It's New Years Eve, 1981, and a frazzled Monica (Martha Plimpton) is throwing a party. At least, it would be a party if any of her guests showed up. As it is, all of the people whom she expects are roaming New York, having the times of their lives.
Monica's friend Hillary (Catherine Kellner) has just left, promising to return so that she can be fixed up with Monica's ex-boyfriend, Eric (Brian McCardie), who's expected later. Eric, however, is busy bar-crawling through New York with his new girlfriend, Bridget (Nicole Parker) and her friend Caitlyn (Angie Featherstone), who is desparately on the make, trying to get some before midnight, because, as everyone knows, if one doesn't get laid before midnight on New Years Eve, one won't get laid at all in the following year. As it turns out, nothing works out as any of them expect.
The Disco Cabbie narrates the film and provides the unifying link for all of the different storylines which unfold in 200 Cigarettes. (For the benefit of those of you who haven't seen it yet, stay through the credits -- which polite people do anyway; for the benefit of those who walk out during credits, all I have to say vis-a-vis this picture is, "LOSERS! -- you left before the final joke, which doesn't come until after all of the credits have run and the screen has gone to black. The Disco Cabbie's narration continues past the credits.")
Cindy is a sweet young woman, who has just had her "first" with Jack. Cindy, however, has a problem (several, actually), and so does Jack, not that anyone believes him -- until the end of the film and The Disco Cabdriver's narration.
Martha Plimpton truly shines as Monica, who has some serious issues to deal with, including trying to explain to Eric his problem. Eric stubbornly refuses to believe why Monica broke up with him -- until the end of the film. (Noticing a pattern here, dear readers?)
Val is Monica's cousin, and has dragged her friend Stephie to New York City for Monica's party. Unfortunately, Val has lost the address. She also doesn't have Monica's phone number. She can't call home and ask for it, either, because she's supposed to be spending the night at Stephie's house in suburban Long Island, not walking with her through the mean streets of New York, which seem to be getting meaner and meaner as they keep walking, until Stephie discovers that they are being stalked by leather-clad punks Dave and Tom.
Problems with 200 Cigarettes (sorry to be so terse, but I told you these were just brief notes pending a full review):
First, the distributors caved in to pressure groups (or screwed up audience members) who had seen screenings of the movie and they deleted some of the dialogue; the Bartender (Ben Affleck), for example, is supposed to say, "By the way, I'm not Gay -- I get that all the time," which is a line used in the commercials for the film, but which was cut from it just before release(!!!), despite the fact that it is very important to setting up one of the storylines; also, the Drag Queen (James Murphy) has a full credit, indicating that s/he's supposed to have lines (and I seem to remember some hysterically funny comment from her/him), but in the release print I saw, although the Drag Queen is in at least two scenes, s/he has no lines at all. (I'm not certain, but another reviewer thought that one of Martha Plimpton's lines had been cut as well, which if it was, was not a crucial loss to the film -- except for most of the audience members under the age of forty, who are unlikely to understand why Monica gets so excited at the mention of musician Elvis Costello.)
Second, the work print (the film's rough draft) which I first saw could have used a little trimming to make the film's pace faster. Cuts were apparently made, besides the ones I mentioned above, but they seemed to slow down the film, which is exactly the opposite of what it needed.
Third (and this is more of an audience problem than a problem with the film itself), audience members who skip out before the music credits roll may not understand the title (and no, I won't explain it for you -- read the credits if you want to understand it).
Still and all, 200 Cigarettes is a good movie, but -- at least in the release print I saw -- can't receive my highest rating of W8: worth $8.00. Very young and very old audience members will miss a lot of the topical jokes relevant to the early 1980's which are terribly funny to thirty- and forty-somethings, for example, those who don't know who that Bob and Mark Mothersbaugh (the film's composers) co-founded the music group Devo will probably miss the subtlety of the Bartender's question, "Do you guys like Devo?" which is, of course, an inside joke at the expense of two of the most important people involved in the production. Nevertheless, any audience of teenagers or adult viewers can still appreciate a great deal of the general humor, which is universally appealing to anyone who has ever been in a big, strange city, or who has tried to get a date, or tried to throw a party, or been dumped or ditched, or has eaten exotic foreign foods, or . . . well, you get the idea.
So, problems and all, I rate 200 Cigarettes as W5: Worth $5.00. It's a fun movie to see during a bargain matinee or twilight show, but the difference in price between a $5 ticket and an $8 ticket would be better spent buying popcorn.
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