Review of Coffee and Cigarettes III

I've only recently become a fan of Tom Waits, having caught "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" on the radio one morning and taken months to work out the song's identity. Here, the gravel-voiced musician appears alongside Iggy Pop in the third of Jim Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes" series (released in 2003 as a feature-length compilation) – this is also my first taste of that series. This ten-minute film plays a little like a segment of Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction (1994).' The two musicians meet for coffee and cigarettes in a quiet coffeehouse, and Iggy nervously tries to engage Waits in conversation, but Waits, as cool as a cucumber, asserts his superiority with every laconic remark and calculated silence. At times, it seems as though Waits is deliberately toying with Iggy's self-esteem, casually tossing in an anecdote about a roadside tracheotomy he performed on his way there, and accusing his terrified companion of implied slander. There are plenty of awkward silences, made amusing by Waits' perpetual coolness and Iggy's mounting edginess.