Smiley Face (film)
| Smiley Face | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Gregg Araki |
| Written by | Dylan Haggerty |
| Produced by | Gregg Araki Steve Golin Alix Madigan-Yorkin Kevin Turen Henry Winterstern |
| Starring | Anna Faris Danny Masterson Adam Brody John Krasinski |
| Narrated by | Roscoe Lee Browne |
| Cinematography | Shawn Kim |
| Edited by | Gregg Araki |
| Music by | David Kitay |
| Distributed by | First Look International |
Release dates | January 21, 2007 (Sundance Film Festival) November 16, 2007 (limited) |
Running time | 88 minutes |
| Countries | Template:FilmUS Template:FilmGermany |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $179,381 |
Smiley Face is a 2007 American/German comedy film written by Dylan Haggerty and directed and co-produced by Gregg Araki. It stars Anna Faris as a young woman who has a series of misadventures after eating a large number of cupcakes laced with cannabis. The supporting cast includes John Krasinski and Adam Brody.[1]
This is the ninth feature film directed by Araki.
Plot
The story describes an eventful day in the life of Jane F (Anna Faris), an unambitious young actress who enjoys smoking cannabis and lives in a Los Angeles apartment with her nerdy, somewhat disturbing roommate Steve (Danny Masterson). The film begins at the end of the day, as Jane talks to the narrator of the story Roscoe Lee Browne while sitting on a Ferris wheel, then flashes back to that morning.
In order to increase her enjoyment of a video game, Jane becomes intoxicated by smoking some cannabis, then she unknowingly consumes a much larger quantity by eating an entire platterful of cannabis-laced cupcakes baked by her roommate. When she realizes the cupcakes had cannabis in them, she uses the money for the apartment's utility bill to buy some more cannabis so she can bake more cupcakes to replace the ones she ate. However, the money is not enough for the amount of cannabis she needs, so she promises to pay her dealer the rest of the money in Venice that afternoon during the annual hemp festival.
What follows is a relentless stream of disasters caused by Jane's intoxication. First, she begins frying the cannabis to make cupcakes, but it burns when she is distracted by a phone call. Next, she tries to drive to an acting audition, but has trouble operating the car. When she takes the city bus, she crushes a child's toy, and at the ATM, she discovers that she has no money, having spent it on a luxurious bed. After rehearsing her lines in a nearby park, she walks to her audition, where she finds some cannabis that she forgot about in a pocket of her jacket. However, she performs terribly in the audition, and the woman auditioning her calls Jane's agent when Jane tries to sell her cannabis. Thinking the woman is calling the police, Jane flushes the cannabis down a toilet in the restroom, only to find that no one is searching for her. She phones some friends for help, but the only one available is Brevin (John Krasinski), a nerdy young man who loves her but about whom she is ambivalent.
When Brevin takes Jane to his dental appointment, she becomes bored and is tortured by the sound of drills, and Brevin's wallet is stolen. When he reports the theft to the police, the officer who responds becomes suspicious of Jane, so she runs away. When she hides in the home of her college economics professor, his wife mistakes her for her husband's teaching assistant and gives her an extremely valuable document, apparently the original Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. Jane takes the document, hoping to sell it, and hides in a nearby apartment building, but a man becomes suspicious of her and phones the police. After escaping, she hides in the back of a truck owned by a pork-products company headquartered in Venice, hoping it will take her there, but the truck goes to the company's packing plant, which is 25 miles away in El Monte. After she debates economic theory with the manager, one of the workers gives her a ride, but they encounter a traffic jam. Finally, when Jane gets out of the car and starts walking, a woman on a motorcycle stops and gives her a ride to Venice.
However, Jane is too late: The festival has ended and her dealer has left. After finding some tickets for the nearby amusement park, she takes a ride on the Ferris wheel, and when the professor and some other people arrive, she releases the document into the air. The pages fly away separately to be hopelessly lost in the surrounding neighborhoods. Jane is arrested and sentenced to 1500 hours of community service. Her bed and other belongings are taken by the police and her drug dealer, and the apartment's power has been shut off when Steve gets home.
Cast
- Roscoe Lee Browne as Narrator/Himself (voice)
- Anna Faris as Jane F
- Danny Masterson as Steve the Roommate
- Adam Brody as Steve the Dealer
- John Krasinski as Brevin
- Brian Posehn as Bus driver
- Joey Coco Diaz as Security guard
- Jayma Mays as Waiting room actress
- Jane Lynch as Casting director
- Marion Ross as Shirley
- Michael Hitchcock as Laundry room man
- John Cho as Mikey
- Danny Trejo as Albert
- Richard Riehle as Mr. Spencer
- Scott "Carrot Top" Thompson as Himself
- Dave "Gruber" Allen as Hippie #1
- Dylan Haggerty as Ferris wheel attendant
- William Zabka as Prison guard
Production
The film was once titled Mary Warner and Winona Ryder was attached to star, but that incarnation fell apart and the film was retitled with a new cast and director.[2]
This is one of the last films Roscoe Lee Browne worked on before his death on April 11, 2007.
Reception
Smiley Face premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and received by a very small release where in Los Angeles it had a week long run at the Nuart Theatre in Santa Monica.[3] The film was released to DVD on January 8, 2008.[4] It also toured around British cinemas in summer 2008 as part of the 22nd London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. (Gregg Araki is a well-known gay director.)
In his review for the New York Times, Matt Zoller Seitz praised Faris' "freakishly committed performance as Jane F. [that] suggests Amy Adams’s princess from Enchanted dropped into a Cheech and Chong movie".[5] Andrew O'Hehir writes in his review for Salon, "Smiley Face, has a wonderful performance by Anna Faris and one of the all-time great stoner monologues in movie history".[6] In her review for Cinematical, Monika Bartyzel writes, "Araki's comedy gives us the best of many comedic worlds in an incessantly funny, easily-quotable serving. From discussions of Marxism to love of lasagna, Smiley Face serves it all — with some weed and a very, very stoned smile".[7]
However, S. James Snyder, in his review for the New York Sun, wrote, "If this is meant as a lighthearted change of pace for Mr. Araki, after Mysterious Skin, then perhaps he took things too far in the opposite direction. This isn't just light and fluffy; it floats away".[8]
Overall Smiley Face received a solid reception according to Rotten Tomatoes, garnering a 62% score from all critics and 75% from top critics.[1]
References
- ^ http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/346919/Smiley-Face/overview Retrieved on 2009-03-31
- ^ IMDb, "Trivia for Smiley Face (2007)", http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780608/trivia, retrieved 1 July 2009.
- ^ Campbell, Christopher (September 26, 2007). "Araki's Smiley Face Goes Straight to DVD". Cinematical. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Carroll, Larry (September 26, 2007). "Smiley Face Turns Into A Frown: Anna Faris Comedy Going Straight To DVD". MTV News. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Seitz, Matt Zoller (December 26, 2007). "Sunshine Daydream, With Pointed Point of View". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ O'Hehir, Andrew (January 23, 2007). "Beyond the Multiplex". Salon.com. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Bartyzel, Monika (September 16, 2007). "TIFF Review: Smiley Face". Cinematical. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Snyder, S, James (December 26, 2007). "This Is Your Movie on Drugs". New York Sun. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
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