Coffee Talk

JIM JARMUSCH DOCUMENTS A FAVORITE PASTIME

HOT REELS

Jim Jarmusch's new movie, Coffee and Cigarettes, comprises 11 modest vignettes, in each of which two or three people sit around talking in a cafe or bar as they enjoy one or both of the title stimulants. The cast includes two dozen actors and musicians, many of them veterans of Jarmusch's 80s-era movies, such as Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, Roberto Benigni, and Steve Buscemi, plus a few ringers of more recent vintage, among them Cate Blanchett and Jack and Meg White.Coffee and Cigarettes'? I expected a hateful film, both grungy and twee, steeped in the self-congratulatory cool most people outgrow by the time they learn how to drink coffee and smoke without looking in a mirror.

And I was partly right! (No one between the impressionable ages of 17 and 26 should be allowed to see this movie without a parent.) But, as they say in the N.F.L., there's a reason they play the games. You may find yourself lulled by the movie's lazy, wasted-afternoon rhythms and beguiled by its rich black-and-white photography. Some scenes play like slow-motion screwball, some are smartly observed social comedies, some have an off-the-cuff absurdity—Beckett with bed head— and only a few are truly wankerish. Blanchett steals the movie in the dual roles of herself and her blowsy, ne'er-do-well cousin. Bill Murray steals the movie in turn playing himself as a waiter in a diner, slugging long drafts of joe straight from the pot while talking about caffeine Popsicles with RZA and GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan. The final scene, with the actors Bill Rice and Taylor Mead, makes no sense but is a strange and wonderful grace note. (Rating: ★★★)

BRUCE HANDY