Movie Review: Smile

2022 has served as an incredible showcase for up-and-coming horror directors. Chloe Okuno (Watcher), Zach Cregger (Barbarian), Mimi Cave (Fresh) and Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies) all flashed a level of technical prowess, ambition and command that are very rarely seen from filmmakers who had little-to-no prior experience directing features. Joining this list is Parker Finn-whose debut feature Smile is an impressively crafted film that sidesteps its conventional setup nearly every step of the way.  

Finn has gotten some (and will continue to get) some flak for how Smile shares DNA with other horror movies. There are parallels to beloved genre favorites such as The Ring, It Follows and Final Destination within its plot about a therapist (Sosie Bacon in a tremendous performance that should significantly bolster her stock in the industry) who begins to lose her grip on reality after a new patient (Caitlin Stasey) commits suicide in front of her. For me at least, Finn's visible influences were secondary to the magic he was creating behind the camera. 

On the storytelling front, Finn is able to deftly blend the psychological terrors of mental illness and grief-induced psychological trauma with the supernatural horrors of bloodthirsty demons. Bacon's character Rose has been haunted by her mother's (Dora Kiss) own suicide for most of her life and in the aftermath of her patient killing herself, she's forced to unpack all of the emotions she has surrounding that horrific event. At the same time, she has to deal with the burden of most of the people in her life (her fiancé played by Jessie T. Usher, her sister played by Gillian Zinser, her boss played by Kal Penn) fearing she's headed down a similar path as her mother after she begins to exhibit behavior that can easily be perceived as disturbing and erratic while attempting to prove that a supernatural entity that nobody else can see is behind these actions. It's a clever metaphor for the battle mental illness sufferers deal with every single day of their lives as well as a really honest look at the helplessness, guilt and frustration that the people surrounding them feel as their efforts to help them fight their disease fall short.

What really hammers home Smile's effectiveness is how the film's themes inform all of Finn's aesthetic choices. Between a Cristobal Tapa de Veer score that veers between dissonant dread that's quietly lurking in the background and frantic, pulsating panic that could immediately activate any internal signal of imminent danger human beings can possibly feel, camerawork that routinely deploys unusual angles and frequent sharp changes in speed from slow pans to blisteringly fast close-ups and its intermittent usage of grisly imagery, Finn builds a steadily ominous atmosphere that is laced with visceral shocks to the system. It has the feel of a disorienting nightmare where the forces of evil take active glee in luring you into a false sense of security before slowly tearing you apart until there's nothing left but dust. There are veteran directors that would kill to have Finn's mastery of building scares that prey on the character's greatest fears while mimicking the crippling horror of someone mind's betraying them to the point where they become unrecognizable to themselves and the people that care about them. Pulling off something so multifaceted and compelling on a fictional horror and real-life social commentary level on your first movie is the mark of somebody that seems destined to stick around Hollywood for a long, long time. 

As impressive and engrossing as it is on the whole, Smile does run into a bit of trouble at times. Some of the jump scares are cheap, predictable jolts and the story threads that lead to Rose's ex-boyfriend (Kyle Gallner)-who just happens to be a cop-becoming heavily involved in the proceedings are contrived enough to earn some head nods and groans of disapproval from viewers. But Finn displays so much careful craftsmanship behind the camera and Bacon is such a sympathetic, emotionally transparent force in the lead role that all of the shortcomings end up being easy to overlook. If Smile goes on to earn a similar degree of reverence as the aforementioned films it's been compared to, it would be a well-earned fate worthy of a non-sinister version of the titular facial expression.   

Grade: B+