“Blue in the Face 1995”: explores the lives of Brooklynites in a cigar store. The film is a jazz riff, an offbeat, meandering celebration of Brooklyn’s colorful past and present. It’s a snapshot of urban life with a viewfinder whose angle is as cockeyed as its characters.’
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Review
When one thinks of a movie that captures the essence of a city, their thoughts may drift toward something gritty and realistic. But Blue in the Face, a film from 1995 that takes place in Brooklyn, is anything but the norm. With a combination of fiction and reality, this movie manages to be both surreal and charming.
Directed by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster, Blue in the Face is a companion piece to their previous collaboration, Smoke. While Smoke focused on Auggie Wren’s smoke shop and its customers, Blue in the Face takes an anthropological approach to Brooklyn itself.
The plot is somewhat loose – it’s more about capturing glimpses of life in Brooklyn than following a traditional narrative structure. Among the many characters we meet are two barbers played by Lou Reed and Michael J. Fox, Madonna as an aspiring singer who serenades Harvey Keitel’s character with “Fever,” Jim Jarmusch as himself trying to pitch a script idea to Lou Reed, and Roseanne Barr as a cigar-smoking DA who crashes an improvised wedding.
But what makes Blue in the Face stand out isn’t really its story or even its performances – it’s the way it captures life in Brooklyn so vividly. There are scenes at a community garden where residents grow vegetables together, shots of people playing stickball on the street, and glimpses into local shops where people buy everything from records to cigars.
Of course, not all of these scenes are entirely authentic – some are staged for the film’s benefit. But even these moments feel true to Brooklyn’s spirit. It’s clear that Wang and Auster have great affection for this borough and its denizens.
Blue in the Face also benefits from its impressive array of cameos. In addition to those mentioned above, we see appearances from Roseanne Cash (singing “Tennessee Flat Top Box”), Jared Harris (as a poetry-reading dentist), Mira Sorvino, and many others. The film’s casting director, Ellen Lewis, clearly had a lot of fun putting together this group of actors.
But despite all the famous faces, Blue in the Face is ultimately about regular people. It’s about celebrating diversity and community, and about acknowledging that even in a city as vast as New York, there are still pockets of intimacy and connection.
Overall, Blue in the Face is an offbeat gem that defies categorization. It’s part documentary, part comedy, and part love letter to Brooklyn. And while it may not be for everyone, those who appreciate oddball films with big hearts will find a lot to enjoy here.
As Orwell would say, “Blue in the Face is a piece with many parts. It captures the essence of Brooklyn – its people and their daily lives – through various vignettes that blend fact with fiction. Though it may lack traditional narrative structure or character arcs, it succeeds in painting a multifaceted portrait of this wondrous borough.”
Technical Data
- Release : 1995-09-15
- Runtime : 83
- Genre : Comedy
- Cast : Harvey Keitel as Auggie Wren, Lou Reed as Man with Strange Glasses, Michael J. Fox as Pete Maloney, Roseanne Barr as Dot, Lily Tomlin as Waffle eater
- Crew : Heidi Levitt as Casting, Harvey Keitel as Executive Producer, Bob Weinstein as Executive Producer, Harvey Weinstein as Executive Producer, Christopher Tellefsen as Editor
- Revenue : $1,275,000
- Budget : $2,000,000
- Company : InterAL, Miramax
- Popularity : 9.561
- Summary : Auggie runs a small tobacco shop in Brooklyn, New York. The whole neighborhood comes to visit him to buy cigarettes and have some small talk. During the movie Lou Reed tries to explain why he has to have a cut on his health insurance bill if he keeps smoking and Madonna acts as a Singing Telegram.
- Tagline : Welcome to the planet Brooklyn.
