Had never heard of this film so very happy that Fun City Editions released this great Blu-ray.Beautiful cinematography by Conrad Hall. Great performances by all. Bruce Dern truly shines in the role. Joan Prather is also great... looking exactly like Riley Keough. Wish she kept acting.Watched the Fun City Editions Blu-rayAdditional info:• Region A Blu-ray• New 2K restoration from its 35mm interpositive• “Dernsie’s Credo,” a newly filmed interview with actor Bruce Dern• Theatrical trailer• Image gallery • Booklet with a new essay by film historian Mike McPadden• Newly recorded audio commentary by actor-filmmaker Pat Healy and film curator Jim Healy• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
A brutally shrewd satire that pities its characters and lambasts the endlessly contradictory social and cultural rituals that flourish in America. There are so many moments in this film where the jokes cut so damn deep. The laughs carry more than a hint of uncomfortable bite and they often surprise. Just look at that last shot for a prime example. It’s a bold gut-punch of a statement in a film that’s full of them. Satirizing beauty pageants seems like an easy target, and it is, but what Smile does to layer everything is shine its spotlight on the adults involved in the Santa Rosa ceremony. Their lives are a pit of denial, none more so than Bruce Dern in a turn that deserves all the recognition in the world. His Big Bob Freelander is sort of an adult example of someone who lives by the superficial ideals set forth in the Young Miss America pageant. Ideals that sound good on paper, except when you realize those traits don’t make a person, even less so when you want everyone to commit to the same ones.As for the girls in the competition, they are all mixed up inside, conforming to what others want of them without really examining the end game. They are told to be individual but what the judges really want is conformity, thus perverting altruistic traits into something meaningless. In the judges conference, we see a montage of many girls saying they want to help others. The one dissenter who never brings her answers in that direction (our main contestant Robin played by Joan Prather), is then led by the judges to say she wants to help others, much to their satisfaction. It’s a brilliant moment, one of many, and these moments work so perfectly because you don’t see them coming, making you feel their impact even more.Lastly, Michael Ritchie never focuses too much on the competition, which highlights the pointlessness of it. The climax of Smile is as you would expect, with the announcement of the winners. But despite knowing that Robin and Doria (a young Annette O’ Toole) want to win, you feel absolutely no stakes in the reveal. And that’s exactly the point. As the girls scream and cry, hiding their own disappointment with sheer fake energy, we feel the emptiness of it all. Smile is unflinching with its bleak humor, pulling back the curtain on blind optimism and contradictory values, specifically in small-town America.cinenthusiast.wordpress.com/cinenthusiast.tumblr.com/
It's almost unbelievable that so gentle a satire can land with such an emotionally powerful wallop (like an iron glove cast in velvet, to rearrange a quote from Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill, Kill). It's a cumulative effect that is patiently built, scene by scene, across a wide cast of characters. The ambition seems to be nothing short of deconstructing the "American Dream" by detailing how its pursuit has emotionally crippled an entire small town and negatively affected the values of contestants in a beauty pageant. Somehow it achieves all of this while still remaining consistently funny--even venturing into a teen sex-comedy subplot--never feeling forced or overly self-serious and never resorting to mean-spirited mockery. Everything feels really natural. Even the comedic dialogue is funny in a way that seems like people you know could have said it. I'm going to be saying "Eets my gwah-cah-moe-lay deep!" for awhile now. Really interesting photography (DP, Conrad Hall) favors the lower third of the screen. MVP: Bruce Dern as "Big" Bob Freelander, the used car salesman who just want to do right and help others. There is a world of sadness and disappointment behind his blue eyes and weary smile.
