Film Genres - Auggie and Paul

In her introduction to "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story" and the adapted film Smoke, Stephanie Harrison points out that "many of Auster's narrative tics are present in his screenplay, including his fascination with coincidence, his fondness for digression, and what he has called the 'force of contradiction.'" Can you trace these tendencies in both the short story and the film?  Are they merely in the narrative, or can you trace them in any aspects of style as well?  Why does Harrison point out the "self-reflexive" nature of both pieces, and how does that relate to Auster's "inherent questioning of reality and fiction, truth and lies?"

Definition of self-reflexive from Merriam-Webster Dictionary online:

marked by or making reference to its own artificiality or contrivance 

Please write a post spurred from these questions, minimum 300 words, by Tues, Feb 14th.  I don't necessarily expect you to answer all the questions, but please make sure you address them as much as you can.

Please also make sure to comment on at least two other blogs by Friday, Feb 17th.  Please make sure you don't comment on the same blogs each week.