I'll get my criticisms out of the way right now:

1) In one scene, the Pier 17 mall can be seen in the background. Pier 17 in 1981 was a pier, and nothing else.
2) The Indian restaurants that grace E. 6th Street in the movie weren't around then either. New York's Indian restaurants have a pretty high turnover; I don't remember what the names were in 1981, but hell, they were different in 1991.
3) There's an inspection sticker on the wall inside one Indian restaurant: the phone number listed has a 718 area code. In 1981, New York was entirely 212.
4) People didn't start dressing like Madonna until 1984.
5) The director could have also made the cars a little less modern-looking. (Ford Tauruses? What do you take me for?)

With that out of the way, I'll admit I was tickled by 200 Cigarettes. I loved the banter between Gaby Hoffmann and Christina Ricci. Even though their Long Island accents aren't believable (come on: Ricci's from New Jersey! She can't do Long Island?), their suburban pathos is, especially Hoffmann's terror at the prospect of crossing Avenue B.

New York was still an icky, dangerous city back then. Director Risa Bramon Garcia remembered to throw in visual staples like discarded mattresses and homeless people along with the hangers-on, performance artists, debutantes and yuppie scumbags. I wish she'd included some graffiti as well, because my sharpest New York memories include spray-painted murals as big as the Sistine's ceiling. The colors used in 200 Cigarettes are dead similar to the major graffiti colors, by the way: red, yellow, gold, royal blue.

Despite the flubs and oversights, there are terrific slices of East Village life, like Leshko's Diner on Avenue A (a place I remember frequenting as far back as the early 80's, and it looks as dumpy now as it did then.) Residents of the East Village can't afford to eat at most of the restaurants in their own neighborhood, so Leshko's is a likely place to see Lucy (Courtney Love) and Kevin (Paul Rudd), drunk, tired, horny and arguing about love.

Much of 200 Cigarettes' appeal is in Courtney's performance. She's as vibrant and funny as any American actress working today, and I'm not just saying that because "Celebrity Skin" ranked so highly in my Top Ten Albums of 1998. It's obvious she can carry a comedy as well as a legit drama (Larry Flynt), but she'll never be respected enough to land Gwyneth Paltrow-esque ingenue roles. For Courtney's much-publicized starfucker attitude, she's still too un-Hollywood: she's destined to be the Jennifer Jason Leigh of the late 90's.

It was also good to see Janeane Garofalo spilling her hilarious bile, and (professional ex-girlfriend of River Phoenix) Martha Plimpton doing her neurotic bit. If nothing else, 200 Cigarettes is a support system for quirky actors, a way to make some money while casting directors of real movies say "thanks, we'll call you."

Overall, it's a silly comedy with a great cast (which I hereby dub the "indie Brat Pack") and a pointless appearance by Elvis Costello. It's a definite chick movie (as was confirmed by the largely female audience), but it's the best chick movie out right now. I guess that's a recommendation, then.