Release Date 30Sep2022
SMILE -or- FROWN: This movie blows wildebeest *AKA* Maybe stretching an 11 min short film into 2 hours of lame jump-scares and B.S. isn't a good idea.
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This is a bad movie, and I despise it.
SMILE is a nearly 2 hour waste of corporeal existence based on an 11 minute 2020 short film called "Laura hasn't slept" by Parker Finn, the writer/ director of this film.
Overworked and stressed psychiatrist Rose, a character who should know better and usually doesn't in this movie, has to deal with weird fucked up smiling people controlled by an entity who feeds on trauma. Cue every cliche from every "Entity jumps from person to person movie" since Jesus... NOTE to would-be horror filmmakers: Writing for shock/ spectacle, and not for character is always a mistake in this genre if you're trying to give people something worth their time and dime. Unless exploitation is actually your thing, and really, you should just go into porn at that point.
Let's just say it: It's FALLEN (with Denzel) only boring, derivative, poorly crafted, and with a runtime padded with jump-scares.
THE GOOD:
SOSIE BACON (Kevin Bacon's daughter) is the only one acting here, though with a character so thinly drawn, by the end you don't care. The central concept of trauma and generational illness is compelling, but only because it's easy to see a better movie than this one.
THE MEH:
NONE! This movie is the cinematic expression of pickled swamp-ass.
THE BAD:
Essentially EVERYTHING. The one bright spot (Sosie) is ruined by characterization, direction, and writing so bad - it flattens any goodwill more generous people would have given it in short order. Every character in the film is merely a plot device for a story so thin you can read the studio notes. The overall construction of the movie is entirely borrowed from better, if not simply more entertaining movies. There is a callow cheapness that permeates every second of this overlong chili-fart that sort of clings to you, and hangs on long after the fading of the funk…
SEE IT!
DON'T!!!
DON'T SEE IT!
YES!