Smile Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs
3. It's More Thoughtful Than You're Expecting
Smile certainly isn't a deep character piece on the level of your average A24 horror, but it is considerably more thoughtful and contemplative than the marketing would ever have you believe.
Trauma may be the tired genre buzzword of the decade, but Finn is clearly committed to exploring its impact upon the human psyche in a more-than-superficial way.
Beyond that, he examines the continued stigmatisation of mental illness in wider society, and also the unspoken psychological toll suffered by those working in the mental health field.
Again, it's not the smartest character-driven horror movie you'll see this year, but for a film many had dismissed as no-effort trash from the trailers, that it tries and mostly succeeds at being about something is wildly admirable.