You won't be disappointed!

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

A textbook in contemporary writing, 'Smoke' tells a simple tale that, much like the photographs of his Brooklyn corner cigar store taken daily by lead character Auggie, as played in a highly nuanced performance by Harvey Keitel, can only be properly understood when one slows down. It is a story about storytelling which breaks down the binaries assumed to be inherent to our understandings of the world, in turn challenging our understandings of truth. Structured like a jazz improvisation having found its freedom by denying a previously established set of rules, the film is about chance, family, race, time, fiction, knowledge, and deception; all of which are pervaded heavily by the overarching forces that characterise life in the city. The ensemble cast lead separate lives that intertwine through their experiences of the city, and the connections they share speak for the struggles we all undergo in our respective searches for identity, meaning, and answers, especially in times when nothing presents itself as being distinctly one way or another. Through this fuzziness, the filters of smoke through which our perceptions are realised, we are exposed to a highly plausible possibility of what could or could not be the true nature of the lenses through which we see, and the language through which we interpret what we see.

Although other than to the scientific theory of Repletion and Depletion which Jesus clearly states in the Gospel, I do not subscribe to any of the pseudo scientific theories of conservation which is a myth but even examining that problem in the light and in the realm of those very theories and applying their very same principles, that reasoning though imaginative and inspired lacks rigor.In a collision between moving objects, the net linear momentum of the objects(masses) involved and its rotational counterpart, the net angular momentum(spin) of the objects involved is conserved within their own.But this is true only for this sort of interaction between moving objects.But it is unlikely that mass exhibits or even has the same property and is insular in itself, in any interaction, particularly those that involve transformation of the mass itself which is probably why there is a general law of conservation of energy but there is no specific law of conservation of mass.Suppose initially we started off with a compound of masses which in itself was made up of several say i independent masses say m1,m2,....,mi or the compound mass m = m1 + m2 +.... +mi, which was then burnt and resulted in several say j distinct masses m1',m2', ...,mj' or the compound mass m = m1'+m2'+....mj' and only one of those j different masses is smoke.Now clearly burning involves oxygen, which is an additional mass in itself. Also, burning produces heat and light and usually where there is heat and light, some amount of electricity is invariably involved and though we may assume that the initial compound of masses is totally non-conducting and the resulting compound of masses is also non-conducting, yet unfortunately air is conducting, and does transmit and carry electricity, static or otherwise. In this process of burning, clearly some amount of energy is transformed into heat and light which can only come from the energy of those masses themselves, not to ignore that different masses burn at different rates, consuming different amounts of oxygen and emitting different amounts of heat and light or at different temperatures and with different luminescence. Unless the conditions are always the same the burning may not always be the same and how the compound burns will depend on that and it will clearly depend on how the compound is formed as well.If the masses are actually joined and connected at an atomic level, then the rate or other characteristics of burning of the compound may not be readily related to the same characteristics of burning of its constituent individual elements or masses separately. Now clearly since the energy due to heat and light must come from the original compound of masses alone, the final mass of the compound can only be determined after one has accounted for the actual loss in energy due to heat and light.

The casting for this movie was terrible but would have been fine for a stage production. If viewed that way it's very enjoyable but a no-name cast could have made it fly. Shame on the producers for thinking it needed help. Hurt intermittently affects an inner city accent which is somewhere between south Boston and south Bronx putting it squarely in the Atlantic Ocean. Channing is not slutty enough, probably because she doesn't try to be. Keitel coasts through his role but is never really the guide his character might be. All of the characters come across as more sophisticated than what credibility demands. It is their individual stories and their interaction which should elevate them but the director has taken that step away from us - and it shouldn't have been. I still gave it a 7 because it is a good story.

SMOKE amazes me - I loved it when it first came out and I searched for more of Paul Auster's writings - I found this non-fiction work by him HAND TO MOUTH - about his early days struggling as a writer - it is one of the best books I have ever read. I just rented it again and watched it this Christmas (which is perfect seeing how it ends at Xmas and with Keitel telling the beautiful and true(?) Christmas story) - the film is even better than I remembered. Keitel. Hurt, Whitaker, Channing deliver fantastic performances and Ashley Judd is stunning in her one, angry, venomous scene as Channing's drug addicted daughter. Simple story about a good, smart man who happens to run a Brooklyn Cigar Store and all the individuals who come in and out on a weekly basis - it truly is about wounded people trying to heal and how (even in a harsh, ugly world) one can find peace and beauty.