Romance & Cigarettes Fizzles?

[Posted by Peter Debruge]
The movie certainly had its champions, myself included. But after splashy coverage around its Los Angeles release last week (including a City Beat cover story and a decent LA Times piece), John Turturro's wild and crazy Romance & Cigarettes has scaled back to a single Los Angeles screen — at the Sunset 5, no less.

I tried to do my part, most recently posting a rave on Collider.com, but at a certain point, you just have to accept the fact that the world's not ready for a working-class musical. I don't really mean that, since many of those who did see the film — especially those who witnessed it with a crowd, where like-minded cohorts can chuckle along and reaffirm its oddball charm — came out loving it. But it's a tough season, and Turturro pretty much staged this release on his own, opening in one of Hollywood's most crowded Christmas seasons. Kudos to him for fighting the good fight. Don't miss it.

Comments

[anne thompson]

Romance & Cigarettes is compelling watching, because its stars, James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet, are clearly having a blast. You can't take your eyes off them. This musical is outrageous, intense, over-the-top and totally out-there weird. It makes Sweeney Todd look conventional. In other words, it's an actors' vehicle, directed by Turturro, whose other movies, Mac and Illuminata, were both terrific--and also underappreciated by moviegoers. As always, no compromises were made here. The real story, as with John Sayles' Honeydripper, is that the reality of the marketplace makes it impossible for small, personal, arty films like this to gain a foothold theatrically.