Smoke poster & wallpaper

Ashley Judd, Clarice Taylor, Forest Whitaker

A Brooklyn smoke shop is the center of neighborhood activity, and the stories of its customers.

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89% liked it

7,521 ratings

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93% liked it

27 critics

R, 1 hr. 48 min.

Directed by: Wayne Wang

Release Date: June 9, 1995

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DVD Release Date: March 4, 2003

Stats: 446 reviews

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Smoke (1995) Smoke Smoke Ashley Judd as Felicity, Stockard Channing as Ruby McNutt in Smoke (1995) Smoke Smoke Smoke Smoke Smoke Smoke Stockard Channing in Smoke Smoke Smoke Smoke
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Flixster Reviews (446)

  • SirPant
    September 7, 2009
    SirPant
    Interweaving storeys with a cigar shop as a central point that all the various characters have in common. An Intriguing and often random people study, highly recommended!
  • bradwest
    December 13, 2008
    bradwest
    Great character pieces here. Enjoyable, with terrific acting and non-intrusive direction.
  • EarthlyAlien
    August 30, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    "The boys and I were just having a philosophical discussion about women and cigars."

    It's possible to adapt a good book into a good film without losing the literary nuances that make it a good book in the first place, but it's not easy; usually the author stomps off at so...( read more)me point in the process, thereafter to rant about how the work has been butchered, disembowelled, ruined by an insensitive director. Wayne Wang, in contrast, has a talent for creating with writers, not in spite of them. He worked closely with author Amy Tan in adapting her popular, well-written novel "The Joy Luck Club" into a popular, well-made film. And he worked so tightly with the highly literary writer Paul Auster on Smoke that the billing reads, ''A Film by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster.''

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    The unlikely duo are well suited: Wang's delight in found comedy (think of Eat a Bowl of Tea) meets Auster's fondness for found fatalism (think of "The Music of Chance," also made into a film). In Smoke, Wang punches up the flavourful, hand-rolled quality of Auster's storytelling - something apt for a series of vignettes that take place in and around an old-fashioned Brooklyn cigar store presided over with casual dignity by Augustus 'Auggie' Wren (Harvey Keitel) and visited regularly by Paul Benjamin (William Hurt), a blocked and depressed novelist.

    Other characters amble into the plot - a black teenager (Harold Perrineau), a sad car mechanic (Forest Whitaker), Auggie's ex-girlfriend Ruby (Stockard Channing), and her crack-addicted daughter (Ashley Judd). Cigars and cigarettes are lit and sucked. Events occur, linked like smoke rings and carrying about as much weight, as the stories waft, curl, and evaporate (this is the plus and the minus of such a Lit Flick). The ash of melancholy lingers. The best vignette, at the very end of the film, is the story Auster originally wrote for a newspaper as a Christmas piece, the one that inspired Wang to make Smoke in the first place. It's the one you'll want to inhale.

    As I mentioned before, Smoke was very much a collaborative effort, with Auster involved very directly in the filmmaking process at all stages. In some ways, Wang's direction is the most low key aspect of all, and it kicks resolutely against the prevailing fast-cut, roving camera style of modern American cinema in its almost complete lack of close-ups, with most of the action observed in master shots or simple two-shots, which are held for far longer than many modern viewers will be used to, reflecting the intention of both men to make "an Ozu film in Brooklyn." This is particularly astonishing when you realise that one of the executive producers was a certain Harvey Weinstein.

    The film is so subdued, so character-driven that it could be a play, and in some ways Wang directs it like one. Almost every scene is between only two characters and almost every story is told in a single unbroken take. Actors love films where they're allowed to deliver monologues and, when they're done well, we love to watch them. There's a touch of Andy Kaufman in how wrapped up we can get by a guy just talking. But if Smoke were a play we'd miss Wayne Wang's contemplative pauses and subtly, drolly humorous cuts. This isn't a profound film, but it's a confident, comfortable one, contemplative and funny but with enough cruelty and cussing to keep it from being overly sentimental.

    It all works divinely. If one or two of the plot points seem designed purely to prompt a narrative turn then it's only because the character-based sequences are so unforced and natural, and it is these scenes that provide the film's primary enjoyment, as characters sit with each other, interact, reveal things about their lives and tell each other interesting tales. The plot unfolds almost unseen in the background and has only one function: to develop the characters and their relationships to one another - if you want proof that plot is driven by character then here it most definitely is.

