Anna Faris, Adam Brody, Roscoe Lee Brown, Marion Ross, John Krasinski, Jane Lynch

In her latest film, Anna Faris plays a wacky young woman who, we gather, is ‘bent’ most of the time. In short, she’s a right nutter. To say Ms. Faris is playing against type in “Smiley Face” would be an undeniable fib.

Greg Araki’s – he did all those hardcore 90s teen flicks like “The Doom Generation” and “Nowhere” – film, which is essentially a day-in-the-life-of-a-pot-head, is tailor-made for the talented but not-so-versatile comedienne - who got her start playing the wacky, high-spirited Cindy Campbell in the Scary Movie series. Sure, Faris’s character may be ‘admitting’ to being under the influence in this one, but tell me the lass from “Scary Movie”, “Lost in Translation” and “Just Friends” didn’t come across a little red-eyed and full-from-brownies, at times? I’m guessing that’s who Anna Faris is. Or if not, she’s not fessing up anytime soon.

Faris has wittingly set out to corner the ‘loopy chick’ market and I’m thinking not even Bobcat Goldthwait’s soon-to-be-discovered teenage niece would be able to steal her crown. She’s so good at playing nuts, its, well, nuts.

Faris makes a terrific ‘nutter’ – she’s a blast to watch. She was hilarious in “Just Friends”, is the sole reason for watching all the recent “Scary Movie” sequels and quite rightly stole laughs in whatever scene she appeared in in “Lost in Translation”. In “Smiley Face”, she’s an absolute hoot, too – one of her creaky, crooked smiles or impromptu spaz-attack jumps-for-joy and you’ll be spitting popcorn.

Not to say “Smiley Face” is an absolute rip-snorter, it isn’t, in fact there’s not a lot to it, but Faris is so good in it and so engaging to watch that it plays much better than it should. I’m guessing if you removed Faris from the picture, it’d be about as entertaining as one of the poorer Savage Steve Holland comedies from the 80s – you know, the ones that didn’t feature John Cusack?.

The laughs come from Faris, not the script, which quite frankly, seems almost non-existent. Still, it wouldn’t be the only film to succeed based solely on the performance of its leading actor or actress – would it?

Obviously shot on a shoe-string budget, judging by the film grade, “Smiley Face” fixes on a young woman who begins her day eating her roommate’s (Danny Masterson of “That 70’s Show”) cupcakes – obviously, since we’ve already stated that Faris is playing a druggo in the film, the sweets are full of marijuana. Now, the suddenly-tripping babe has to get enough drugs (Adam Brody of “The OC” is almost unrecognisable as her dealer) to make her ‘skull-fucking’ housemate another plate, pay the power bill before the house goes dark, and ultimately, pay back her dealer before he comes ‘collecting’ (her furniture – namely, her beloved bed).

It’s a pleasure to watch Faris wander slack-jawed through L.A – but, I gotta admit, it was a little funner watching Harold and Kumar take that same journey a couple of years prior.

Rating :
Reviewer : Clint Morris