This gem of a movie about a Brooklyn cigar shop, its owner, and various customers, is especially good because it shows how everyone has done something wrong, but they all atone for it. And they all have their own quirks. Owner Augustus Wren (Harvey Keitel) takes the same picture every day, writer Paul Benjamin (William Hurt) knows how to weigh smoke, and Cyril Cole (Forest Whitaker) is looking for his son. Among the other great performances are Stockard Channing as secretive Ruby McNutt. Probably the movie's best aspect is the soundtrack. Released right before Jerry Garcia died, it features some of his songs, plus music from various other artists, old and new. "Smoke" was truly one of the best movies of 1995.

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.

A Brooklyn smoke shop is the center of neighborhood activity, and the stories of its customers.

The film starts out like "Clerks" with its setting in a smoke shop, then gets a bit more like "Pulp Fiction" by focusing on different overlapping characters. This is slightly enhanced because Harvey Keitel happens to be in the film. And, of course, it is a Miramax film. Whether they put their style on a film or buy up pictures with that style, I do not know, but there was a definite mid-1990s Miramax look.

This is pretty satisfying overall, and a great role for William Hurt, who is a fine actor and often overlooked or forgotten. Harold Perrineau is great, too, and it is a real treat to see him before "Lost", the first time I was really aware of him (with all due respect to his parts in "King of New York" and "Romeo + Juliet").