RUGRATMIKE M
No clue what the movie was about.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
06/18/23
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Audience Member
A slow burn of a movie that teeters on the edge, literally and figuratively, between tragedy and chaos. Visiting the youthful moments of self exploration has rarely been done in such a minimalist and organic fashion. It should have always been done this way. The cinematic quality alone is enough to draw any number of accolades. The bonds of friendship are beautifully explored; the volatility stretched in every direction. HIDE YOUR SMILING FACES is a must see for those of us who grew up exploring our backyards not our cable boxes. With tones of STAND BY ME clear and present, the tangents that should have been explored are. Examining death, love and the future unknown occurs to everyone, some of us sooner than others. Some of us are lucky to have a brother to look to.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/30/23
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Audience Member
With Hide Your Smiling Faces, first-time writer-director Daniel Patrick Carbone has crafted a breathtaking, heartbreaking ode to growing up. Over just 80 minutes, we watch youth and innocence snatched away from a pair of too-young souls as they wrestle with death in many incarnations, and while the specter of mystery hangs over the entire Malick-esque film, Carbone eschews all that-staying the whole way with his boys-in favor of something that's intensely relatable even as it tells a story unique to its world.
Just like Malick's The Thin Red Line, Hide Your Smiling Faces opens with an innocuous but haunting shot of nature. Instead of an alligator slipping into an algae-choked pond, we get a snake slowly devouring another creature. It's our first brush with death in a film filled with it. Our protagonists-Eric (Nathan Varnson) and his younger brother, Tommy (Ryan Jones)-spend their days wandering the woods of their unnamed Northeastern town, where they encounter a dead blackbird and a pile of house-pet corpses, among other things.
Eric, tragically, also stumbles across the body of one of Tommy's best friends, Ian (Ivan Tomic). At the bottom of a bridge, near a river, there aren't any clues about what happened, but it understandably affects both previously carefree boys deeply. For Tommy, he becomes afraid of just about everything-the water, the woods, and particularly Ian's father (Colm O'Leary), whom he saw scare the life out of Ian mere hours before the boy's death.
Eric's troubles, meanwhile, are doubled when his best friend, Tristan (Thomas Cruz), talks about how he sometimes wishes he was dead. Terrified and angry that he's been burdened with trying to talk sense into an unpredictable teenage boy, he acts out. He fights, talks back to his parents, breaks into Ian's father's house, and begins carrying around a gun.
Hide Your Smiling Faces is both of nature and very naturalistic. While the Malick comparison is an apt one in many ways-such as the film's almost exclusively outdoor setting-Faces deviates from that template in some big ways. Music is almost non-existent in this world. Dialogue is also scarce, but when it takes place, it's in the form of actual conversation, not ethereal whispers from a narrator off the screen. All this is to say the film is very much grounded, and as such, the stakes play out right in front of you. There are implications of grander things at play-a universality in theme and arc that extends beyond these kids, this place-but Hide Your Smiling Faces succeeds first and foremost as an authentically-acted and lovingly-directed piece about two kids at a crossroads.
The film's dramatic high point is a tense, ultimately devastating phone conversation during which Tristan's fate seems to rely almost exclusively on how Eric answers a couple simple questions. Because Carbone (as well as his inexperienced but exceptionally talented actors) fosters such a strong connection between us and the characters, you can't help but place yourself in Eric's shoes at the moment. And because one young body has already made an appearance at that point in the picture, there's no guaranteeing the call will end the way you desperately want it to.
Another appropriate point of comparison is David Gordon Green's George Washington, which follows kids of a similar age doing similar things and dealing with similar tragedy before going off in a bizarrely supernatural direction. Hide Your Smiling Faces stays on planet Earth, thankfully, and the results-which ultimately cross a coming-of-age tale with elements of horror-are pretty spectacular. They also signal everyone involved-particularly Carbone-as serious talents to watch.
http://www.johnlikesmovies.com/hide-your-smiling-faces-review/
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/10/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Flat, half artsy film about childloss and childhood. Kids are in the centre here, most scenes are without adults. Everything is quite hidden and it's not easy to predict endings of scenes.
Things move slow, sometimes with a stunning score, often with stunning images.
The tone and the sharp naturalistic images is a big plus - the cinematography was really good. Interesting edit with the flashes, and the short playtime does the film well.
Innocence and guilt, grieving and hate - this is very real and quite dark. At times left very open for the viewer.
"The Tree of Life" comes to mind, but much shorter. There are few answers here as well, just many dead animals.
6.5 out of 10 food que tricks.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
nilufer e
Unbearably slow, low-budget movie about a couple of boys learning about life and being a pain in the ass for their families. Boys will be boys but hopefully not this boring.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Daniel Patrick Carbone's film is no ordinary or simplistic "coming of age" movie. The focus is on capturing the impact of tragedy on two brothers who are not only both trying to grasp an understanding of the nature of their world but of themselves. The tragedy heightens already hormone-infused perceptions in both brothers in different ways. While the child seems to be shaken and afraid, the teenage older brother is equally shaken but angry. This naturalistic and seemingly loose structure of the movie is deceptive as the filmmaker creates an unexpected level of tension. By the time the movie reaches its midpoint an oppressive atmosphere of danger and doom almost become a third character in the story. Scary, unflinching and quietly powerful --- Carbone's painfully realistic film is as horrifying as it is beautiful. A not so gentle reminder to be present for our children.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/22/23
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