Smiley Face (2007)

Smiley Face is a stoner comedy that doesn’t just coast on the premise—it turns one very bad, very baked day into a breathless Los Angeles odyssey, shot with Gregg Araki’s jittery, neon-tinged energy and a sense of escalating, clockwork chaos. The real reason to watch is Anna Faris, who plays Jane like a human pinball of charm, panic, and misplaced confidence, making every tiny decision feel hilariously monumental without ever begging for your sympathy. The vibe is delirious and fast, full of near-misses, weird encounters, and that specific kind of paranoia where the universe seems personally offended by your to-do list. If drug-heavy humor isn’t your thing, it may wear thin, but if you’re on the fence and want a comedy powered by fearless physical performance and momentum, this one delivers.

Smiley Face is trying to be a hazy, one-day-in-LA stoner odyssey where everything spirals because the heroine is too baked to function, and to its credit Gregg Araki keeps the vibe loose and oddball. The problem is that “loose” often turns into “thin”: it’s basically a chain of misadventures without much escalation or payoff, so if you need a tight plot or big comedic set pieces, you may feel like you’re watching someone drift from problem to problem. Anna Faris is the main reason to show up—she commits hard, sells the physical comedy, and stays likable even when Jane is a mess—but the movie leans so heavily on intoxication as the engine that the joke can wear out. If stoner humor, aimless chaos, and an intentionally insubstantial hangout feel aren’t your thing, this will likely test your patience more than your funny bone.