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Bagdad Cafe

Play trailer Poster for Bagdad Cafe PG Released Apr 22, 1988 1h 32m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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80% Tomatometer 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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Bagdad Cafe

Critics Reviews

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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 Full Review Nell Minow Movie Mom Rated: 4/5 Oct 27, 2005 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review Rob Aldam Backseat Mafia Bagdad Café is an uplifting and distinctly humane culture-clash comedy which will thaw the coldest heart. Oct 30, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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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 Full Review 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 Alejandro E Perhaps a defect of this film is its slow development, but it is compensated step by step with endearing characters and comic sequences, which leave a quite delicious and memorable ending. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 04/01/23 Full Review douglas p Bagdad Cafe, My Wife, and I cannot get enough of this movie. We have watched it maybe 6 or 7 times. We even made a pilgrimage to the Cafe, which was closed Summer 2022. The filming site is actually Newberry Springs, CA on route 66. Low-budget movies can be great and this is one of them. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review dave s Bagdad Café's opening scene, filled with odd camera angles and jarring editing and horrible overacting, is either a stylistic nightmare or pretentious babble. Thankfully, things settle down (at least in relative terms) over the remainder of the film. It tells the story of a German tourist who, in the middle of a California desert, leaves her husband and makes her way on foot to the nearest outpost, the remote Bagdad Café, a ratty oasis in the middle of nowhere where the outcasts of society seem to congregate. The story of wildly disparate characters finding comfort in the company of others is heartwarming at times, but there is just too much stylistic quirkiness that takes away from the story and the development of the characters to give it any kind of strong recommendation. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member I remembered seeing this film years ago when it first came out. I couldn't remember much about it, just that it was interesting and unusual. I discovered that my library had a copy, so I checked it out and watched it again. It's a very quirky movie with an odd assortment of characters, and certain issues never get resolved. Yet it was worth watching. Glad I looked it up again. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Bagdad Cafe

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Movie Info

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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