‘200 Cigarettes’ lacks smoke
Eighties film
■ fails to capture
carefree decade
By Sam McKewon
Senior editor
For the four high school girls sitting
two seats away, “200 Cigarettes” was
full of laughter.
They, apparently, understood and
enjoyed all the other jokes that every
body else missed. Because this movie,
this transcendentally bad film, has one
joke in it. One.
To spare any of the curious from
seeing this movie, here it is:
“How do you like your eggs?
Scrambled or fertilized?”
Every other joke in this - the first
terrible movie of 1999 - falls well short
of that marie. It’s that bad.
There’s plenty of talent in “200
Cigarettes.” That’s not the problem
here. The problem is the script, which is
just a mangled collection of words and
phrases that was written by first-time
screenwriter Shana Larsen. Larsen
should never pen a movie again. Ever.
Here she has, along with director
Risa Bramon Garcia, created a number
of annoying characters, a few of which
have not one redeeming quality in
them.
They are not funny. They are not
nice. They curse to the point that the
same word takes the place of verbs and
adjectives, sometimes entire sentences.
A couple of them are complete idiots.
It’s 1981, and these characters are
all trying to get to a New Year’s Eve
party that one neurotic woman (Martha
Plimpton) is throwing. There are two
friends who may be more than that
(Courtney Love and Paul Rudd), two
high school girls (Christina Ricci and
Gaby Hoffman), a sexually inadequate
artist (Brian McCardie), two sexually
aggressive women (Nicole Parker and
Angela Featherstone), a bartender (Ben
Affleck) and many more.
They’re driven around New York
City by a taxi driver (Dave Chappelle)
who thinks it’s his duty to bed down
every woman.
In a movie with this many story
lines, it might have been helpful if there
was some kind of connection between
some of them, but there isn’t For exam
ple, how do Love and Rudd know
Plimpton’s character? Never told. The
same goes for a yuppie couple on their
first date (Jay Mohr and Kate Hudson).
The only good thing about “200
Cigarettes” is the title makes sense.
Almost everybody smokes in the
movie, but the title actually refers to a
carton of cigarettes that Love buys
Rudd. The soundtrack, full of 1980s
stuff, is good, if you like that kind of
thing.
But everything else is bad, bad, bad.
The acting, aside from Love’s, is bad.
(When Rudd gets angry, he screws up
his face as if he swallowed a worm).
You feel the worst for Ricci, a real talent
I
stuck in a bad accent and even worse
dialogue. Even the lighting is bad.
The movie doesn’t make much
sense, either. Why is this movie set in
1981? Aside from dress and music, not
one reference suggests this happened
17 years ago. Look around at the traffic,
too. Hey, besides that cab Chappelle’s
driving, everything else is a 1990s
model car.
And for that matter, why is the
movie set on New Year’s Eve? It could
have been any party, any time. There’s -
no snow, but, then again, it sure isn’t
cold, because half the people aren’t
wearing coats.. The filmmakers
checked authenticity at the door.
What Bramon Garcia should have
done is made “200 Cigarettes” a musi
cal. The soundtrack, which runs for
almost the entire film, should have
been turned way up, as to overpower the
Film Review Jil
TIm Facts ’W*
Title: “200 Cigarettesl’
Stars: Christina Ricci, Courtney Love, Paul
Rudd, Ben Affleck
Director: Risa Bramon Garcia
Rating: R (adult language, content)
Grade: F
Five Words: “Cigarettes’stinks up the theater
voices of characters. That way, instead
of hearing them talk, we could have
heard the music.
The film still wouldn’t have been
any good, but it’d have been better than
the washout it was.
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Courtesy Photo
i “200 CIGARETTES,” a 1980s comedy that has little to do with the ’80s, stars a modem-day brat pack of young
stars. From left are Guillermo Diaz, Gaby Hoffman, Christina Ricci and Casey Affleck.
Noyes Gallery shows
abstract twig pottery
By Jeff Randall
Senior staff writer
As many poetic and bohemian
types will tell you, art is in the eye of
die beholder.
And for local artist Tony Guido,
beholding has become both a full-time
profession and a part-time inspiration.
For more than a decade, Guido has
parlayed his love of art into a career as
a florist. And recently, he directed his
artistic drive into pottery making.
Guido’s latest exhibition opens
today at the Noyes Art Gallery and
runs through the end of the month. The
exhibit features more than 30 exam
ples of twig pottery by the Bellevue
native.
“It was an easy transition for me,
since I’ve been working with natural
materials for so long as a florist,”
Guido said. “My pottery reflects that
love of nature.”
Although some uninitiated sorts
may turn their noses up at the presenta
tion of functional and nature-based arts
such as floral arrangements and pot
tery, Guido believes the close connec
tion between his work and natural
materials lends something to his cre
ative process.
“I’ve developed a very unique,
very distinctive look to everything I
do,” he said.
Guido has begun to address the
functional label of pottery, too.
y “I used to do really practical
pieces, things designed merely to hold
! Art Courtesy of Tony Guido
A FORMER FLORIST, Tony Guido now
expresses his love for natural ele
ments through his pottery, which
frequently incorporates earthy ele
ments such as grasses and branch
es^__
objects and look good while doing so,”
he said. “Recently I’ve gotten away
from that, and I’ve worked in a more
abstract mind-set.”
The results are pieces that range in
size from typical pottery to fist-sized
paperweights. Still functional, one
might say, but what one might say
doesn’t hold a lot of water with this
artist, anyway.
“I’ve been told that I have a primi
tive quality to my work,” Guido said.
“Some people might not like that, but I
take it as a compliment. I like4hat idea
a lot.”
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