'Coffee and Cigarettes' is thick with eccentricity

Friday, May 21, 2004

By SEAN AXMAKER
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

An anthology of curiosities, some more curious than others, Jim Jarmusch's whimsical, 17-years-in-the-making "Coffee and Cigarettes" is "a series of short films disguised as a feature (or maybe vice versa)," according to the director. Calling some of the vignettes "short films" seems generous at times, but you get the idea.

MOVIE REVIEW

COFFEE AND CIGARETTES

DIRECTOR: Jim Jarmusch

CAST: Roberto Begnini, Steven Wright, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray

RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes

RATING: R for language

WHERE: Guild 45th

GRADE: B-

It opens with the original 1986 short, an inspired cafe meeting between the sleepy monotone comic Steven Wright and an exuberant, babbling Roberto Begnini, and continues the theme for some 90 minutes. Some of the meetings are inspired, none more so than Begnini and Wright's absurdly unintelligible by-play, which plays like a Marx Brothers sketch performed in two different languages.

Iggy Pop's desperate fawning over the cooler-than-cool Tom Waits is painfully funny as he practically grovels for approval. Cate Blanchett plays herself and her brassy, bitter cousin in a squirmy conversation with herself. The awkward "family reunion" of a smarmy Steve Coogan trying to keep his distance from a too-chummy Alfred Molina could stand as a short on its own.

When the White Stripes stiffly discuss the work of Nikola Tesla, however, or Bill Murray mugs and guzzles straight from the coffee pot as RZA and DZA of the Wu-Tang Clan compare dreams over herbal tea, the random ramblings are merely pleasant ways to kill time.

To be fair, that seems to be the purpose of this lark. Despite a few recurring themes and ideas that drift in and out of disparate conversations, this collection of goofball asides to his feature films is held together by little more than striking black-and-white photography, uncomfortable silences, checkerboard tablecloths, a great jukebox soundtrack and smoke and caffeine. Many will be left scratching their heads at the point of the entire enterprise, but fans of Jarmusch's askew view will clink coffee mugs and toast to the glories of human eccentricity.

Sean Axmaker is a movie reviewer and free-lance film writer based in Seattle. He can be reached via e-mail at seanax@hotmail.com.