By Anthony Kusich

Spring Indies

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Short Reviews as of May 17th, 2004

Coffee & Cigarettes   Director:  Jim Jarmusch "Coffee & Cigarettes" compounds 11 one-act short films that feature nothing but an actor or two indulging in the titular vices while making smalltalk.  The trouble with this type of episodic device (also used in last year's "September 11") is that the overall positive impact can be weighed down by a few dull chapters.  So while seven of the stories are interesting, four are not; the whole doesn't necessarily reflect the sum of its parts.  But when "Coffee & Cigarettes" is good, it's really good.   The best segment (entitled "Cousins?") features actor Alfred Molina trying to convince fellow thespian Steve Coogan that the two are indeed related through a distant relative.  Coogan's uptight affrontery backfires hilariously in a perfect send-up of Hollywood brown-nosing.  Also excellent is a two-hander in which Cate Blanchett, playing herself, has an awkward meeting with a long-lost cousin (also Blanchett).  Amid verbal ping-pong sparring, the actress reveals a tender vulnerability and the subtle loss of freedom that accompanies celebrity.  Nothing says "experimental" like a Jim Jarmusch film, and "Coffee & Cigarettes" is a successful effort on that account.               My grade:  B+    Screened:  April 7

Word Wars   Director:  Eric Chaikin & Julian Petrillo This "Spellbound" for adults features a quartet of Scrabble champions as they gear up for the yearly finals in San Diego.  More slapdash in tone and style than its obvious inspiration, "Word Wars" nonetheless gets you inside the minds (or at least the cramped apartments) of its bizarre protagonists. Time would have been better spent developing a firmer rooting interest for some of the characters, as there is absolutely zero thrill in watching tiles form words you've never heard of on a board you can't really see.  But the brief glimpses we do get into their lives -- a prostitute visit, a post-game joint, a tourney in Washington Square Park -- make the pic worthwhile.    My grade:  B    Screened:  May 10

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Super Size Me
  Director:  Morgan Spurlock
Straight from the Michael Moore book of corporate responsiveness, Morgan Spurlock undertakes
the odd mission of eating nothing but McDonald's meals for a month to see the results, firsthand, of
our fast-food nation.  He gains the expected weight, but also incurs some severe liver damage and
an abnormally low sex drive.  Perhaps most importantly, though, Spurlock dissects our fatty culture
-- a culture that thrives on junk food, sugar, soda, candy, and all other sorts of edible gratification.  
(As an aside, I noticed about halfway through the movie that my cup of Coke had been leaking.  So
there I sat, brown cancer water on my shirt, in a pile of guilt and disgust.  I haven't had one to drink
since.)  The mere cutaway to a green salad is a welcome relief during the film, which successfully
argues that crap food can make you fat, but it's the dependence (or lack thereof) on that crap food
that gives the power back to us consumers.   
   My grade:  B+
   Screened:  May 7