The Best Stoner Comedy: Smiley Face (2007)
Smiley Face (2007) is an underrated comedy starring Anna Feris, written by Dylan Haggerty, and directed by Gregg Araki. The plot can condense to something like one day a loser, Jane accidentally eats a ton of edibles and struggles to complete some important tasks. The movie does a great job of capturing the feeling of getting stoned. It manages to get the combination of introspection and stupidity, like saying the most retarded things, exactly right. I would argue that it is the best actual representation of getting high because usually in media they tend to show weed as if it’s like LSD or mushrooms or something way more intense. Everything from the scattered thoughts Jane has, to hearing her heartbeat after eating edibles all contribute to the accuracy. Even the visual presentation and cinematography all feel like it’s working to make it emulate the feeling of strong edibles.
Anna Feris is amazing in this role she absolutely nails being a stoner. Her character, Jane, is an unemployed actress with a comically small amount of things to do, yet she manages to fuck everything up by getting too high like the loser she is. There’s a pretty well-known cast for being such a lesser-known movie, like John Krasinsky, John Cho, Danny Masterson, Danny Trejo, and even a quick Joey Diaz appearance. It’s interesting to see Krasinsky play what is basically a Dwight-type of character especially since he’s only in shitty action movies now. Danny Masterson is in this and plays who he ended up being in real life.
This movie has a ton of really funny moments in it. Jane struggling in her car is a hilarious scene. The part about Garfield was the funniest and dumbest shit I had ever seen the first time I saw it. The whole movie is sort of in a category of awkwardly funny movies like Napolean Dynamite. It’s a solid comedy and if you’ve ever experienced being too high you’ll probably enjoy it.
The soundtrack is also stacked from start to finish. Chemical Brothers, Ladytron, Flock on Seagulls, it’s all good shit. You can feel that the people involved in making this had fun and the result is a charming and authentic movie.
All in all, Smiley Face is super underrated and funny as fuck. Anyone who’s had an experience with weed or edibles will probably enjoy it. Anna Ferris kills the role and it’s worth it to see her alone.