69
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The PlaylistRodrigo PerezThe PlaylistRodrigo PerezFeaturing two exceptional lead performances from these two boys, first rate beauty-in-ugliness photography and an unusually extraordinary command of tone, Carbone’s picture skillfully articulates the inexpressible.
- 80Film.comJordan HoffmanFilm.comJordan HoffmanThe landscape is a definitive presence throughout the film, which has almost no music and very little dialogue. The film is short (approximately 80 minutes) and maintains a good sense of dread throughout.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeCarbone's script doesn't tell a story so much as watch the fluctuations in emotional energy here, quietly observing activities both directly and indirectly related to the loss. As a director he's patient but never sluggish, taking time to appreciate the still landscapes his characters move through.
- 63Slant MagazineWes GreeneSlant MagazineWes GreeneDaniel Patrick Carbone's pensive style, so dotted with ethnographic detail, is interested in revealing a world in flux, but his fixation on death is so incessant that it situates the film as a morose fetish object.
- 60Village VoiceJonathan KieferVillage VoiceJonathan KieferCarbone minimizes dialogue and focuses instead on gestural specificity; he makes a useful inventory of boys-will-be-boys behavior — wrestling in fields, poking at scars or dead critters, shutting down on parents — and stages it in tellingly muted vignettes within the ample copses of rural New Jersey.
- 60The DissolveMike D'AngeloThe DissolveMike D'AngeloSmiling Faces is a strongly promising first effort, introducing a talented filmmaker who’s still in the process of finding his own voice. Still, don’t be too surprised if, three or four features down the road, it retroactively looks much more singular.
- 50New York PostSara StewartNew York PostSara StewartThe many silences in Hide Your Smiling Faces don’t speak quite loudly enough, and the film ultimately gets bogged down by its own ponderousness.
- 40Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonTime Out LondonTom HuddlestonThis microbudget indie about a pair of brothers in small-town USA looks great, sports strong performances and doesn’t outstay its welcome. But it’s impossible to shake the feeling that we’ve seen all this before, and better.