200 Cigarettes

Here we go, the first review:

"If You Remember Anything That I Tell You, Remember This:  James Brown is the Baddest Motherfucker in Show Business" -- The Disco Cabbie

Sometimes MTV gets it right.

I just rewatched an old favorite film from the "stars everyone" genre called 200 Cigarettes.  Seriously, this film is half I know them and half who the fuck is that?

So anyway, the film's premise is it's 1981, it's about to be 1982, and everyone in the cast is on their way to a New Year's eve party thrown by Monica (Martha Plimpton)...but no one wants to be the first to arrive.  We have Kevin (Paul Rudd) and Lucy (Courtney Love), two lifelong friends who are dealing with Kevin's recent break-up with Ellie (Janeane Garofalo),  Cindy (Kate Hudson) and Jack (Jay Mohr) who slept together the night before, Val (Christina Ricci), Monica's cousin and her friend Stephie (Gaby Hoffmann) two girls from Ronkonkoma (perhaps the ONLY time it's been mentioned on film) who came in for the party and meet up with Tom (Casey Affleck) and Dave (Guillermo Diaz), two punks.  There's also Caitlyn (Angela Featherstone) and Bridget (Nicole Ari Parker), two friends who are competing for men.  Caitlyn is seeing Monica's ex-boyfriend Eric (Brian McCardie) who has problems of his own.  Also along for the ride are Ben Affleck as the idiotic seeming Bartender (though that could just be Affleck being himself), Hillary (Catherine Kellner), Monica's best friend, and of course, the incomparable Dave Chappelle as "Disco Cabbie."  There's also a special cameo by that guy, you know, with the glasses, he has that album out...

A lot of people are down on this movie, and I can see why.  There are some predictable parts, and so many characters to keep track of.  Given the type of comedy it is, you have to have all the characters at least paired off to keep the plot, such as it is, progressing.  Yeah, there's really not much of a plot, which I guess is what draws me to this movie.  It's really in the "slice of life" style, where we meet these characters, we figure out who they are and keep going from there.  However, they do end the film with the somewhat predictable "(nearly) everyone finds love" ending.  Those who don't sort of earn what they deserve. 

Also, I love the 80's soundtrack, which is in fact mostly from the early 80's (only 2 covers in the movie).  It fit the mood and kept the movie going.  

I've gotta give special notice to the work of Dave Chappelle.  Though barely in the movie, he really helps tie the film together at points and every time he's onscreen, the movie gets more funky.  If Disco Cabbie existed, I would take more cabs. 

So, yeah, see the movie.  You'll enjoy it, but it ain't Shakespeare.