200 Cigarettes Review
by Akiva Gottlieb (akiva AT excite DOT com)March 1st, 1999
200 Cigarettes **
rated R
starring Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, David Chappelle, Guillermo Diaz, Angela Featherstone, Janeane Garofalo, Gaby Hoffmann, Kate Hudson, Courtney Love, Brian McCardie, Jay Mohr, Nicole Parker, Martha Plimpton, Christina Ricci, Paul Rudd
written by Shana Larsen
directed by Risa Bramon Garcia
Filmmakers love making ensemble pieces. Why? Maybe because it is a way in which you do not need to develop your characters in order to prove a point. You just need some witty dialogue and good direction to keep the viewer intrigued, and all the characters must come together at the end in some mysterious way. In the case of PLAYING BY HEART, this kind of film is done well, but in 200 CIGARETTES the viewer leaves unintrigued.
200 CIGARETTES loosely tells the story of many New York couples during New Year's Eve 1981. Somehow, these people are all supposed to attend a party being held by Martha Plimpton, but they don't seem to show up. First, there is Paul Rudd(CLUELESS), who has just been dumped by his girlfriend and is spending New Year's Eve(ironically, his birthday) with his good friend, played by Courtney Love, and contemplating whether to start a relationship with her. There is also Jay Mohr, a typical player who is tired of women with whom he's had one night stands telling him they love him. His latest victim is Kate Hudson, who sports dog feces on her dress for half of the film. Then there are Christina Ricci and Gaby Hoffmann, who are spending a night on the town without their parents' knowledge, and they meet punks Casey Affleck and Guillermo Diaz in an East Village club. And Ben Affleck, Janeane Garofalo, Nicole Parker, and Angela Featherstone all show up in small roles. The closest the film has to a protagonist is a cab driver(David Chappelle) who seems to be driving each couple around.
The problem with 200 CIGARETTES is that it tries to be many things without succeeding in any particular way. The film only works as an homage to the 80's in its superb soundtrack, showing that even a movie like the WEDDING SINGER can be more insightful in its knowledge of a period in time. The film also doesnt work as a comedy or a romance, because there is not enough of either to take note of. Shana Larsen's script is quite mediocre, and makes most of the conversations a bore, and the film itself only mildly amusing. 200 CIGARETTES also sadly has no message at all to speak of, and it makes you wonder as to just when MTV Productions plans to put out a real movie. Former casting director Risa Bramon Garcia turns her first film into a 2 hour long music video, without even getting much out of her cast. Even CAN'T HARDLY WAIT, a far more superb film, deals with some kind of a message. If 200 CIGARETTES is any indication of what kinds of films we'll be seeing in this upcoming year, then I guess I'd just as well stay home.
review by the Teenage Movie Critic
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
