Smile 2 (2024)

Watched 12/4/24 (Paramount+)

There’s a lot to like with the sequel to 2022’s incessantly annoying, amateurish Smile. Writer/director Parker Finn clearly decided to go in a more expansive, exciting direction with his budding hit franchise. And his filmmaking craft has clearly matured, exorcising most of the childish jump scares and slow-burn reveals for a more kinetic ride with some truly ambitious, creative, and well-executed action/horror set pieces. Unfortunately, there is just enough of his bad habits also on display to completely say that Finn has crafted a transcendent sequel. For every story, setting, and casting choice Smile 2 gets right, my smile was often turned upside down by its refusal to evolve just when this franchise needs to the most.

Smile 2 opens with one of the best action set pieces of the year. Not a true oner, but damn close with some awesome camerawork that focuses on pain and stress in a way that feels as thematically astute as it is exciting. We see Kyle Gallner’s Joel from the first movie running up on some unsuspecting drug kingpin thugs, giving them a taste of their own medicine while trying to pass on the Smile virus all in one fell swoop. While I do almost wish the entire sequel had been about Joel and his journey, I’m not here to Monday Morning Quarterback the movie. So I’ll take what we got. A+ work here with this pre-credits scene.

Through one more smooth, slimy degree of separation, the disease is next passed on to our main character, Skye Riley. And the casting here is where I have no notes. Naomi Harris as Skye is balls-to-the-wall awesome in this. She is asked to play a recovering addict, a pop-star, a scream queen, and a slasher all in one. Harris bats 1.000, nailing each persona with such credibility that she made even the most eye-rolling writing choices swallowable. She never dials it up too hard, allowing for us to root for her in a way that I never could with the boring and simultaneously whiny/overacted Sosie Bacon character in the original. It also helps that the character itself lends much more scope and stakes to the movie, being a hit pop star with a giant fan base ala a Taylor Swift or Beyoncé.

The pop star angle is probably the best choice this movie makes. Getting an inside-baseball look at her tour and the inner-machinations of her day-to-day crossed with this ticking time bomb of a disease allows for much more investment. She feels more important and the work she does is so much more interesting for it. It also helps that Finn gets to experiment with all manner of song, dance, and speech set pieces.

Some of the creative choices with how to approach horror sequences here are brimming with creativity. From a synced-up backup dancer kill mob to a charity speech gone wrong to a truly large concert finale that certainly creates worldwide ramifications, Finn’s execution of this world lives up to the box office dollars that this movie generated. His photography of New York overplays its hand a bit with the upside down shots, but it feels big-budget when in reality it’s not. Any time a director can stretch the money to these levels, it’s something I can respect.

Unfortunately, as Skye slowly loses her mind and endures these mostly solid, gonzo horrors, the inevitable return of the grief/trauma storyline that infects so many movies today also rears its ugly head. While Scott acts it all with precision, it’s stale to watch this addiction trauma play itself out over and over again. We know that no one will believe her. We know we’re gonna get a million flashbacks of her worst drug-fueled incidents. It’s far from rocket science—in fact, it’s just overplayed bullshit in 2024. Anyone and everyone does this and I, for one, am sick of it. If it had anything new or interesting to say about grief, maybe I could rock with it a bit more. But it really doesn’t have much on its mind and it’s a punishing rehash of the first movie in that respect.

The whole movie is pretty unpleasant. While I understand this is the intention, it gets to be a bit annoying when the movie bashes you over the head with this trauma=bad stuff fifty times and ends without presenting any higher thesis. What—are we supposed to help people who are suffering? No shit. It almost feels exploitative to do a movie like this and have nothing bigger on the brain. Throw out the trauma storyline and just make a fun horror set piece machine. Not EVERY movie needs to have some bigger subtext; you can just make a fun slasher and people will be happy!

Which brings me to the next point… Parker Finn is way too good at monsters and creatures to be doing this human drama for 119 minutes and the supernatural for 1. Smile 2, like its predecessor, fails to embrace the gooey, crunchy creativity that Finn clearly has an affinity for when it comes to monster design. We get one tiny moment of it here just like we did in the first, and both are such terrifying, frustrating teases of what he is capable of. We have now seen in this sequel that his set piece creativity is a force to be reckoned with. Give us more of the damn monsters that are a joy to watch despite their low screentime. I’m not saying Smile 3 has to be A Quiet Place or a King Kong, but maybe just stop making these Smile movies and take your talents to a new idea that can spotlight these creatures instead of keeping them in the background. With the action chops he showed off in that opening scene, I would love to see how Finn could combine that skill with some good, old-fashioned, creature feature nightmares.

Overall, I had a good time with the performances across the board, especially Naomi Scott, as well as some of the filmmaking level-ups on display. And a really bad time with all of the choices that felt glued to the dark, empty heart of this franchise. I guess this Finn guy is remaking Possession next, which isn’t the exact type of movie I would like to see him go to next, but hopefully he finds a backdoor way to expand on what he is good at and minimize the unnecessary “elevated horror” crap he seems to want to return to again and again.

6/10