Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
An anthology of eleven vignettes featuring star-studded casts of extremely unique individuals who all share the common activities of conversing while drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.
Jim Jarmusch's anthology of black-and-white vignettes is visually striking and conceptually singular — the high-contrast monochrome cinematography is genuinely exceptional, and the film's deadpan minimalist voice is unmistakably Jarmusch. The novelty is real: no other film quite replicates this accumulation of awkward, idle celebrity encounters. Acting varies wildly across the eleven segments, with some (Cate Blanchett's dual role, the RZA/GZA/Bill Murray segment) being memorable highlights and others feeling flat. The 'plot,' such as it is, is structurally repetitive by design — eleven loosely connected vignettes sharing the same premise wear thin, and the cumulative effect diminishes rather than builds. The ending offers no particular resolution or payoff, which feels intentional but unsatisfying — the film simply stops rather than concludes.