Smiley Face

Smiley Face

Film review by: Witney Seibold

            Gregg Araki has finally grown up with his stoner comedy “Smiley Face.” This may be an odd thing to say about a stoner comedy, but it’s the first film in which Araki has not infused the material with his immature brand of adolescent slacker nihilism that was at the very core of his horrendous “The Doom Generation.” Even 2004’s “Mysterious Skin,” easily Araki’s best film, had a few scenes of evasive goofy fantasy to sugarcoat the hardness of the sexual material. “Smiley Face” has no evasions, and cheerfully goes for the THC-laced jugular with beautiful gusto. It’s a bright, brightly-colored, and very funny.

 

            Jane (Anna Faris) is a shiftless pot-head living on unemployment checks and copious amounts of marijuana. While already very, very high one morning, she gives into temptation and eats an entire batch of her roommate’s cupcakes. Turns out they had even more marijuana baked into them. Uh oh. Now, high as a kite, Jane must replace the cupcakes, pay her power bill, attend an audition, and pay back her dealer, all by 3 pm. Her baked odyssey takes her to some really strange places, including a meat-packing plant in El Monte, a Venice hemp festival, the house of her roommate’s sci-fi nerd buddy (John Krasinski), and the top of a Ferris wheel waving around one of the original copies of The Communist Manifesto.

 

            Most pot comedies that I have seen seem geared toward other potheads; they want to elicit stoned laugh from stoned people by showing how silly stoned people can be. “Smiley Face” takes the high road, and, while clearly existing in Jane’s drug-addled mind, keeps us with a strong finger on reality. Jane may have trouble keeping a train of thought on track, but Araki knows that the audience will not, and lets the film be wild and weird while staying cogent. Faris is brilliant as Jane, having to carry the film almost entirely by herself, proving herself to be a strong lead and a considerable comic presence.

             Araki, though, is wise in not letting Jane get away with it. In his previous films, the lead characters were able to snicker their way out of their crimes. Araki explores the actual consequences of being as high as Jane gets, and even punishes her a bit at the end. “Smiley Face’ is brisk, bright, fun, and surprisingly intelligent. Well, for a stoner comedy.