Coffee and Language

VARIETY describes this film as "brilliant ... unpredictable sorties into words and ideas at their most liberating and emotionally striking." The film is a love story about writers, and about the use and abuse of language.

A man falls in love with a novelist after reading one of her books. He finds her in a coffeehouse where she writes and he tries to start a relationship with her. To do this, he brings two short stories that he's written in response to her novel. At first, she's very reluctant to read or listen to the stories, but he eventually convinces her. When he begins to read the stories, the film opens up into the unique world that he describes (and the style changes from black and white to color). The film then follows what happens between this man and the novelist, and what their relationship becomes. At the same time, as a counterpoint, the film follows the relationships of various regulars who frequent the coffeehouse.

"Coffee and Language" is a small, focused and well-done "think piece" about writing, talking, communications and how we relate to each other. Oh, and it also takes place almost entirely in a coffee shop. In fact it's mostly in black and white (flashbacks and stories people tell to each other are shot in color), so it reminds one of Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes."

This is a much better movie, although it is also episodic and disjointed in a way. The focus is on a writer and a man who has been so moved by her novel to write stories just for her (an audience of one), to try to communicate his essence to her - he can't find the words to say out loud. This turns into a discussion of how we read, and whether or not we can "know" a writer by his work alone.

How autobiographical is any fiction?

Around this framework, the film also tells a couple of stories of other people in the coffee shop, and how they relate, use words, and read fiction, stories, etc. The sum is greater than its parts. "Coffee and Language" is clearly and aggressively a writer's rhetorical discussion about creation, and how your words affect the world.

It's also funny, and casually deep. It touches on subjects we rarely see in a film (indie or not). How do we relate to a story? To words that move us? Even if they are not intended in that way. JP Allen, the writer and director, has managed to make these potentially academic topics into a dramatic, entertaining, modest but engaging work that's head and shoulders above most slacker-coffee-shop indie films. (Is that a genre?)