Movie Review: Smile
Bob Garver
I'll start this review with a compliment. The people in charge of promoting the new horror movie Smile have done a great job. For months, I was successfully distracted by various posters, advertisements and trailers for this film, which managed to shake off the slightest hint of a creepy smile from me. In hindsight, I probably should have known something was wrong when the Green Team trailer for "All Audiences" was even scarier than "Limited Red". While the trailer for Bureaucracy showcased the film's happiness and defied panic fears, the green belt suddenly erupted in laughter and ended, leaving me in a shock that I didn't have time to deal with, but no doubt I was holding back. . The movie certainly doesn't boast the same brevity, wasting 115 minutes of my time without even living up to its promise in the print ad.
The story follows Dr. Rose Kotter (Susie Bacon tries to make this lovable main character as memorable as possible). He is the best psychiatrist in his hospital despite a bit of chaos, an unresolved childhood trauma, and the difficulties of a medical bureaucracy played by his boss, Dr. Desai (Kal Penn, in a supporting role). The daily challenges are difficult, but he can overcome them. His dark past... better to hide it.
One day, Rose appoints the presence of a dazed Laura (Caitlin Stacy, whose eyes and face were subtly expressive before the horror material even existed). The poor medical student has seen horrible smiles everywhere since witnessing a suicide a few days ago, and interestingly, someone who smiled, who saw a smiling person commit suicide a few days ago. Rose soon witnesses a suicide and now sees an unnatural smile. The condition affects her relationship with boyfriend Trevor (Jesse T. Asher) and sister Holly (Gillian Zinser) and drastically ruins her life as it threatens to end. Unfortunately, the only person who thinks Rose isn't crazy is her ex-boyfriend Joel (Kyle Gallner). Will Rose find a way to break the apparent chain, perhaps by facing her own demons?
There are no real bones in this movie. The "Chain of Sacrifices" material is taken from "It Follows" and "The Ring", the latter characterized by a particularly evocative horror. The focus on overcoming childhood trauma is reminiscent of Legacies and House of Night without the atmospheric elements that make these films work. The birthday scene made me blush. "Oh, how gravity kills!" Even in the 2018 movie Truth or Dare, the fear was based on laughter.
But Smile's biggest mistake is that he's not scary. The film has to rely on fake jump scares like a burglar alarm and even opening a can of cat food because it knows it can't draw scenes of real danger or violence. Bad dream sequences are not to be taken seriously because Rose would never act like that. And the laughter is never caused by the professional timing of a movie trailer. Indeed, there is an element of horror that captures the film, and this is the result. If you stay until the credits, you'll hear some decent pulsing music. The problem, of course, is that you have to spend more time on this film, which is already a lot of wasted. For most of this film, I had a bad face, I didn’t scream or laugh, and I certainly didn’t laugh.
Grade: D
"Smile" was rated R for violent content, gory imagery, and language. Its duration is 115 minutes.
Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.
