Review of Coffee and Cigarettes (2004) by Ashlee C — 11 Nov 2009

A series of short films revolving around people talking over coffee and cigarettes. It's inevitably uneven, and even the best shorts are far from earth-shattering, but nothing here is trying to be. It's just meant to be laid-back and oddly funny, and on those accounts it (mostly) succeeds. The simple black and white cinematography also gives it a scruffy cool factor.

As for the shorts, they do vary quite a bit in quality, although thankfully the positive easily outweighs the negative - there was only one short that I truly disliked (No Problem, which was terrible). Outside of that, most of the shorts range from okay to pretty good. My favorites were the hilariously bizarre one with the White Stripes, the one featuring Iggy Pop and Tom Waits (mostly just out of my love for Waits), and the fascinatingly strange final short. My absolute favorite, however, was the one with The Wu-Tang Clan and Bill Murray - not a match you'd usually think of, and they were awesome together.