User Reviews

Smile offers an interesting and dark introspective into the mind of its lead character. Shot in a single take, featuring a lone actor and set entirely within an old-fashioned photo booth, Smile is the kind of film that might lose viewers with more mainstream tastes, but there is much to be appreciated for discerning cinephiles.

Director and writer Adnan X. Khan reveals the true nature of his narrative gradually, structuring the story as a trip down memory lane for the character David, which eventually takes a turn into the darkest recesses of his psyche. By putting this poor soul literally in the audience's face, Khan is also holding up a mirror to them as well, using the film as a metaphor for the collective demons and emotional scars that are an integral part of the human condition. Under his direction, Justin Michael Terry delivers a compelling and believable performance as David, and keeps the viewer engaged throughout.

While Khan puts the emphasis on performance and narrative, as the film's cinematographer he controls the mood here by shaping Smile's aesthetic with meticulous attention to detail. Going to elaborate lengths such as constructing an actual photo booth that could be manipulated for the production. He crops the frame (in camera) to force the audience to adopt the perspective of the photo booth's actual camera, creating an intimate and slightly claustrophobic environment where the lens seems to draw the truth from its subject. Additional touches such as the use of old-fashioned flash bulbs add to the realism, yet it's Khan's timing with those flashes that lends a surreal quality to the unfolding drama.

Definitely an interesting film that is worthy of your attention.

SMILE. is a film spanning little over eight minutes, but a film that cannot be judged solely based on its short length. Contextually, it is like the old school method of developing photographic film – minute after minute, an image starts to manifest itself until you see a fully developed picture. There is a lot that happens in its narrative and each passing minute becomes a darker shade of the preceding minute. It is also a solid metaphor but like elaborate paintings by Caravaggio and Diego Velázquez – baroque art if you will – the narrative peels away, layer by layer, until all you see is the beating heart of a beast.

The setting is the claustrophobic enclosure of an instant photo booth. David steps in to have his picture taken but his conscience has a story to tell. Like staunch Catholics in a similarly sized confessional booth, David narrates an incident that gets dark and twisted towards the end. His past is troubled but the photo booth serves as a confessional, an opportunity to vomit the poison that has been residing in him since he was nine years old. The story doesn't have a happy ending but David uses us – viewers standing in for a Catholic priest – to offer judgment until he eventually finds absolution before managing a smile for the camera.

It doesn't matter if you have never been inside a church's confessional booth, but débutant film maker Adnan X. Khan makes it clear that no matter who we are or where we come from, we all have demons eating at us from the inside. Written and directed by Khan, SMILE. is an intriguing story that holds your attention all through its eight minutes of run time. Using just Sylvania flashbulbs at perfectly timed junctures for visual effects, Khan's narrative is a diabolical analogy akin to our deepest and darkest secrets. And trust me; everyone has at least one repulsive, albeit recessed, shard of memory that does not fade with age. This is where Khan shines as the screen writer but his most triumphant moment is in getting unknown actor Justin Michael Terry to take an unsuspecting audience by complete surprise. As David, Terry exudes the sort of semblance you would expect from just about anyone who passes by on the street. The driving mechanism in this film is the question that it asks – what if you were able to stop a passerby and see into his or her mind or soul. Terry answers that question in a single continuously shot take thanks to the director's well written script and perfectly filmed setup, but be prepared for a smack in the back of your head when you learn what David and his audible conscience wants you to hear.

Besides the theme and how Khan has chosen to unfold his narrative, there is a lot you can take away from this film. For starters, the next time you look at a perfect family portrait, pause for a second and think about what dark secrets those pretty smiles could be harboring!

To set the mood for such a story and the way it is presented isn't easy. But it is done, and done well, by Adnan X. Khan. We don't know what to expect when the film starts, and our thoughts might stray towards the simple and straight-forward, but they are quickly directed to the complex and layered story.

You are engrossed in what unfolds next on screen, not only because the setting is unusual, (We have all been there one time or another!) but the content is riveting. There are several stories, with varied emotions, which are presented with conviction on screen.

A brilliant short, watch and be zapped! (starry eyed after a flash!)