Director
Gregg Araki
Cast
Anna Farris………Jane
Danny Masterson………Steve the Roommate
Adam Brody………Steve the Dealer
Jane Lynch………Casting Director
John Krasinski………Brevin Ericson
Michael Hitchcock………Laundry Room Man
John Cho………Mikey
Danny Trejo………Albert
DVD Release Date: January 8, 2008
Rating: R
Running Time: 85 Minutes
The Movie
Jane is an actress in Los Angeles that is trying to do whatever she can in order to get an acting gig. Things aren’t proving so successful so she turns to weed in order to help her get through the struggling search. Her roommate Steve is also into smoking it up and after going out one day; he happens to leave a batch of cupcakes lying about. Jane gets the munchies and one thing leads to another as the cupcakes seem like the best thing around to hit the spot. Little did she know that these were a batch of hash cupcakes and it sends her from just being regular high into a stratosphere high.
She soon realizes what she has done and gets extremely paranoid knowing that the cupcakes need to be replaced before Steve gets home. Jane then heads out into the throngs of Los Angeles on a big time trip that will take her on a mad search to replace the cupcakes. On top of that, she now has a big time audition that could possibly revitalize her career. It’s up to her to make things right and she doesn’t have much time.
Let’s just start out here and say that no-one should go into watching this film and think of it as anything more then what it is, a stoner flick. It is about getting high, having the munchies, dealing with paranoia, tripping, and getting into some really odd situations. It is not much more then that and is mostly intended to be a comedy, but it misses the mark on that sadly making it much of nothing. Think of all the other stoner films you’ve ever seen such as the wide array of Cheech and Chong films or Half-Baked. Remember all the things that makes those films so enjoyable, erase them completely, and you’ll have Smiley Face.
Perhaps it is Anna Faris that bugs me most, but I’m not sure. She has never really taken on roles that are anything more then comedic and after seeing only one and a half of those in the Scary Movie franchise, I’m bored with it honestly. The only roles she has been in that ever really made me see her as more is in Waiting… and her guest appearances on Friends. They were still comedy roles, but she wasn’t extremely over the top and involved in something so gross or over the top that it went from being funny to just being retarded.
Smiley Face has the occasional laugh and will make you smile from time to time, but nothing more. It is intended to be an offbeat comedy that shows how insane a weed trip can really be. Take this next piece of information from someone that has never done marijuana in his life; I sincerely doubt they even came close to what a weed-high is like. It just seemed very far fetched and wasn’t impressive whatsoever. Hell, after the first fifteen minutes or so, it just became more boring then anything and a whack on the head with a hammer would have actually produced more of a feeling of euphoria then watching the rest of it.
The Video
The film is shown in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and it is not good. With a film devoted entirely to being high, you’d expect bright colors and great looking effects right? That isn’t the case here as the colors seem dull at times and even begin to run a bit making it look horrible. I swear the cinematographer and DVD transfer guy must have been high when doing this.
The Audio
The film is heard in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound and it gets the job done as all dialogue can be heard perfectly fine while never being overpowered by the music or sound effects.
Special Features
Behind The Scenes With Smiley Face – This is a ten minute feature that has the cast and crew falling all over themselves to praise the film. The only behind the scenes type stuff you’ll see is them simply sitting around while not filming, but not much else. Pointless.
Theatrical Trailer
Trailers – The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down, Sleeping Dogs Lie, Big Nothing, Relative Strangers, The Contract, Broken, Guy X, Paris Je T’Aime, King of California, Sex and Breakfast, Blonde & Blonder, The Amateurs, and Day Zero.
The Inside Pulse
Please take this DVD release as the opportunity to catch up on or merely check out again all the great stoner films that are out there. My top choice for you all would be Half-Baked because it’s one of those flicks that is great to watch when you have nothing else to watch or just if you want to see a film over and over again. It is what stoner films should be like, and Smiley Face failed to follow the template at all. It succeeded in throwing in the random laugh here and there, but it’s not a good ratio of laughs to film duration let me tell you. The special features are worthless and a lot of trailers were thrown by First Look simply to make up for the lack of extras they did include. And considering this DVD is a release from First Look Studios, then you can bet the price tag will be over twenty bucks easy. If you insist on checking out this film and wish to own it? Then wait about two months and it’ll be under $10. Even that is too pricey if you ask me and you can do much better things with that money. Like make your own cupcakes. Normal cupcakes people, normal cupcakes.
