Wayne Wang has gotta be the only filmmaker to get money from Harvey Weinstein for a sequel to a film he was still in the process of making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fresh from the critical and commercial success of his Disney-distributed, Oliver Stone-produced 1993 adaptation of his Amy Tan\u2019s novel The Joy Luck Club<\/em>, Wang went the indie route for his next film. He headed over to Miramax two years later to direct Smoke<\/em>, a melancholy ensemble dramedy set in and around a Brooklyn tobacco shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smoke<\/em> was the first collaboration between Wang and novelist\/screenwriter Paul Auster, whose \u201cAuggie Wren\u2019s Christmas Story\u201d (which originally appeared in the New York Times<\/em> in 1990<\/a>) inspired the movie\u2019s script. Harvey Keitel plays Wren, who works at the aforementioned shop. The store has a crew of regulars \u2014 Giancarlo Esposito\u2019s sharp-dressed smoker and Jared Harris\u2019s mentally challenged lackey among them. We also have the late William Hurt as cigarillo-smoking writer (and Auster stand-in) Paul Benjamin. Still mourning over the loss of his pregnant wife, who was gunned down during a bank robbery, he befriends a wandering, secretive teenager (Harold Perrineau, all baby-faced) who saves Paul from almost getting run over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smoke<\/em> is essentially a sympathetic, self-reflexive paean to the art of storytelling. Wang and Auster weave a yarn that pushes all the right buttons \u2014 and populate it with characters who delight in doing the same. (Both Hurt and Keitel give lengthy, enthralling monologues that are basically just short stories Auster wrote.) It\u2019s also about men discovering the children they never knew about. Wren gets a visit at his shop from an eyepatch-wearing ex (Stockard Channing) who informs him that he has a crack-addicted daughter (a brief, bile-spewing Ashley Judd) living nearby. Meanwhile, that teenager travels upstate to get to know his long-lost dad (Forest Whitaker), an auto garage owner with an artificial arm and, of course, a story to tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like with Wang\u2019s last film, Smoke<\/em> got raves from critics and audiences, with the $7 million film grossing $38 million. Wang\u2019s creative partnership with Auster (\u201ca film by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster\u201d starts off the opening credits) also received a lot of attention. Entertainment Weekly<\/em> published an on-location report<\/a> that mentions how odd it was seeing Wang confer with Auster while shooting scenes. (\u201c\u2026[Auster\u2019s] collaboration with Wang has been unusually harmonious for an industry in which writers are often marginalized if not banned outright from sets.\u201d) Wang and Auster had such a good time shooting the tobacco-shop scenes, where Keitel and the other actors got into character by ad-libbing and shooting the shit, they decided to do a companion movie immediately after wrapping up Smoke<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wang got $2 million from Harvey and them to go back to the tobacco shop and make the spinoff comedy Blue in the Face<\/em>, released just a few months after Smoke<\/em>. Keitel and the guys return, along with a couple other actors. (Malik Yoba, who was a villainous gangster in Smoke<\/em>, plays a watch-selling hustler.) Wang and Auster also get some special guests to pop their heads in. Roseanne Barr (who was in the running to play Channing\u2019s role) kvetches up a storm as the fed-up wife of Wren\u2019s boss (the late Victor Argo). A cutoff jeans-wearing Michael J. Fox gives Esposito a very peculiar, privacy-invading survey. (\u201cDo you look at your bowel movements before you flush the toilet?\u201d) Jim Jarmusch (stepping in for Hurt, who wasn\u2019t able to return as Benjamin) shows up to smoke his last Lucky Strike and reminisce with Wren. Mira Sorvino gets her purse stolen outside. Lily Tomlin transforms into a vagrant dude who longs for a Belgian waffle. And Madonna stops by to give Wren a raunchy, singing telegram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While not as well-received as Smoke<\/em> (it only grossed half its budget), Blue<\/em> is nonetheless a manic, messy love letter to Brooklyn and its residents\/lunatics. Quick soundbytes (shot on both film and<\/em> video) are interspersed from actual Brooklynites; Lou Reed gives a running, cynical commentary about living in New York, a town he\u2019s been thinking of leaving \u201cfor, uh, 35 years now.\u201d (\u201cI\u2019m almost ready,\u201d he admits.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n With all the crazy shit that goes on (RuPaul comes outta nowhere to lead a quick dance sequence), the oddest scene \u2013 where Argo\u2019s ready-to-sell boss has a heart-to-heart at the shop with the ghost of Jackie Robinson (Keith David) \u2013 was cooked up by none other than Weinstein. The story goes that Weinstein woke up Auster one night and told him to add in the scene with Robinson, since the movie is set in Brooklyn. (He wanted all the Dodgers to populate the store, but the boys talked him down to just Robinson.) Even though Auster publicly admitted<\/a> he \u201cloved the idea,\u201d both he and Wang wanted to get rid of it. They thought they had a chance when test audiences didn\u2019t dig it (\u201cThat\u2019s pretty dumb,\u201d one viewer allegedly declared), but Weinstein stubbornly made them keep it in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, the somber Smoke<\/em> and the batshit Blue<\/em> are a night-and-day double feature. However, Weinstein did try to sell them both as sexy must-sees, as evidenced by bit players (and future recipients of Weinstein\u2019s sexual harassment) Judd and Sorvino being prominently<\/a> featured<\/a> in their movies\u2019 respective ad campaigns. So, even though Wang and Auster set out to show that a filmmaker and an author can make some engaging, independent hangout cinema together, Weinstein used it as another opportunity to exploit some young starlets who he hoped would give his disgusting ass a full body massage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smoke<\/a> and <\/em>Blue in the Face<\/a> are currently streaming on Pluto TV<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/blue1-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
With both Auster and Wang sharing directing duties over the hectic five-day shoot (Wang got bronchitis halfway through, leaving Auster to film for a couple days), Blue<\/em> is a completely improvised, hit-or-miss affair. The pair gave the actors scenarios to play with and just left the camera rolling, hitting us with long, uninterrupted master shots of actors either playing it cool and subtle or chewing up whatever scenery they can devour.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n