Coffee And Cigarettes vs Short Cuts

I was looking forward to Coffee and Cigarettes (it's so hard not to type Coffee and Smokes) for a few reasons. First of all, it was directed by Jim Jarmusch, a director with no boring movies. Even when he makes a slightly boring movie, like maybe Dead Man, it's a fascinating slightly boring movie, with an interesting cast and great performances. Secondly, Coffee and Cigarettes is in black and white, which I think is one of the most underappreciated and underused film techniques ever. Black and white films force you to concentrate your attention in new places, ultimately—when done right—giving us even more variety than we would have had with color. And, most importantly, Coffee and Cigarettes boasts one of the coolest casts of the year: Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, the White Stripes, Tom Waits, the Wu-Tang Clan, Joi Lee, Steven Buscemi, Alfred Molina, and on and on. Cate Blanchett and Tom Waits in the same movie? Count me in.

I have to say, unfortunately, that much of the joy for me stays with the cast list. I feel incredibly uncool saying this, but I think Coffee and Cigarettes is (pun intended) a bit of a drag. The set-up couldn't be simpler. Actors (most playing themselves or a variation of themselves) sit down to talk over a cup of coffee and a cigarette. They each get about fifteen minutes, give or take. The combinations of actors are inspired—Alfred Molina and Steven Coogan; Bill Murray with RZA and GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan; Cate Blanchett and Cate Blanchett—but their conversations seem odd and forced. Most of them involve medicine or technology. RZA and GZA, the only actors drinking tea instead of coffee, talk with Bill Murray (who drinks straight from the pot) about their alternative medicine theories. This scene is pretty funny, but the humor comes more from novelty than anything else. It's like the combination of the actors was so funny and interesting that no one bothered to come up with anything for them to talk about. Likewise, Iggy Pop and Tom Waits share a cup and a smoke near a jukebox in a diner, but there's no spontaneity or charm to their conversation. Iggy seems hyper-aware of the camera, and Tom seems not aware of it at all. They're fun to watch, because of who they are, but it begs the question: if these were unknown actors, how long before you fast-forwarded through the scene? The White Stripes show up for a brief scene that plays a little smoother, but it's so short and obviously scripted that it seems like filler, like a five-minute short between movies on IFC.

There are two saving graces in the middle of Coffee and Cigarettes. Alfred Molina and Steven Coogan have a funny conversation that is a marvel of ego and sarcasm, and Cate Blanchett meets with her cousin in the lobby of a hotel during a press junket. Blanchett plays both roles, giving each cousin a different Australian accent (so there, Mr. I Thought There Was Only One Australian Accent), and somehow manages to parody and celebrate everything funny and uncomfortable about celebrity, family, indie film, and indie music, all in about ten minutes. Blanchett's scene is also the one to use coffee and cigarettes as more than a prop; in her four hands, they're character traits. Blanchett and Blanchett just might be the perfect cast. At ten minutes, you have time to watch it twice.

Like Coffee and Cigarettes, Short Cuts is a movie that is entertaining simply by watching the credits. Take a deep breath. Featured in Short Cuts are Frances McDormand, Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Waits, Lily Tomlin, Buck Henry, Fred Ward, Julianne Moore, Jack Lemmon, Bruce Davison, Andie MacDowell, Robert Downey Jr., Lili Taylor, should I go on? Huey Lewis. Lyle Lovett. ALEX TREBEK. You're smiling, aren't you? Thankfully, Short Cuts goes beyond its amazing cast and gives them a story to back it up.

Short Cuts is based on Raymond Carver short stories that have no characters in common, but have been collected as if they do, in a beautiful movie by Robert Altman, who knows a thing or two about huge casts (if you haven't, rent Nashville and The Player right now.) In the world of Short Cuts, seemingly insignificant details change characters in a major way, coming back to haunt again and again. I'll set one of them up for you, as an example (but just one. Short Cuts thrives on tying its stories together, and by connecting characters through acts of kindness, malice and mistake.): Andie MacDowell and Bruce Davison are planning a birthday party for their boy, and she orders an elaborate cake from baker Lyle Lovett. Simultaneously, the boy is being hit by a car, driven by waitress Lily Tomlin, whose husband, Tom Waits, just stormed out of her diner after watching her get hit on by three fishermen, played by Huey Lewis, Buck Henry and Fred Ward, who will soon find a dead body on their trip and wonder if they should report it and miss peak fishing hours. See what I mean? Each of these stories move out on their own, and back again, and wrap up, or not. Robert Altman manages his cast expertly, and finds true emotion and conflict inside seemingly normal households. My favorite moments include Jennifer Jason Leigh as a phone sex operator, at home changing diapers; and Frances McDormand on a date with married cop Tim Robbins, who is supposedly out looking for the family dog he dumped on purpose. Oh, and Julianne Moore as an artist arguing with her husband, Matthew Modine, while naked from the waist down; and Lyle Lovett as the sad, lonely, pissed off baker making crank calls. Seriously. That cast. Huey Lewis is in a movie with Frances McDormand. I mean, come on. Unlike Jarmusch, Robert Altman gives his cast things to do and say and feel that you'll be thinking about afterward. They can drink coffee on their own time.

Coffee and Cigarettes: C
Short Cuts: A