SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
SMILEY FACE (Gregg Araki) ***
Probably the best stoner comedy since The Big Lebowski. Anna Farris now has my vote for female performance of the year, a fearless, uproarious turn that finds the discursive joy in pot like no one on screen since, well, Jeff Bridges. Farris is in almost every frame -- often alone and in close-up -- alternating between overt lunacy and subtly hilarious facial gestures, all the while maintaining a peerless comic timing. She can be childlike or seductive, overwhelmed or tart and assertive. Araki has fun with his picaresque story, reflecting a stoner's wobbly stream-of-consciousness with intertitles, omniscient narration, rewinds, and fantasy sequences. Smiley Face might be somewhat slight overall -- despite an intriguing undercurrent that swings between Marxist respect for the common worker and pity for their sober conformity, without dismissing Faris's irresponsibleness -- but that seems like a non-issue considering I already want to watch it again.
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD (Sidney Lumet) ***1/2
XXY (Lucía Puenzo) 1/2
IT'S A FREE WORLD... (Ken Loach) ****
LOU REED'S BERLIN (Julian Schnabel) **
