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William Hurt, Harvey Keitel, Forest Whitaker, Harold Perrineau Jr., Victor Argo ... see more see more... , Erica Gimpel , Stockard Channing , Giancarlo Esposito , Mel Gorham , Peggy Gormley , Baxter Harris , Jared Harris , Karen Robert Jackson , Ashley Judd , Murray Moston , Deirdre O'Connell , Clarice Taylor , Mary B. Ward , Malik Yoba , John Lurie , Paul Geier , Michelle Hurst , Jose Zuniga , RuPaul , Billy Martin

A Brooklyn cigar shop is the setting for this drama from director Wayne Wang that interweaves the stories of several characters that have fractured family relationships in common. Harvey Keitel is Aug... read more read more...gie Wren, poetic owner of the Brooklyn Cigar Company, a store that he considers the center of the world -- a place where all of humanity eventually parades through. One of his regular customers is Paul Benjamin (William Hurt), a writer and a broken shell of a man whose pregnant wife was shot and killed near the store. When Paul's life is saved one day by a young black man named Rashid (Harold Perrineau, Jr., the writer and his rescuer strike up a friendship and begin searching for Rashid's long-lost father (Forest Whitaker). At the store, Auggie is surprised by the appearance of Ruby (Stockard Channing), an ex-girlfriend who informs him that her pregnant, drug-addicted daughter Felicity (Ashley Judd) may also be his -- and is in dire need of help. Screenwriter Paul Auster based the script for Smoke on a 1990 short story he wrote for "The New York Times." He also wrote and directed the film's sequel (of sorts), Blue in the Face (1995). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

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87% liked it

9,817 ratings

Critics

93% liked it

28 critics

R, 1 hr. 48 min.

Directed by: Wayne Wang, Paul Auster

Release Date: June 9, 1995

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DVD Release Date: March 4, 2003

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Flixster Reviews (497)

  • 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!
  • gator681
    November 22, 2005
    gator681
    [font=Century Gothic]"Smoke" takes place in 1990 in the mythical land of Brooklyn where Auggie(Harvey Keitel) is the proprietor of a neighborhood cigar store. One of his regular customers is Paul(William Hurt), a once famed novelist who has not been able to write anything since ... read morehis pregnant wife was killed at a bank robbery some years before. Paul almost absentmindedly walks in front of a truck but is saved by Rashid(Harold Perrineau, Jr), a 16 year old in need of a place to crash.[/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]"Crash" is overall not a bad movie but by using a disjointed story structure misses out on any grand commentary on the main theme of the brotherhood of man . Most of it feels improvised but with a cast like this, you cannot go far wrong. Stockard Channing is one of the few actors who retain their dignity while wearing an eye patch. I would have liked to have seen more of Forest Whitaker, though.[/font]
  • lesleyanorton
    March 14, 2010
    lesleyanorton
    Literary film about a group of people, centred around a New York tobacconist and scripted by Paul Auster. You can tell an author wrote the script as there's lots of monologues and both Harvey Keitel and William Hurt get to tell stories during the film. All very erudite.
  • StefanoEarnest
    December 17, 2011
    StefanoEarnest
    Reminiscent of some of Jim Jarmusch's work, "Smoke" is an incredibly touching motion picture that focuses on the lives of several different people. However, it does not connect them through action or circumstance like "Crash" or "Magnolia", but rather meanders between each of its... read more characters and allows them just to... "talk". Simple as that. As a whole, the "talking" doesn't add up to much of anything, but individually, it speaks volumes. Not only is "Smoke" a magnificent character study, but a genuinely heartwarming movie. It leaves you delighted and deep in thought, reflecting upon past life experiences. When a film has the power to make you do that, you know it's good.
  • cacutshaw
    April 8, 2008
    cacutshaw
    Awesome ensemble film with amazing performances and an intriguing story. Keitel's speech at the end is fantastic.
  • maryjanejones
    May 18, 2010
    maryjanejones
    AUGGIE: And how's the working these days, maestro?

    PAUL: (Still grinning. Absentmindedly)

    Fine.

    (Pause. Pulling himself together)

    Or it was until a couple of days ago. A guy from The New York Times called and asked me to write a Christmas story. They want to publish i... read moret on Christmas Day.

    AUGGIE: That's a feather in your cap, man. The paper of record.

    PAUL: Yeah, great. The problem is, I have four days to come up with something, and I don't have a single idea.
    (Pause)

    You know anything about Christmas stories?

