Bagdad Cafe

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Bagdad Cafe

PG

Released Apr 22, 1988

1h 32m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

80%

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20 Reviews

88%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

German tourist Jasmin Munchgstettner (Marianne Sägebrecht) argues with her husband after car trouble strands them along a dusty highway in the American Southwest. Fuming, she storms off and travels by foot to the nearest outpost of civilization -- the Bagdad Café. Upon arriving, she butts heads with the owner (CCH Pounder), but they soon forge an unlikely friendship. What begins as a few days' respite becomes a prolonged stay as Jasmine finds her niche within this eccentric truck-stop community.

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Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Unfortunately, the film's curious conceits remain implausible even on a fantasy level, and most of the satirical possibilities are either sidestepped or fumbled.

Feb 8, 2010

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

The charm of Bagdad Cafe is that every character and every moment is unanticipated, obscurely motivated, of uncertain meaning and vibrating with life.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Terry Francis

Southern Voice (Atlanta)

Adlon here appears concerned less with the souls of his characters than with treating them as sentimental objects in some sort of metaphorical sideshow.

May 8, 2023

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Kathi Maio

Sojourner

With the kindliest of intentions, [Percy Adlon] has parroted the racist stereotypes of the American-made culture that informed his attitudes.

Aug 29, 2019

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Rob Aldam

Backseat Mafia

Bagdad Café is an uplifting and distinctly humane culture-clash comedy which will thaw the coldest heart.

Oct 30, 2018

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Lisa Nesselson

France24

The theme song really is inescapable...strange things happen in a charmingly-plotless way.

Aug 31, 2018

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Emily M

This movie was so bad that it made my dad and I laugh. The song kept repeating and it didn't fit the movie at all. A Celine Dion song or Whitney Houston song would have been a better a fit for this movie. I knew by the first scene the with the sound and cuts for the scene was so off which made it even funnier. I do believe that some people on here cannot rate movies well or don't know what a good movie is. Yep so the acting , singing and the sound was horrible. This movie is probably more left leaning because they added horrible actors instead of people who were actually good. I think there are several other great German actress and American but they chose the worst of the worst lmao.😂

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

08/09/25

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Anastasios G.

Like a modern-day fairy tale set in an alternate reality. You’ll never forget the experience of watching it.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/10/25

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Rich B

Totally obnoxious. I wanted to like it, but the entire experience (I tried to watch it multiple times!) was being in a room with people I'd prefer had already passed. Take the Wes Anderson movie you hated most, take out anything amusing, and then watch it at painful volume. Who thought this was a good idea?

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

05/29/25

Full Review

Audience Member

A very sweet and endearing movie about the magic of love and friendship. There are a handful of awkward shots and amateur camera work at the very beginning of the movie but it's perfect after that. It looks like they soon realized they had a crappy camera man that they had to replace but didn't have the time or the budget to reshoot the few scenes he had already shot so they tried to fix it with some editing and then made up for it with what they accomplished for the rest of the movie. There are some really cool shots and great subtle humor throughout the movie and everyone delivers a great performance, especially Jack Palance who plays a retired but lively bohemian artist. And if you didn't care for plump German milfs before, you will after this. The movie ends with a really cool and funny musical number that comes at you out of nowhere but it makes perfect sense nonetheless. It's one of those movies that you either don't get it or love it dearly.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/06/25

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Devra B

What a great movie. I haven’t seen it in years, and wow, it really holds up. Highly recommend.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/20/24

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BJ M

One of my favorite films - sweet, original, touching ... with a beautiful musical score.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/27/24

Full Review

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Percy Adlon

Director

Marianne Sägebrecht

Jasmin Münchgstettner

CCH Pounder

Brenda

Jack Palance

Rudi Cox

Christine Kaufmann

Debby

Monica Calhoun

Phyllis

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Synopsis

German tourist Jasmin Munchgstettner (Marianne Sägebrecht) argues with her husband after car trouble strands them along a dusty highway in the American Southwest. Fuming, she storms off and travels by foot to the nearest outpost of civilization -- the Bagdad Café. Upon arriving, she butts heads with the owner (CCH Pounder), but they soon forge an unlikely friendship. What begins as a few days' respite becomes a prolonged stay as Jasmine finds her niche within this eccentric truck-stop community.

Director: Percy Adlon
Producer: Percy Adlon, Eleonore Adlon
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Production Co: Pelemele Film, Hessischer Rundfunk, Pro-ject Filmproduktion [de], Bayerischer Rundfunk
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 22, 1988, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 1, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $17.9K
Runtime: 1h 32m

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