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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Smoke (1995)

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

'Smoke' Rings Out

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Smoke on DVD

Billed as a film by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster, Smoke is the first in a pair. (The second, Blue in the Face is due soon.) The great cast includes Harvey Keitel as Auggie Wren, a smoke shop owner, who comes from Auster's short story "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story." William Hurt plays Paul, a writer. The great Forest Whitaker plays Cyrus, a one-armed mechanic. Stockard Channing plays a one-eyed former flame of Auggie's, and Ashley Judd rips it up in one scene as Channing's crack-addicted daughter. Auster, a dark and mysterious writer adapts himself marvellously well to the big screen. He seems untouched by typical movie dialogue and invents his own, straight out of his novels. Wang is a sure handed director, opting for long, unbroken shots wherein his actors can really sink their chops.

Starring: Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Jared Harris, Harold Perrineau, Victor Argo, Forest Whitaker, Stockard Channing, Ashley Judd, Giancarlo Esposito
Written by: Paul Auster
Directed by: Wayne Wang
MPAA Rating: R for language
Running Time: 112 minutes
Date: June 30, 1995