Coffee and Cigarettes

Independent filmmaking grandfather Jim Jarmusch conceives the laziest and most tiring movie of his career with a series of vignettes calculated around celebrities talking over coffee and cigarettes. Sure it's moderately endearing to see Iggy Pop out-talking Tom Waits in a dive bar, or Jack White showing his "White Stripes" bandmate Meg White a Tesla Coil resonating device in an equally bland location, but most of the set pieces are incredibly boring and inferior. Cate Blanchett ("Veronica Guerin") steals the movie doing dual duty as two very different cousins meeting up for a chat in the lobby of an elegant hotel. Although, Steve Coogan ("24 Hour Party People") and Alfred Molina ("Frida") extract the most laughs as newly discovered cousins meeting for the first time over afternoon tea in a chic LA restaurant. So, four out of the eleven vignettes are entertaining, and the rest are a waste of time. Those aren't good entertainment odds.
Rated R. 96 mins. (D) (One Star)