I've been reading everyone's post and have gathered interesting results. It's very ironic because most of the reasons people dislike this movie are the exact same reasons Jarmusch fans appreciate him for. Examples: long seemingly pointless and meandering mise en scene and dialogue that serve little to no exposition (ie, we're supposed to have preconceived ideas of what their personas are like beforehand so it serves as an irreverent inside joke), loopy repitition to the point of boredom.
I think Jim has made these characteristics a trademark of his films and if you're familiar with his work it is much easier to, in fact quite impossible, not to resist. Being a huge fanboy of his work myself, I can spot certain thematic quirks and it brings me great satisfaction to know that I am familiar with them. Examples: foreigners and serendipitious miscommunication, family - brother/sister in laws; in this case cousins, the woman who reads a pile of magazines because she got manipulated by the newstand owner, natural spontaneity of the acting, hipster musicians with giant egos, etc. I think Jim's idea of America translates into his films: its boring, repititious, disposable. It's a more bleak and less glamorous viewpoint of the world but its starkly more real to me which is why I think he's such a cinematic poet.
This is the kind of movie that rewards contemplative viewers, and even if overtly more comic than his other works, gives the actors enough real time to observe subtle details: the nervous glances thrown between two strangers, the natural studders in speech as two real people talk, the clanking of two cups of coffee, the "gulp - smuck - aaaah", the rolling of the dice, the background music, the flicker of the lighter igniting, the caffeine induced banter all add up to, as the original poster put, the world's harmonious accoustical resonance. Do not misconstrue, I am not putting down all haters of this and/or any other Jarmusch film. I'm just simply observing the reasons for this indifference. Jarmusch films have a way of making the viewer more observational.
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