Blue in the Face

If you enjoyed Wayne Wang's Smoke, then you'll find its breezy companion piece, Blue in the Face, an absolute delight. Filmed in a single week after the main shoot and using the cigar store as the same principal location, Wang and Paul Auster (writer of Smoke) improvised a patchwork film of crazy scenes, sketches and monologues with a host of stars - Madonna, Roseane, Mira Sorvino, Michael J Fox to name but a few - who showed up for a cameo turn. Intercut with interviews with real New Yorkers, it's hard to know which is funnier: Jim Jarmusch eulogising over coffee and cigarettes - "the breakfast of Champions" - as he smokes his final snout or the seemingly ordinary guy who has made it his mission in life to invent and patent an ingenious device to remove plastic bags caught in trees. Exuding the same feeling of community and camaraderie as Smoke, Blue in the Face is a melliforous and joyous film.

Monika Maurer