Hide Your Smiling Faces

Honestly, I've seen plenty of offbeat art films where there is no concrete plot and the movie is really about the angst and emotions of the characters. But even then, I expect something to happen. I expect to see some character development, some questions answered, some conclusions.

This film offers none of those. It is 90 minutes of some kids rambling around after the mysterious death of one of their friends. We never know what they think, how they feel, or how the events affect them. We never know what to think of their parents, or the dead boy's father.

I'm sorry, there is just no plot, no story, not even a thread of one, to hold this thing together. Count how many times one of the characters answers a question, "I don't know" in this film. Every question is answered this way, so you can't form any opinions about any of the characters.

I'll leave you with one final thought. The way the scenes cut from one to the next, with no connective tissue between them, they could be shown in almost any order and it wouldn't make any difference.

The best coming of age film sense THE DYNAMITER . I usually have no problem rambling on about a great film however in the case of hide your smiling faces when you watch it you will understand why i felt nothing more needed to be said, hope you take the time to enjoy these lovely films

The cast is rather bland. I know it's supposed to be a dark, brooding film, and it is indeed that. But the lack of talent on the actor's part is very noticable. The story is good though, despite some serious writing flaws and dialogue that's just flat most of the time. Plus it's just way too long. This could've been condensed easily into a 60 minute movie. Despite all this though, I kept wanting to know what was going to happen. I'll never watch this again, but I did enjoy it even though it was riddled with glaring faults. That's rare for me. The music was appropriate and atmospheric and not a distraction. The visuals, especially nature, were stunning.

Tommy's getting older, so now his teenage brother Eric can teach him to be a man. It's a slow change at first, but a tragedy speeds up the process. Something even Eric isn't ready for as an older brother. Possibly even making him go through the exact same emotions as Tommy.

The film was made just past my childhood/teenage years, but it was timeless enough. It could be set in any year, at least within the past two decades, and still remind the viewer of their own summer experiences.

The story is set in a rural area of New Jersey, so I might be biased as I grew up in a suburban Connecticut town. Tri state area to the core, but the film could easily be set in a different state. There are very little markers of it's location, and at its heart the plot is about two brothers growing closer over one long summer.

With excellent performances from Ryan Jones and Nathan Varnson, "Hide Your Smiling Faces" is another of the remarkable and recently seen films about children and adolescents, adding it to a list that includes "These Birds Walk", a documentary about street kids in Pakistan, who find refuge in a home created by an old humanist; and a science- fiction motion picture dealing with education, and sold as a horror movie, called "The Tall Man", which is in reality a terrifying parable of the destiny of children these days, that made me think of the education methods in totalitarian societies and reminded me of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". "Hide Your Smiling Faces" is the gentle one, although it does not lack elements of tension in environment, family and relations among the young persons. It belongs to the category of observational motion pictures, in which you deduce and obtain information (and, from an aesthetic angle, pleasure from the viewing experience) in a very quiet way. Even its dramatic peaks are handled in a wise tone, with a quiet touch, when danger is present: I refer to the final scenes involving Jones and Varnson, with elders and the force of nature (I can't be more specific, for I would spoil your viewing experience). In a jaded world where violent images are what bring "artistic fulfillment" to most persons, motion pictures like this one, although rarely done, are the kind of productions that are needed every now and then, to remind us all what we are, where we belong and what in the end is the purpose of existence.