Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

classicsoncall I didn't know what to think when this movie ended. There's certainly no sense of closure for many of the principal characters, with plot threads left dangling and expected reconciliations left to the viewer's own imagination. But then I thought about the title, and how the various stories had an ethereal quality, allowing the viewer to drift in and out of them much in the way smoke will gradually dissipate when exposed to it's surrounding elements. I thought more would come of Auggie's (Harvey Keitel) daily photos on the corner of Third Street and Seventh Avenue, though they did serve as a plot device to get Paul Benjamin to slow down and contemplate each picture as an ongoing narrative in the life of the city. For his part, four thousand straight days of taking those pictures would have amounted to eleven years of doing penance for stealing a blind old woman's camera, a self imposed sentence Auggie eventually found some comfort and solace in. The two main questions I have coming out of the picture would be what Ruby (Stockard Channing) really did with the five grand, and if Rashid/Thomas was able to reconcile with his Dad (Forest Whitaker). I have my own ideas and you probably will to. Which is why a movie experience like this can be somewhat refreshing when the film makers leave things up for you to decide instead of relying on their own perspective. Viewed on a different day in a different frame of mind I might have thoroughly dismissed the picture as a pretentious flight of fancy, but as things stand, I found myself empathizing with the characters and wishing them well.

Doug Scott Not sure why this film received good reviews. The writing is amateurish, like that if a college freshman English major. Few of the characters have a unique, real voice. Almost everyone speaks like they have an Ivy-league education, despite the fact that everyone but the writer is poorly educated. A Brooklyn cigar-shop owner who quotes Shakespeare? A poor black inner city teenager from a broken family who speaks like a preppie fresh from vacation in the Hamptons? Totally unbelievable to the point it is impossible to think of these characters as anything but cardboard cutouts. The plot twists seem contrived, and are blandly predictable. This film comes off as fake and pretentious. Even talented acting can't save a terrible script.

SnoopyStyle Auggie Wren (Harvey Keitel) owns a Brooklyn smoke shop where regulars hang out. He takes a photograph of his shop from the streets everyday at the same time. Paul Benjamin (William Hurt) is surprised to see his dead wife Ellen in one of the photos. She was pregnant when she was killed. Rashid (Harold Perrineau) saves Paul from on-coming traffic. In return, Paul lets Rashid stay with him and starts mentoring the young man. Rashid reconnects with his father Cyrus Cole (Forest Whitaker), who lost his arm and love in a car accident, without revealing their true relationship. Auggie's one-eyed ex Ruby McNutt (Stockard Channing) asks him for help with their pregnant daughter Felicity (Ashley Judd). Paul is assigned by the NY Times to write a Christmas story and Auggie gives him one.I love the idea of Auggie's photographs. There is something compelling and poetic about it. These characters are interesting. Some of the stories are more compelling than others. The cast led by Hurt and Keitel are doing solid work. These lives each have their own stories but I'm not sure that every plot finishes. It's like Auggie's photographs. Every one is unique and has a story to tell but it is the congregate where the true beauty is revealed.

FilmCriticLalitRao To heap praises on Smoke would be a great disservice to its talented directors Wayne Wang,Francophile poet Paul Auster and its eclectic cast of actors of international prominence like Harvey Keitel, Forest Whitaker and William Hurt.This is because it is more than a great film. We know that a great film can neither be defined nor described. A great film like Smoke has to be felt on an individual basis.It cannot be done by those who are near and dear to a viewer.Smoke is a film in which purest of human emotions overflow in every scene. Each gesture made by these great actors is worth millions of pure joys visible only by naked eyes in our daily existence.As a visual document of pristine beauty, Smoke is a beautiful commentary about the greatness of human existence. Its message is loud and clear ; one should smoke joys of human existence as they are undoubtedly more therapeutic then cigarette smoke which is effective only as a good remedy against cold weather.A comment must be made about one of the greatest actors of all times : Harvey Keitel.His portrayal of Augie is likely to bring laughter on your face and tears in your eyes.There are not so many actors who can achieve such a mesmerizing effect.