Smoke

Wayne Wang's 1995 comedy-drama Smoke unfolds in a Brooklyn cigar shop run by Auggie Wren, whose regulars include a novelist named Paul Benjamin. Still marked by the killing of his pregnant wife outside that shop years earlier, Paul is nearly struck by a bus one day and is pulled to safety by Rashid Cole, a troubled teenager. Paul offers the young man a place to stay, and the two form a bond as Rashid searches Brooklyn for the father he has never really known. Auggie, meanwhile, is confronted with a responsibility from his own past when he learns that a former girlfriend may have given birth to his daughter.

The film was directed by Wayne Wang and written by the novelist Paul Auster, arriving between Wang's 1993 film The Joy Luck Club and his 1995 follow-up Blue in the Face. Harvey Keitel plays Auggie, with William Hurt as Paul, Harold Perrineau as Rashid, Forest Whitaker as Cyrus Cole, Stockard Channing as Ruby McNutt and Giancarlo Esposito among a credited cast of 28.

Made for about 7 million US dollars, Smoke took in roughly 8 million worldwide, a modest return that understates its later standing with audiences. On IMDb it holds 7.4/10 from around 40,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.2/10 from 551 votes; critics rated it 7.7/10 across 35 reviews, a slightly warmer assessment than either audience sample.