and Cigarettes an absolute must for fans of film, fun and fantastic wit!

Amazon.com:
Now here is a movie that's practically perfect for DVD. Shot over many years with eccentric actors, Jim Jarmusch's collection of black-and-white vignettes is as uneven as a collection of music videos (without songs). Even with the dull spots and the drop-dead-hip ambiance, there's something touching about this parade of frazzled people holding on to their coffee and cigarettes like life rafts--especially in the final sequence with Taylor Mead. There are some severely misconceived pieces, but the best are a treat: Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan in a hilarious Hollywood encounter, Tom Waits and Iggy Pop getting off on the wrong foot in a funky diner, and Cate Blanchett doing a dual role as herself and a jealous cousin. Bill Murray can't save one underwritten piece, but Jack and Meg White are amusing in an absurdist blackout. Use the Scene Selection menu, and revel in the fetishizing of java and butts. --Robert Horton

Rating : - The Sublime Pleasure of Mixing Coffee, Cigarettes, and Conversation.
"Cigarettes and coffee, man. That's the combination."--Iggy Pop

This film is better than many reviewers claim. It is a film that will appeal to anyone who has ever experienced the aesthetic pleasure of having a conversation (no matter how inane) over coffee and cigarettes, or to anyone who has ever encountered the social awkwardness of enjoying a smoke amidst the anti-smoking hysteria and worldwide public smoking bans. In 2004 Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise; Down by Law) released Coffee and Cigarettes, a collection of short vignettes, several of which had originally aired on Saturday Night Live in the late 80s and early 90s. Shot in black and white, the eleven short vignettes are linked thematically by characters drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. While some segments are stonger and wittier than others (Cousins, Somewhere in California, Delirium), and while many of the conversations are inane (much like life itself), the cumulative point of Jarmusch's film always remains clear: having a conversation over coffee and cigarettes is one of the most pleasurable experiences in life. When combined, caffeine and nicotine have the power to reveal the sublime humanity in the dreariness of human existence, a point the anti-smoking movement will never understand.

The eleven segments of Coffee and Cigarettes include:

1. Strange to Meet You, which features Roberto Benigni and Steven Wright;

2. Twins, which stars Joie Lee and Cinqué Lee as twins, and Steve Buscemi as a waiter who explains his theory of Elvis Presley's evil twin;

3. Somewhere in California, which features musicians Iggy Pop and Tom Waits, who having quit smoking, believe they are allowed just one more cigarette ("The beauty of quitting is, now that I've quit, I can have one, 'cause I've quit");

4. Those Things'll Kill Ya, which features Joseph Rigano and Vinny Vella, who discuss the health dangers of smoking;

5. Renée, which stars Renée French drinking coffee while reading a gun magazine;

6. No Problem, which features Alex Descas and Isaach De Bankolé as friends who meet and talk over some coffee and cigarettes;

7. Cousins, which stars Cate Blanchett plays both herself and her cousin Shelly, who meet for coffee in a hotel;

8. Jack Shows Meg His Tesla Coil, which features Jack and Meg White of The White Stripes having coffee and cigarettes;

9. Cousins stars British actors Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan, who discuss their careers over tea;

10. Delirium, which features GZA and RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan, who drink caffeine-free herbal tea ("Crisp and clean, no caffeine") as their waiter, played by Bill "Groundhog-Day, Ghostbustin'-ass" Murray, who drinks coffee straight from the pot and suffers from a smoker's hack; and

11. Champagne, which stars William Rice and Taylor Mead who converse during a coffee break.

G. Merritt