Tom Waits Week: Tom Onscreen

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) – Jarmusch spent years making shorts in which two famous people talk to each other at a table. This film collects them, and it’s a real mixed bag. Some of the segments are unbearable and some are legitimately entertaining. Waits stars in a short, shot in 1993, with Iggy Pop. It turns out, Iggy can’t even do that convincingly. His obvious discomfort makes the piece almost unwatchable, but Tom is casual and funny. (I prefer the segment with Bill Murray and RZA, if only because RZA keeps calling him “Bill Murray” when speaking directly to him.)