Synopsis
Benjamin Smoke is the highly acclaimed documentary by directors Jem Cohen and Peter Sillen on legendary underground musician Benjamin Smoke. Benjamin Smoke follows the crooked path of this fringe-dweller, speed-freak, occasional drag-queen and all-around renegade living in the hidden Atlanta neighborhood called “Cabbagetown,” and playing with his band Smoke.
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Cast
- Benjamin DickersonHimself (as Benjamin)
- Patti SmithHerself
Recommendations
- 90
Village Voice
As ethereal, moving, and uncompromising as its subject. - 88
San Francisco Examiner
It's the hypnotic long-form music video Smoke never got to make. - 80
The New York Times
The film has a richer, more various visual texture than most documentaries, combining still photographs, black-and-white video and Super-8 film, sometimes with wild sound or none at all. - 80
Los Angeles Times
There's such a rawness, purity and even mystical force to everything Benjamin says or sings, that anything else would seem extraneous and detracting from the impact of a man who has lived his life with absolutely no holds barred. - 75
New York Daily News
It feels as though we're on a journey with Benjamin, who proves to be a wryly funny, passionate and complex traveling companion. - 70
TV Guide Magazine
Make sure you catch this spooky and strangely moving portrait of this highly unusual artist while you can. - 70
L.A. Weekly
Poignant portrait. - 58
Mr. Showbiz
As a portrait of a man barely qualifying for a cinematic portrait, Benjamin Smoke is a trifle, but when Sillen and Cohen turn their cameras on the weedy, workaday, hellhole America that Benjamin calls home, the movie comes alive.
