After their Smoke shoot finished early and under budget, Wang and Auster convinced their producers that they could and should make another movie with the leftover funds. Using the same set, Auggie Wren’s Brooklyn cigar store, as a jumping-off point, they shot a series of semi-improvised situations enacted by an all-star cast, including Jim Jarmusch, Lou Reed, Rosanne Barr, Giancarlo Esposito, and Madonna. bell hooks applauded the “possibility of playful serendipity” created in the film, stating, “In Blue in the Face Wang teases out the complex inner layers of the psyche in a way that is marvelous.”