★ 6 / 10
In Carlito's Way, Al Pacino warns us that
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In Carlito's Way, Al Pacino warns us that “a favor’s gonna kill you faster than a bullet.” In Chinese Coffee (2000) we see what he meant by that. Harry Levine…
In Carlito's Way, Al Pacino warns us that “a favor’s gonna kill you faster than a bullet.” In Chinese Coffee (2000) we see what he meant by that. Harry Levine (Pacino) and Jake Manheim (Jerry Orbach), whose friendship seems to illustrate that misery loves company, have exchanged favors; Harry loaned Jake $500 to buy photographic equipment, and Jake said he would read Harry's manuscript.
Jake, however, has no money to pay the strapped-for-cash Harry back (both are starving artists at an age when this lifestyle has long since ceased to be a voluntary choice and has become "nothing but a long history of failure."), and claims to have not read Harry’s manuscript; in fact, he has stashed the pages in the freezer like a piece of raw meat – there is something in them he finds hard to swallow, let alone digest, because to him it would be not unlike to anthropophagy.
The subject of an artist cannibalizing the experiences of someone close to them is common; in the last couple of years alone we’ve had, with varying degrees of success, Steven Soderbergh’s Let Them All Talk and Sam Levinson’s Malcolm & Marie. This material, that essentially comes down to verbal fencing, behooves from a spare setting and cast – which is why Malcolm & Marie succeeded where Let Them All Talk failed; the former is an original screenplay by Levinson, but it would easily feel at home on Broadway.
Chinese Coffee, adapted by Ira Lewis from his one-act play of the same name, is even more austere, taking place mostly in an apartment described as “stifling”, “thick” and “dense”, and whose windows are bolted shut. Pacino – who starred in the original stage production and directed the film adaptation – and Lewis know their stuff inside and out, and the result is lean and tight; at the same time, they wisely take advantage of the freedom afforded them by the medium of film to relieve the claustrophobia of the main set, which they leave from time to time, to visit, usually in flashback, more open spaces – unlike the play, where all the action takes place in a small apartment in Greenwich Village (at other times, however, the film simply swaps one cubbyhole for another; specifically, the basement Harry shared with his ex Joanna (Susa Floyd).
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★ 7 / 10
An Unpretentious Look at Pretentiousness
gavin6942
Harry Levine (Al Pacino) and Jake Manheim (Jerry Orbach), two unsuccessful writers, spend a cathartic evening arguing about money, aesthetics, their…
Harry Levine (Al Pacino) and Jake Manheim (Jerry Orbach), two unsuccessful writers, spend a cathartic evening arguing about money, aesthetics, their friendship, and Harry's new manuscript.This film, based on a Broadway play (which had starred Pacino) is well-adapted by director Al Pacino (it helps that there was minimal stuff to direct). The origin as a play is fairly obvious, given how much is talk and how little is action (and I wonder if they had to add or modify scenes to create additional movement and scenery).While not one of the greatest films ever, and not even one of Pacino's best, it has its moments and it is a great interaction between two people. If you like a lot of dialogue and bickering (think "Clerks" without all the dirty talk) and miss Jerry Orbach, this is the film for you.
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★ 6 / 10
Echo "Futures" Comment
CRCFleetwood
I just watched this on DVD, and although it offered some interesting moments and insights, the dialog felt forced and the two main actors, both of whom have…
I just watched this on DVD, and although it offered some interesting moments and insights, the dialog felt forced and the two main actors, both of whom have done great work in other projects, didn't seem to click. On the DVD, there's an epilogue in the "features" section in which Pacino, who also directed, wondered whether there were too many flashbacks. Actually, I thought the flashbacks were enlivening, enabling the story to be more involving than it might otherwise have been. Pacino also mentions that because of Orbach's "Law and Order" shooting schedule, they were forced to film 84 pages of dialog in 21 days, perhaps explaining, at least in part, why the film feels a little undercooked.
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74%
AUDIENCE
· 1K ratings
7.0/10
5.1K
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People whine when this is not 4K UHD? Well this is only released on 3 film DVD Pacino box. Come on!