''200 Cigarettes'' is a 1999 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by Risa Bramon Garcia and written by Shana Larsen. The film follows multiple characters in New York City on

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...

1981. The film features an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

consisting of brothers

Ben Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he, � ...

and

Casey Affleck Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt (born August 12, 1975) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Satellite Award. He beg ...

Dave Chappelle David Khari Webber Chappelle ( ; born August 24, 1973) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is best known for his satirical comedy sketch series ''Chappelle's Show'' (2003–2006), which he starred in until quitting in the middle of p ...

, Guillermo Díaz,

Angela Featherstone Angela Featherstone is an actress, writer, director, and advocate for children in foster care. She grew up in the Nova Scotia and Manitoba provinces of Canada. Career Modeling Within a year of emancipating herself from foster care at age ...

Janeane Garofalo Janeane Marie Garofalo ( ; born September 28, 1964) is an American comedian, actress, and former co-host on the now-defunct Air America Radio's ''The Majority Report''. Garofalo began her career as a stand-up comedian and became a cast member on ...

Gaby Hoffmann Gabrielle Mary Antonia HoffmannStated on '' Finding Your Roots'', November 21, 2017 (born January 8, 1982) is an American actress. She initially found success as a child actress, appearing in ''Field of Dreams,'' ''Uncle Buck,'' and ''Sleeple ...

Kate Hudson Kate Garry Hudson (born April 19, 1979) is an American actress and businesswoman. She has received numerous awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award and a Satellite Award, as well as nominations f ...

Courtney Love Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as t ...

Jay Mohr Jon Ferguson "Jay" Mohr (born August 23, 1970) is an American actor, comedian and radio host. He is known for his roles as film producer Peter Dragon in the TV comedy series ''Action'', Professor Rick Payne in the TV series ''Ghost Whisperer'' (2 ...

Nicole Ari Parker Nicole Ari Parker Kodjoe (born October 7, 1970) is an American actress and model. She made her screen debut with a leading role in the critically acclaimed independent film ''The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love'' (1995) and went on ...

Martha Plimpton Martha Plimpton (born November 16, 1970) is an American actress. Her feature-film debut was in '' Rollover'' (1981); she subsequently rose to prominence in the Richard Donner film ''The Goonies'' (1985). She has also appeared in '' The Mosquito ...

Christina Ricci Christina Ricci ( ; born February 12, 1980) is an American actress. Known for playing unusual characters with a dark edge, Ricci predominantly works in independent productions, but has also appeared in numerous box office hits. She has receiv ...

and

Paul Rudd Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor. He studied theater at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, before making his acting debut in 1991. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in ...

, with a cameo by

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

, as well as paintings by Sally Davies.

Plot

The film follows various plot arcs all occurring on

of 1981. Monica is throwing a big party and is desperately afraid no one will attend. Early on, the only arrival is her friend Hillary. As Monica tries to convince Hillary to stay, various other groupings are shown making their way to the celebration. The plot follows these several characters as they spend New Year's Eve in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

before eventually turning up at Monica's party. The party guests are: * Monica's cousin Val and her friend Stephie, teens from Ronkonkoma who get lost in the seedy

Alphabet City Alphabet City is a neighborhood located within the East Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its name comes from Avenues A, B, C, and D, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter names. It is bounded by Houston St ...

section of the borough and wander into a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

club where they meet Dave and Tom, who have a "package" they need to deliver. * Ditsy and awkward Cindy, who is on a dinner date with the paranoid Jack. * Lucy and her best friend Kevin, who are struggling with their mutual sexual tension. The film's title stems from the carton of cigarettes Lucy buys Kevin that night, a present on a holiday he loathes, which is also his birthday. * Kevin's

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

ex-girlfriend Ellie, who walks in on Kevin and Lucy making out in a restroom stall * A dim-witted and flirtatious bartender. * Competitive friends Bridget and Caitlyn who attempt to ditch Bridget's boyfriend Eric, who is also Monica's ex. * And an eccentric cab driver who takes them all around town throughout the evening in his disco-themed taxi. Eventually, everyone finds their way to the party, although Monica has passed out after drowning her sorrows in alcohol. She wakes the next morning to find unrecognizable people on her floor, including Stephie, who tells her what a big hit her party was. Monica is thrilled, even though she missed it all, especially when she finds out that

showed up. The final montage shows Polaroids of the party, narrated by the disco cabbie, mostly featuring the unlikely romances from the night and the unconscious Monica being propped up by her guests.

Cast

Ben Affleck Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educationa ...

as Bartender *

as Tom *

Caleb Carr Caleb Carr (born August 2, 1955) is an American military historian and author. Carr is the second of three sons born to Lucien Carr and Francesca Von Hartz. He authored ''The Alienist'', ''The Angel of Darkness'', ''The Lessons of Terror'', ''K ...

as Cynical Bar Patron *

as Disco Cabbie *

as Himself * Guillermo Díaz as Dave *

as Caitlyn *

as Ellie *

as Stephie *

as Cindy *

Catherine Kellner Catherine Kellner (born October 2, 1970) is an American character actress, perhaps best known for appearing in Daft Punk's music-video for their song Da Funk. Early life and education Kellner was born in Manhattan, New York. Her mother was a ...

as Hillary *

as Lucy *

Brian McCardie Brian McCardie is a Scottish actor and writer. Early life Brian McCardie attended St. Brendan’s, then St. Athanasius Primary Schools. He went on to Our Lady's High School in Motherwell. His parents moved from Motherwell to Carluke while h ...

as Eric *

as Jack *

as Bridget *

as Monica *

as Val *

as Kevin

Release

The film received generally negative reviews and grossed $6.8 million in the United States. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 30% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 4.4/10 and the consensus that it is " clumsy and scattered comedy with a poorly executed script". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

the film has a score of 33% based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "Generally unfavorable reviews." Todd McCarthy of ''

Variety magazine ''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', based ...

'' called the film "dismally unfunny" and questions "if any director could have surmounted the script’s limitations" and of the acting performances he says "only Garofalo and Ben Affleck manage to project any wit that cracks through the prevailing humorlessness." Mick LaSalle of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' gave it a positive review, saying "200 Cigarettes doesn't have a bad scene or a false note. The picture is a succession of pointed little moments, nicely written by Shana Larsen and acted with comic assurance and sensitivity."

References

External links

* * * * {{MTV Films 1999 films 1999 comedy-drama films 1990s English-language films Films scored by Mark Mothersbaugh Films about parties Films about smoking Films set in 1981 Films set in Manhattan Lakeshore Entertainment films MTV Films films Films set around New Year Paramount Pictures films American comedy-drama films 1999 directorial debut films 1990s American films