Total Garbage

Honestly, this film is definitely being over rated by the majority of the people on this forum. I wouldn't go as far as to say that this film was a piece of 'total garbage' as stated in the title of the topic, but it was not a good movie. Now before someone starts complaining about how I didn’t understand it I would like to clarify that I completely understand the style and context of where the film is coming and that I know that this is not meant to be the same as other conventional films. I’m also quite familiar with both caffeine and tobacco, so it’s not that I can't relate to the movie either.


Mainly what I didn’t like about the film was the general bland context of the story. Yes I know that the film wasn't meant to be some action packed blockbuster, but just in general the conversations seemed to be unoriginal. I mean we've all seen/heard/read about Elvis conspiracies, the dangers of smoking, the effects of coffee drinking, so none of their conversations in the film really brought anything new but instead were just a bunch of clichéd topics that have been done to death. Not that I’m saying that this is completely bad considering the context of the film is about ordinary daily life, but the director really could have come up with at least some original material instead of just using the same clichéd conversations over again throughout the skits. On similar note I also found that a lot of the acting seemed very awkward and forced and made the characters and situations seem unbelievable.

Also in all honesty i just found it to be rather boring and shallow. I mean sure some of the conversations were interesting (like delirium and cousins) but most of them lacked any serious depth and failed to offer any real insight into human relationships or daily life. Also the boredom factors in seeing how the film is made up entirely of ordinary conversations. I mean these conversations are no different that what you would hear any where else and you could easily walk into any cafe or restaurant and find similar conversations being made. In fact I’m sure that all of you have had much deeper and more meaningful conversations in your own lives then seen in the movie. In fact the only reason why most people are even interested in watching the conversations in the movie is probably because of all the celebrities in it, and everything is more interesting when done by celebrities’ right?

So basically this is what it comes down to. I feel that this film is about a 5/10. On a positive note it is funny and interesting at some parts, and its concept of filming everyday life in coffee shops is unique from any other film. But in contrast to this the content of the film is rather weak, and could really have used some work before going into production. Honestly I think if this film was redone and made some revisions it could turn out really good, but for now it’s definitely far from being any kind of master piece.


Ps. Also to those of you who have been complaining about the black and white being stupid and pretentious, I think it should be noted that it wasn’t shot in b & w just for the sake of being artsy. If you know anything about film making, smoking often looks very grotesque in color films and using B & W gives the smoke a softer and more sensual effect. Since there is smoking in every scene, the movie was most likely selected to be in black and white to make the smoke look better and to make the scenes more astatically pleasing. This technique was also used in the film 'good night and good luck' so to make all the smoking in the film look more pleasing to the audience.