    AUGGIE: (Blustering)

    Christmas stories? Sure, I know a ton of 'em.

    PAUL: Anything good?

    AUGGIE: Good? Of course. Are you kidding?

    (Pause)

    I'll tell you what. Buy me lunch, my friend, and I'll tell you the best Christmas story you
    ever heard. How's that? And I guarantee every word of it is true.

    PAUL: (Smiling)

    It doesn't have to be true. It just has to be good.

    AUGGIE: (Turning to JIMMY ROSE) Take over the register while I'm gone, okay, Jimmy?

    (Begins to extricate himself from behind the counter)

    So begins one of the best stories you will ever hear in the movies, so you have to see this movie. Then at the end . . .

    AUGGIE: And now you've got your Christmas story, don't
    you?

    PAUL: (Pause. Thinks)
    Yes, I suppose I do.

    PAUL looks at AUGGIE. A wicked grin is spreading across AUGGIE'S face.
    The look in his eyes is so mysterious, so fraught with the glow of some inner delight, that PAUL begins to suspect that AUGGIE has made the whole thing up. He is about to ask AUGGIE if he has been putting him on
    -- but then stops, realizing that AUGGIE would never tell him.

    PAUL smiles.

    PAUL (cont'd)

    Bullshit is a real talent, Auggie. To make up a good story, a person has to know how to push all the right buttons.
    (Pause)

    I'd say you're up there among the masters.

    AUGGIE: What do you mean?

    PAUL: I mean, it's a good story.

    AUGGIE: Shit. If you can't share your secrets with your
    friends, what kind of friend are you?

    PAUL: Exactly. Life just wouldn't be worth living,
    would it?

    AUGGIE is still smiling. PAUL smiles back at him. AUGGIE lights a cigarette; PAUL lights a little cigar. They blow smoke into the air,
    still smiling at each other.
  • 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 moresheed, 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.
  • jes25924
    July 30, 2008
    jes25924
    Great script, amazing performances. Beautiful and poignant moments. Cliche's arent bad cus they are un-true, they are bad because they are overbeaten paths to the truth. Love IS blind, but everyone's heard that so much it's lost it's meaning.

    Lik...(read more) e Harvey Kietal... read more's character who takes photographs of the same block every mourning, as part of his lifes work, this film is familair, but each moment is different and full of it's own little details.

    It's a very dialogue driven film, lots of stories, anecdotes, and minituia throughout, everyone sounds natural and all of the actors are at the top of their game.

    It's easy to overlook, the little details, here which make this film much more than typical New York dramedy, but they are there, author and screen-writer Paul Auster, has an eye for detail, and for taking the stuff of melodrama and rendering it familiar yet different. If you don't catch it the first time, "slow down", and try again.
  • nflshowdown2
    July 15, 2008
    nflshowdown2
    A few very good stories with interesting characters, and Forest Whitaker and Harvey Heitel are 2 of the best.
  • SonnyLighstrome
    November 26, 2007
    SonnyLighstrome
    This was an interesting little film that explores different lives linked by a Tobacco shop. Very good....BLUE IN THE FACE is the kind of sort of sequel to this, but is more comedic and improved.

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Critic Reviews

January 1, 2000
USA Today

With a cigar box of subplots, this episodic yarn is more numbing than boring, though its increasingly compelling narrative has the ill-timed misfortune to collapse completely in its final talky segment.

Emanuel Levy
July 23, 2011
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

A deceptively quiet film that celebrates ordinary life as well as the art of storytelling. Full Review

Clint Morris
March 11, 2006
Clint Morris, Moviehole

You just want to draw it....and never let it out. Great movie.

Rich Cline
May 13, 2005
Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

brilliantly evocative

Michael Dequina
January 7, 2005
Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com

Puff away, and breathe in the smoke while it lasts. Full Review

Carol Cling
December 27, 2004
Carol Cling, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Quirky, offbeat treat.

Pablo Villaca
February 7, 2004
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena

Simples e envolvente, o filme traz personagens inteligentes e articulados que merecem nossa atenção - e o elenco é fantástico.

Christopher Null
March 8, 2003
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com

Talky melodrama... you know you're watching an "Art Movie." Full Review

Ken Hanke
November 5, 2002
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Enjoyably quirky character study.

Lisa Schwarzbaum
September 7, 2011
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

Click to read the article Full Review

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