200 Cigarettes

In 1999, 200 Cigarettes, a movie that was instantly dated and just as instantly out of style, hit the screen. Two months later Go, another film with the same ascetic and vibe, also hit cinemas to equally sour reviews and box office results. The concept was the same: a large ensemble of known and up-and-coming actors and actresses are nebulously tied together in some way, in their own stories that either cross each other throughout or all together in the finale. Pepper in some bad comedy and Quentin Tarantino style writing and you have this sub-genre tied up in a nice little bowl. That’s the curse of post Pulp Fiction era films: so many of them were trying to duplicate that film’s incredibly tight, story driven dialogue without having the raw audacity and power that someone like Tarantino could bring. Tarantino could write a seemingly meaningless conversation and make it seem like the most important thing ever written. When other’s try to replicate that you get something   Like 200 Cigarettes. 

What you have for a story breaks down to random misadventures from an eclectic group of people on New Years Eve, 1981, in New York City, all of whom are making their way to a party hosted by insecure Monica (Martha Plimpton) who assumes no one will show up. As the night goes on this assumption is seemingly confirmed when everyone, for one reason or another, is delayed getting there. Val (Christina Ricci) and Stephie (Gaby Hoffman) get lost along the way, pairing up with a couple of punks played by Casey Affleck and Guillermo Díaz who need to deliver a mysterious package before going to the party. Clumsy Cindy (Kate Hudson) and Jack (Jay Mohr) have a romantic encounter but Jack is paranoid when Cindy professes her love for him, something he feels happens with every girl he sleeps with. 

Lucy (Courtney Love) and Kevin (Paul Rudd) are lifelong friends who are now dealing with a mutual sexual tension spurred on by Kevin’s disdain for New Years Day which also happens to be his birthday. The two will attempt to relieve that tension but luck and circumstances, and a domineering ex-girlfriend played by Janeane Garofalo, are not on their side. A moronic bartender played by Ben Affleck gets invited to the party by two girls and thinks this may be a situation meriting some of his best and cringiest one-liners. Bridget (Nicole Ari Parker) and Caitlyn (Angela Featherstone) are competitive with each other, bringing along with them Eric (Brian McCardie) who was previously involved with Monica and has a complex over the reason why she broke up with him in the first place. Lastly, Dave Chappelle plays a cabbie who ferries several of the cast around in his pimped out disco cab. Throughout the course of the evening connections are made, hearts are broken and more than a little chaos ensues. 

When examining a film like this it becomes obvious that breaking down the different storylines is a futile effort. This is not a film about interesting scenarios leading up to a satisfying finale where all the separate stories add together to equal a solid whole. Most of the performers in 200 Cigarettes seem overwhelmed with the material which does them a disservice by painting them so broadly and artificially that the screenplay could be mistaken for a first year college student’s screenwriting thesis. Adding on to that artificiality is setting the film in 1981 but dressing everyone like they are attending an 80’s themed party instead. The outfits, the hairstyles, the mannerisms are not authentic in the slightest, as if the filmmakers had a vague recollection of the world of the early 80’s and ran with that. 

Of the principals, only a couple seem comfortable in the film they are in. Christina Ricci’s Val, bad New York accent and all, is a hoot to watch as she overacts and over-reacts to everything. Kate Hudson overplays her character’s ditzy persona, projecting her every pratfall well in advance. It adds a level of anticipation to her clumsiness as well as an added level of humor when things go beyond what is anticipated. Case in point: her slipping on an icy street was not a surprise. That she flat on her back in dog poo turned it from mildly amusing to a laugh out loud moment. It’s hardly high art but who’s looking for high art in a film like this? Courtney Love is also good here, giving a back-and-forth performance against an uncharacteristically bristling Paul Rudd. She is believable as someone who has remained friends with a man like Rudd’s Kevin, secretly feeling a romantic pull towards him that’s as tenuous as it is fleeting.

Dialogue sinks this film. The conversations are largely uninteresting and lead nowhere. A famous critic from Chicago, who shall go unnamed here, looked at this film and wrote more about the smoking than anything else in this film. That’s a poignant observation as the sheer number of cigarettes smoked in the film is a far more interesting subject than any of the drama depicted within, especially with how badly most of the cast does it. Smoking should be filmed in such a way as to convey emotion. Here, like most everything else, it’s photographed as stilted as the dialogue. Still, there is a perverse level of humor than can be gleamed off of this badly written script. It’s the type of laughter that is aimed not with the characters but at them. Only Cindy elicits any real humor as she’s flailing around breaking pool hall lights or knocking over dinner plates at a restaurant. It’s over-the-top but it is funny.

200 Cigarettes is not a good film. But that’s not to say it’s not worth watching. There is some fun stuff here. David Chapelle, with his all too brief appearances scattered throughout the various storylines, brings some good laughs, especially in his voice-over narration at the end. Some of the physical humor works, too. But the dialogue and most of the characters are just too weak to ultimately sustain this film. It so desperately wants to be a Tarantino level film with all the witty dialogue a Tarantino film would have. But it doesn’t have nearly the level of writing a film like Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs has. It’s a lot of talent in front of the screen struggling to deal with the  lesser talent behind it. 

Release Date: February 26, 1999

Running Time: 101 Minutes

Rated R

Starring: Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, Dave Chappelle, Angela Featherstone, Courtney Love, Jay Mohr, Nicole Ari Parker, Martha Plimpton, Christina Ricci and Paul Rudd

Directed By: Rosa Bramon Garcia