GOTTA SEE IT # 22 - "SMOKE"
“SMOKE”
Starring: Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Harold Perrineau, Forest Whitaker, Stockard Channing, Ashley Judd, Michelle Hurst, Clarice Taylor.
Written by: Paul Auster
Directed by: Wayne Wang and Paul Auster (uncredited)
Colour – 1995
112 mins
U.S.A.
Connections - have’em and you’re in business. Don’t and you won’t be able to go on-line or won’t be able to hear that catchy song through those old speakers of yours or, worse yet, won’t ever know what it means to be part something bigger than yourself. When connections are made, wonderful and/or horrible things can and will happen, but without that meeting and giving and taking and fighting and loving and more fighting, nothing will happen - absolutely nothing. "Smoke" has little to say about nothing, but something significant to say about those hard to come by connections and its’ as satisfying as a fine Cuban cigar - minus its’ toxic, life threatening ingredients.
The Big Apple is the setting for this story of the down and out and scarred and soul sick. They all, at one time or another, step into the little neighbourhood corner cigar store owned and operated by Augie Wren (Harvey Keitel). Now, Keitel can play scummy and creepy and he can do it all with a kind of soiled grace, but, here, he flexes much more pleasant muscles playing simple and extraordinary as a shopkeeper with the heart of a poet.
Now, you may have noticed that I haven’t shared any of the plot with you. And I don’t intend to. How do you like that?!? Now, I’m not doing this to be difficult or lazy. No, I am simply doing this to keep this film as much of a mystery to you as possible. Sometimes, you just have to have a little faith…in me. Amen.
Instead, let me tell you what “Smoke” pulls off here: turns two acts of petty thievery into two separate moments of soulful, aching beauty; introduces a dazzling new talent in Harold Perrineau; gives Tom Waits his best video yet; and features Ashley Judd in her finest, albeit, briefest performance. Not bad, huh? Oh, and it also features Forrest Whitaker Jr. (the best thing in ”The Crying Game”) playing wounded and weary with so much grace and skill and warmth and humour he just about walks away with the whole damn thing tucked under his one good arm.
So, what Auster and Wang are getting at here is that connections are born out of a choice that each individual makes. They are not accidental. You choose whether to connect to another person or not. Heck, you can spend most of your life with another person and never connect, but, again, you’ve made that choice. All of the principal characters in “Smoke” face that choice, and, they fully understand that with it – no matter if it is a yes or no – come consequences. Life, as gracefully and whimsically as takes shape in these 112 minutes, is never simple, but always a matter of choice.
The art and artifice of storytelling also comes in for some scrutiny as well and it is best expressed and celebrated in a beautiful moment first spoken and then visualized in the dying moments of the film. It involves a Christmas story to end all Christmas stories and it is a stunner that also explains the genesis of Augie’s life’s project and movingly illustrates how life can take you down some strange and wonderful roads as long as you allow it to – there are those pesky choices again!
It’s all about connections, like, the one I hope I made with you, enough so you’ll take my word for it and race down to the nearest quality video store and rent this film. Now, go, now, choose ‘yes’ and I’ll wait for your thank you in my comments box.
Starring: Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Harold Perrineau, Forest Whitaker, Stockard Channing, Ashley Judd, Michelle Hurst, Clarice Taylor.
Written by: Paul Auster
Directed by: Wayne Wang and Paul Auster (uncredited)
Colour – 1995
112 mins
U.S.A.
Connections - have’em and you’re in business. Don’t and you won’t be able to go on-line or won’t be able to hear that catchy song through those old speakers of yours or, worse yet, won’t ever know what it means to be part something bigger than yourself. When connections are made, wonderful and/or horrible things can and will happen, but without that meeting and giving and taking and fighting and loving and more fighting, nothing will happen - absolutely nothing. "Smoke" has little to say about nothing, but something significant to say about those hard to come by connections and its’ as satisfying as a fine Cuban cigar - minus its’ toxic, life threatening ingredients.
The Big Apple is the setting for this story of the down and out and scarred and soul sick. They all, at one time or another, step into the little neighbourhood corner cigar store owned and operated by Augie Wren (Harvey Keitel). Now, Keitel can play scummy and creepy and he can do it all with a kind of soiled grace, but, here, he flexes much more pleasant muscles playing simple and extraordinary as a shopkeeper with the heart of a poet.
Now, you may have noticed that I haven’t shared any of the plot with you. And I don’t intend to. How do you like that?!? Now, I’m not doing this to be difficult or lazy. No, I am simply doing this to keep this film as much of a mystery to you as possible. Sometimes, you just have to have a little faith…in me. Amen.
Instead, let me tell you what “Smoke” pulls off here: turns two acts of petty thievery into two separate moments of soulful, aching beauty; introduces a dazzling new talent in Harold Perrineau; gives Tom Waits his best video yet; and features Ashley Judd in her finest, albeit, briefest performance. Not bad, huh? Oh, and it also features Forrest Whitaker Jr. (the best thing in ”The Crying Game”) playing wounded and weary with so much grace and skill and warmth and humour he just about walks away with the whole damn thing tucked under his one good arm.
So, what Auster and Wang are getting at here is that connections are born out of a choice that each individual makes. They are not accidental. You choose whether to connect to another person or not. Heck, you can spend most of your life with another person and never connect, but, again, you’ve made that choice. All of the principal characters in “Smoke” face that choice, and, they fully understand that with it – no matter if it is a yes or no – come consequences. Life, as gracefully and whimsically as takes shape in these 112 minutes, is never simple, but always a matter of choice.
The art and artifice of storytelling also comes in for some scrutiny as well and it is best expressed and celebrated in a beautiful moment first spoken and then visualized in the dying moments of the film. It involves a Christmas story to end all Christmas stories and it is a stunner that also explains the genesis of Augie’s life’s project and movingly illustrates how life can take you down some strange and wonderful roads as long as you allow it to – there are those pesky choices again!
It’s all about connections, like, the one I hope I made with you, enough so you’ll take my word for it and race down to the nearest quality video store and rent this film. Now, go, now, choose ‘yes’ and I’ll wait for your thank you in my comments box.
