Smoke (film)

Smoke is a 1995 American independent film by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster. The original story was written by Paul Auster, who also wrote the screenplay. The film was produced by Greg Johnson, Peter Newman, Kenzo Horikoshi, and Hisami Kuroiwa. Among others, it features Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Stockard Channing, Harold Perrineau Jr., and Forest Whitaker.
Plot.
The film follows the lives of multiple characters, all of whom are connected via their patronage of a small Brooklyn tobacconist store managed by Auggie (Harvey Keitel). Brooklyn Cigar Co. was located on the corner of 16th Street and Prospect Park West.
Auggie has been taking photographs of the store from across the street at 8:00am every morning and has been collecting all his photos in albums. A recently-widowed writer Paul Benjamin (William Hurt) spends an evening with Auggie, during which Auggie tells Paul of his photographs, which he describes as his "life's work". Paul sees his wife in one of the pictures, and breaks down. Later, he is saved from being run down by a truck by a young black man named Rashid (Harold Perrineau Jr.), whom he invites to stay in his apartment as a form of thanks. Rashid accepts, and later reveals that he was recognised by robbers and his life is in danger. Rashid disappears one day, without explaining where he has left. He tracks his father (Forest Whitaker) down to a small-town gas station, which he sketches. His father, not recognising him, befriends him and hires him to carry out renovation work at his gas station. Rashid conceals his identity and tells his father that his name is Paul Benjamin. His father has an artificial arm, which he tells Rashid was the result of a car accident in which his then wife (who was in fact Rashid's mother) was killed. 
Paul finds $5000 that Rashid has stashed in the apartment. Paul tracks Rashid down, and introduces himself to his father, who comments that Rashid and he share a name, and calls him out. Rashid admits that his real name is Thomas Jefferson Cole. His father finally understands that Rashid is in fact his son, but reacts by rejecting him violently. After an emotional breakdown, they reconcile. Rashid is hired to work at the tobacconist, but ruins a shipment of cigars when the sink overflows. He gives Auggie the $5000 to keep his job. Another thread has Auggie's old girlfriend (Stockard Channing) re-visit, asking for money to cover rehab costs for Felicity (Ashley Judd), who she says is his daughter and who is pregnant on drugs. Auggie later gives her the same $5000 and asks if Felicity is really his daughter, to which he receives an ambiguous response. 
Paul tells Auggie that he has been asked by the New York Times to write a Christmas story to be published on Christmas day. After Paul says that he does not have any ideas, Auggie offers to tell him the best Christmas story he has ever heard in exchange for lunch. Auggie tells Paul a tender story about spending Christmas with a blind grandmother who at first thinks, and then pretends, he is her grandson. After the grandmother falls asleep, Auggie finds stacks of stolen cameras in the bathroom and decides to take one for himself. Weeks later, he regrets his decision to take the camera, and decides to return but then finds that the grandmother had died in the meantime, meaning that she had spent her last Christmas with him. The story is based on writer Paul Auster's piece "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story", published in The New York Times on Christmas day, 1990. Paul is impressed by the story, and thanks Auggie for it. The exchange ends ambiguously, with Paul suggesting that he knows that Auggie has in fact invented and perhaps even improvised the whole story, and Auggie suggesting that Paul's understanding is correct, without actually confirming that to be the case. 
During and after the closing credits, Auggie's story is enacted in a poignant black-and-white sequence to the soundtrack of Tom Waits's "Innocent When You Dream".
Reception.
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 93% based on 29 reviews. 
It earned $8 million in the United States and $30 million internationally.
Awards.
Won
Nominated
Sequel.
The film was followed by "Blue in the Face", a sequel of sorts that continues following a few of the characters and introduces several new ones.
Legacy.
The character Augustus "Auggie" Wren (played by Harvey Keitel) is modelled after the real-life owner of Augie's Jazz Bar, which closed in 1998. When the establishment reopened in 1999, the new owners could not keep the former establishment's name. To honor its legacy, they named the new club after the 1995 film.