Director: Gregg Araki (Mysterious Skin, Splendor, Nowhere, The Doom Generation)
Writer: Dylan Haggerty
Producers: Gregg Araki, Steve Golin, Alix Madigan, Kevin Turen, Henry Winterstern
Starring: Anna Faris, Adam Brody, John Krasinski, John Cho, Jane Lynch
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 88 min.

Gregg Araki isn’t known for conventional films so I was surprised to see that his most recent project looked like a straight forward stoner comedy. Fortunately, Araki hasn’t sold out. Though on the surface Smiley Face appears to share all of the trademarks and conventions of the stoner comedy, there’s a little more to it than that and though this isn’t nearly as disturbing as Mysterious Skin (which made me look away more than once) or The Doom Generation (with has a rape scene that nearly made me gag), it’s a much more realistic stoner film.

Starring Anna Faris, the Scary Movie regular, the film is a day in a life story of Jane, a young woman who’s having an exceptionally fucked up day – in every sense of the word. It starts with a few hits of the bong at 9:15, followed by some “special” muffins and by 10:45AM she’s too stoned to even talk on the phone. Jane’s plan of attack starts to fall apart almost immediately and as the day progresses in typical stoner comedy approach, things just get worse and the gags get bigger. What marks Smiley Face apart from every other stoner comedy is that although the events that unfold get progressively worse, they’re all believably worse too. There’s no jumping off of mountain tops or riding on the back of tigers but rather one small bad thing after another. It begins with Jane offering to sell her prized Government weed to the casting agent who she’s meeting for an audition and finishes off with stealing an original copy of the Communist Manifesto. I know, it still sounds pretty grand but when you watch it unfold, it’s not as far fetched as you might think. What’s most impressive about Araki’s film is that it doesn’t embellish pot – the drug that apparently never killed anyone. At one moment you see Jane giving an energized and eloquent speech about unionization and then Araki backtracks and shows you the real speech, a jumble of um’s, ah’s and yeah’s. And just when you think you’ve figured out where the film is going, Araki appears to change tracks again and fall back into the conventional stoner film but it’s just for show – he hasn’t lost the reality he’s trying to hammer home.

This is my first experience with Faris and she does a great job of playing the stoner. Her role required a lot of physical comedy which she pulled off rather well but the best part of the movie was watching out for a few familiar faces, most of which were cast against type. Danny Masterson is barely in the film but it was fun to watch the “That ‘70’s Show” stoner as the straight laced roommate. Jane Lynch (the “fuck buddy” and “enough to keep me stoned for a week” fame) was fun as the casting director as were Danny Trejo and Richard Riehle in their small appearances. Easily my favorite was a short pop in and out by John Cho (of Harold & Kumar fame) as a sex obsessed sausage factory worker.

With all the good it has going for it ultimately, Smiley Face fails in that it simply isn’t as funny as it should be. Stoner films work because they tend to be hysterical and though this one does have some giggle moments, it lacks real punch. That said, it’s also not a complete dud and it does manage to entertain for the running time but with some serious lag in the middle. I do give Araki and writer Dylan Haggerty credit for making the title character female and making her a believable character in realistic situations.

If you’re looking for a stoner comedy to make you laugh, there are hundreds of others to choose from that will do the job nicely but if you’re looking for something more grounded and with a definite moral, this is the one to check out.

Links:
IMDb profile – full cast and crew
Flixster Profile for Smiley Face