Coffee and Cigarettes

Reviewed by:
Paul Ulane

Hipsters frolic about in their element in Jim Jarmusch's black-and-white conversation mixtape that includes everyone from Steve Buscemi to Cate Blanchette to Roberto Benigni, all sipping on coffee and smoking crack. Sorry, cigarettes. (Except for maybe Benigni…) Besides a delightful conversation between the Wu-Tang's RZA and GZA and Bill Murray, too many of the gatherings fall flat without any direction or personality. The extras on the DVD suffer from the same problem. "Tabletops" sets to music a montage of diner tables covered in half-filled cups of coffee and half-empty packs of cigarettes, while a Taylor Mead interview divulges secrets on Jarmusch's directing techniques. (But we'll be damned if any of you even know who Taylor Mead is.) The lone savior is again Murray, who cracks up the crew in the featured outtake. But the rest of this DVD is about as good for you as its title characters.

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