Review of Smiley Face (2007) by Chads. — 12 Jan 2008

Anybody who saw Anna Faris spoof Cameron Diaz in Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" knew that the "Scary Movie"-franchise girl deserved her own comic showcase to let her freak-flag fly.

"Smiley Face", an absurdist journey of a thoroughly baked Cali girl, will do. Unlike other motion pictures about potheads, this filmmaker made a shrewd move that sets "Smiley Face" apart from the "classic" Cheech and Chong movies of the late-seventies, or the more recent "How High".

Jane is smart. She majored in economics. Early in the film, she explains to her dealer(Adam Brody) how Reaganomics and the concept of trickle-down economics aren't applicable to his pot business.

Since we're aware of Jane's intelligence(she graduated summa; that's the top one percent of any particular class), this stoner flick becomes more than some innocuous knee-slapper about being high.

"Smiley Face" is a tragicomic portrait of a young woman who wasted her potential. Even though "Smiley Face" has every requisite moment that you'd expect in this highly-specialized genre(the paranoia, the munchies, the quasi-profound nuggets of philosophy), all played for broad laughs, mind you; the film doesn't see drugs, even a "soft" drug like marijuana, as a laughing matter.

Case and point: In a sausage-production factory, Jane gives a rabble-rousing speech about laborizing the work force that is both passionate and articulate, or at least she thinks she does. In actuality, Jane's manifesto is a series of starts and stops, digressions, and incoherent mutterings.

Faris is laugh-out loud funny. Above all else, "Smiley Face" is a comedy first. But this druggie farce is a subversive one; unintentionally conservative in its ideology. Nancy Reagan was right.

Just say no.