Nice (cute even) little stoner comedy about a girl who goes on a strange one-day odyssey through Los Angeles trying to fix problems created as a result of her eating some pot cupcakes. Kind of weird, but fun.
Stoners looking for a yuck-fest ala Harold and Kumar should probably rent something else as the unfortunate truth is Gregg Araki does not direct comedy very well. The bits aren't real funny and the situations rely more on how a stoned person (you'd probably have to throw in some LSD, too) would act to a non-stoned person (or how a paranoid stoner would act). Faris is cute and her performance is entertaining but does get tiresome near the end.
The guy who plays Brevin is hilarious, however, and the interplay between him and Faris is the best thing in the movie. The conversation on the way to the dentist is the one truly accurate stoner conversation in the whole movie.
I actually only rented this because Gregg Araki (one of my favorite directors) made it and his previous films - all of them heavy on hyperbole and menace, give no indication he'd be the right person to direct this kind of movie (or even that he's ever smoked pot in his life!) Because Araki made it I boost this one up a couple of stars, but it's really just a colorful, meandering time-filler with a bad, meandering script and not a lot of laughs.
I don't think this film is a sign that Araki is "dead" as someone else said. Although it may seem like a step backwards I think Smiley Face is something Araki did to take a momentary break from the dark stuff he does so well.
Probably the oddest thing about this movie is the total absence of dread and disorientation that Araki has always injected into his work. I was really disappointed it was gone in this one. Oh, well. Maybe next time/
Stoners looking for a yuck-fest ala Harold and Kumar should probably rent something else as the unfortunate truth is Gregg Araki does not direct comedy very well. The bits aren't real funny and the situations rely more on how a stoned person (you'd probably have to throw in some LSD, too) would act to a non-stoned person (or how a paranoid stoner would act). Faris is cute and her performance is entertaining but does get tiresome near the end.
The guy who plays Brevin is hilarious, however, and the interplay between him and Faris is the best thing in the movie. The conversation on the way to the dentist is the one truly accurate stoner conversation in the whole movie.
I actually only rented this because Gregg Araki (one of my favorite directors) made it and his previous films - all of them heavy on hyperbole and menace, give no indication he'd be the right person to direct this kind of movie (or even that he's ever smoked pot in his life!) Because Araki made it I boost this one up a couple of stars, but it's really just a colorful, meandering time-filler with a bad, meandering script and not a lot of laughs.
I don't think this film is a sign that Araki is "dead" as someone else said. Although it may seem like a step backwards I think Smiley Face is something Araki did to take a momentary break from the dark stuff he does so well.
Probably the oddest thing about this movie is the total absence of dread and disorientation that Araki has always injected into his work. I was really disappointed it was gone in this one. Oh, well. Maybe next time/