There’s a feeling of comfort I get from Smoke (1995). It’s an indie drama that has serious moments about loss, grief, bad luck, the chaotic nature of the universe, and so on. But it also radiates a sleepy feeling of the third hour of hanging out with friends or the activity that animates around you while you are at a regular hang-out like a bar. Here, the hang out spot is a street corner cigar store run by Auggie Wren (Harvey Keitel) and the characters loosely connected to each other from it, like the author Paul (William Hurt) or the runaway Rashid (Harold Perrineau). There’s also Auggie’s former flame with an eyepatch (Stockard Channing) and a mechanic out in the countryside (Forest Whitaker). Written by author Paul Auster, there are common themes from his books like coincidence, chance, and storytelling, which are also familiar themes to American indie cinema from the 1990s; but there’s something distinctive to Auster’s application of these themes, which feel based on actual things yet also retain a fictional air like a fable (at times, there’s a writerly tone to the dialogue). It also has very New York vibes with its Brooklyn setting and a host of character actors in small roles including Giancarlo Esposito, Jared Harris, Jose Zuniga, Victor Argo, Mary B Ward. Directed by Wayne Wang and based on Auster’s ‘Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story’, which also makes it a festive viewing option. But you can watch it anytime. For me, it’s like coming back to a favourite novel from a second hand bookstore, a sense of lived in familiarity. Great performances, particularly to see Keitel, at the time I first saw it on video in the post-Reservoir Dogs and Bad Lieutenant era just play a regular, affable working stiff with a hidden artistic and philosophical bent. Smoke is now available to stream on Stan in Australia. One of my all time favourites. Recommended.
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