    Everybody ends up affected by their past, and the results are often genuinely moving, in particular a quietly extraordinary scene in which Paul looks at Auggie's photo collection. Initially bemused, he only begins to understand what they're about when Auggie advises him to slow down. As he does so and begins to appreciate the pictures for what they are, we are given the opportunity to do likewise, to enjoy the subtle differences that make each picture unique, and in its own way surprisingly captivating. And then Paul spots his lost wife Ellen in one of the photographs and all of his suppressed grief wells to the surface. In many ways a simple sequence and one that occurs early in the narrative, it nevertheless carries extraordinary emotional power. But that's what happens when we genuinely care for characters without feeling we have been bullied into doing so.

    The structural beauty and humanism of Auster's script, coupled with the long monologues, ensured that Wang was able to cast the film pretty much to his exact specifications. The actors respond accordingly with a series of wonderfully judged and largely low key performances that create fully rounded characters in just a few minutes of screen time. William Hurt's performance is a great reminder of what a great actor he is when given the right material, making Paul Benjamin a compelling screen presence from the opening scene. And then there's Harvey Keitel, a man who repeatedly gives fine performances that don't look like performances at all, here making Auggie a most believable star around which the others can orbit. It's also great to see him play a genuinely nice guy, a far cry from many of the roles he is most famous for.

    Smoke is a truly great piece of modern American cinema, a wonderfully written, played and directed study of character and community and the importance of storytelling, and a rare example of an insider and an outsider working in perfect harmony to produced a unified vision. Here, in an age of on-line information, email, text messaging and an explosion of TV channels, is a perfectly judged reminder of the simple pleasures and benefits of direct vocal communication. And, of course, of a quiet, relaxing smoke. A film made for both cinephiles and literature enthusiasts - a pretty rare kind.
  • cacutshaw
    April 8, 2008
    cacutshaw
    Awesome ensemble film with amazing performances and an intriguing story. Keitel's speech at the end is fantastic.
  • emiliotejera
    October 7, 2009
    emiliotejera
    A group of crossed stories that are just interesting when you take them one by one, but none of it catchs you emotionally, nor the global painting. Paul Auster is not one of my favorite writers (you read a book, and say, it´s good, not a masterwork, but good; but when you read 3,...( read more) you think, It´s all the same story), and here they take one tale from Auster (not incredible) and try to creat a costumbrist story around it. So, you can see the film, but it´s difficult it thrills you. But if you are Auster´s fan, you´ll like it.
  • megtribe
    October 7, 2009
    megtribe
    Anything by Paul Auster should be made into a movie. ANYTHING. PERIOD!
  • Wileoese
    June 11, 2009
    Wileoese
    It was good but I'm not sure how it all fit together.
  • Soundsofmadness
    April 25, 2009
    Soundsofmadness
    No thanks - Not interested
  • hanmartin
    December 10, 2008
    hanmartin
    As they say: Two Thumbs Way Up! for this genious film about friendship, family, fotographies and tobacco.
  • telb6
    November 18, 2008
    telb6
    Paul Auster's well-crafted screenplay centers around a Brooklyn cigar shop, in which its owner, Auggie Wren, encounters just about every colorful character under the sun: the washed up writer, Paul Benjamin, a young teen who may or may not make it to his seventeenth birthday, Ra...( read more)sheed, and Ruby McNutt, Auggie's old flame who has quite a secret to share. The highlights of the film include wonderful performances from a stellar, near perfect ensemble cast: Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Stockard Channing, Harold Perrineau, and Forest Whitaker. How could you go wrong? Well, you can't when you've got Auster's witty script and Wayne Wang's subtle direction. The movie is undoubtedly funny, but it has moments of true humanity in its finest form. You simply want to know these people. They may be dysfunctional, but aren't we all just a little bit screwed up? Another great moment from the film (without giving too much away) is Auggie's Christmas story... perhaps the best ever told and with Tom Waits "Innocent When You Dream" playing underneath, no less.

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Comments

  • cheezGirl
    February 10, 2008
    cheezGirl
    http://mc003.skyrock.com
    juste mattez le, vous serez pas decevés :p
  • onefinalhit
    September 19, 2007
    onefinalhit
    worst. poster. ever.

    makes it look like one of those zany romantic comedies that hugh grant would act in. but its not, and its good.
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Smoke Trivia

  • ***What Movie is this Tagline from? "When the smoke clears, it just means he's reloading.***  Answer »
  • What Movie is this Tagline from? "When the smoke clears, it just means he's reloading  Answer »
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  • Although he refused to smoke in Rounders (1998) (his character played poker for cigarettes, but did not smoke), Edward Norton did smoke in Fight Club   Answer »
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