Smoke is a movie about nothing important, which is why it’s a movie that is about everything that matters. There is no singular heroes journey that informs the personal story of each character, it flies in the face of a three act structure, and it deliberately breaks with chronology. Ultimately the central idea behind Smoke is a series of character studies told through disjointed vignettes that don’t tell a story about grand adventures, instead we are given incredibly personal insights into the lives of the characters that we encounter. The movie itself through a combination of outstanding writing and directing, is palpably real, every choice made is an understandable one, and every mistake painfully relatable. The unrelenting and constant reality of the world intrudes upon the the small window that is the screen.
Framed through a small Brooklyn tobacco shop and the customers who frequent it the viewer is taken on a journey about love, loss, and healing. We have the story of Paul Benjamin, a writer working through the grief of losing his wife to a stray bullet from a shooting outside Auggie Wren’s smoke shop, there is also the story of Rashid Jones, a young boy who seeks connection with his estranged father, and more. Each character in the story helps each other heal from the loss they’ve been through, and find love. However, just like smoke, the stories we are told of these people, the influences they have on each other, are ephemeral and momentary, immeasurable until you look at what has changed since we were let into their lives. And just like how smoke is slightly opaque, we the audience are left wondering as to the voracity of the stories we’re told.
Ultimately Smoke is one of those movies I find myself thinking of a lot, and I am certain that I will be thinking about the movie for years to come. I recommend setting aside the time to watch the movie with no distractions and just absorb the cinematography. I personally love breaking out the cigars, cigarettes, joints, and any other smoking implement to smoke when watching the movie, transporting myself into the smoke filled 90’s atmosphere that doesn’t really exist anymore except in shitty dive bars and your kind of dirty uncle who smokes a pack a day and has no kids. Truly an example of how the best way to interact with art is to participate in the atmosphere it creates.