Intensity: 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Written/Directed by Parker Finn
The first installment focused on world building and investigating the great mythology behind the story. This time around writer/director Parker Finn gives us spectacle.
Smile 2: The Players
- Naomi Scott [Aladdin (2019)] — Skye Riley, the massive pop icon who witnesses something truly horrific that sends her life into a spiral.
- Rosemarie DeWitt [Poltergeist (2015)] — Elizabeth Riley, Skye’s mom and manager, desperately trying to keep the come-back tour from going off the rails.
- Lukas Gage [Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)] — Lewis Fregoli, your friendly neighborhood drug dealer. He’s having the worst week.
- Dylan Gelula [Dream Scenario (2023)] — Gemma, Skye’s estranged best friend who gets pulled into this mess while trying to help. Ride or die.
Smile 2: The Breakdown
Synopsis
First of all, if you’re new to this franchise you should take a step back and watch Smile (2022). It’s a great movie in it’s own right (this reviewer’s #1 pick for 2022) and it explains everything in much more detail. Not to mention, Smile 2 hits the ground running literally picking up “6 days later” from the end of the first film.
Having watched the first installment, we know all about the weirdness that’s about to go down. Global pop phenom, Skye Riley, witnesses a Bad Thing and soon her life and sanity begin to unravel. And being mere weeks away from kicking off a major, post-rehab world tour sure doesn’t make anything less stressful. Can she confront the darkness in her past and make the tour happen when she can’t even trust her own mind?
Production
With nearly twice the budget of the first movie, Smile 2 pulls out all the stops. The sets and camera work are spectacular. Obviously, director Parker Finn learned a few things from his first feature-length outing.
The score and sound work in general are also used to excellent effect. When your main character’s a pop star it helps if she’s got some sense of musicality and Naomi Scott has that in spades. From tour rehearsals to song writing at the piano, Scott gets to flex her pipes a few times which adds to the realism.
Special effects are well done and it’s nice to see a lot of good ol’ practical effects in the mix to make things even more uncomfortable to watch. Although, even the CG effects are great. One of the perks of a bigger budget.
Cast and Story
In truth, Smile 2 is all about Skye Riley’s fragmenting sanity and Naomi Scott carries the film almost single-handedly. Her powerhouse performance shines alongside excellent showings by Lukas Gage and even Kyle Gallner [Smile (2022)] who pops in for a visit.
As the second film in what’s proving to be a series, the events in Smile 2 carry the overarching, multi-movie story line forward but don’t really feel like a complete narrative in themselves. This means Smile 2 is less effective as a stand-alone film than its predecessor. Not that this is a bad thing, of course. It just means the Smile series is better watched in sequence than starting somewhere in the middle.
Summary
Writer/director Parker Finn’s sophomore effort, Smile 2, is the perfect example of what can happen when a filmmaker has a plan. It may be set firmly in the glitz and flash of a pop star’s lavish lifestyle, but it still holds the same dread and tension as its grittier predecessor. With the world building of Smile already in place, Parker had a chance to play and this is one terrifying playground.
Review by Robert Zilbauer.