The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureCinemaMovie reviews

Hide Your Smiling Faces

Hide Your Smiling Faces | Movie review
12 August 2014
The editorial unit
Avatar
The editorial unit
12 August 2014

Movie and show review

The editorial unit

Hide Your Smiling Faces

★★★★★

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

It would be tempting to describe Hide Your Smiling Faces as a coming-of-age film but this feels inaccurate; rather than following a conventional story arc the film meanders around at a slow pace and leaves very little resolved, raising more questions than answers. Set in rural New Jersey, the story revolves around two brothers, 14-year-old Eric (Nathan Varnson) and nine-year-old Tommy (Ryan Jones) as they struggle to come to terms with the tragic death of a friend.

hide your smiling faces

The film’s strength lies in the performances of the two young actors who portray their characters with startling realism and depth. The dynamic between them is well observed and convincing as they jostle between hostile interactions accountable to their five-year age gap, and more tender brotherly moments which are fewer and far between.

From the outset the atmosphere of the film is foreboding as danger seems to be lurking around every corner. Left mostly to their own devices, we see the two boys and their friends explore abandoned buildings in the woods, play with dead birds, host wrestling matches and play with a gun borrowed from their friend’s father’s workshop. Unfortunately the latter feels convoluted and superfluous to the plot as the weapon doesn’t actually play a role in their friend’s death and seems like a lazy device used to heighten the drama. The gun’s significance only seems to relate to a scene towards the end where Eric, spurned by a play-fight that gets out of hand, takes out the firearm and holds it to another boy’s head. The scene feels unconvincing and unprecedented as Eric shows no tendency towards excessive anger or violence in previous scenes and his provocation is minimal.

The cinematography is impressive throughout and contributes to the solemn and contemplative mood of the film; the majority of the scenes are shot in the bluish shadows of the woods while others are cast in bleached-out sunlight that is somehow equally cold. The dialogue is minimal throughout the film and the majority of the ideas are communicated visually, although when conversations do occur they feel natural and real.

Hide Your Smiling Faces is worth watching for the strength of the lead performances alone, however the subject matter is well-chartered territory and the film falls well short of classics like Stand By Me (1985) and more recently Mud (2012) both of which are excellent portrayals of very similar themes.

★★★★★

Steve Mallon

A UK release date for Hide Your Smiling Faces has not yet been announced.

Watch the trailer for Hide Your Smiling Faces here:

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Related Itemshide your smiling facesnathan varnsonnew jerseyryan jones

More in Movie reviews

Imperial Blue

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

MLK/FBI

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Sing Me a Song

★★★★★
Abbie Grundy
Read More

A Night of Horror: Nightmare Radio

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Wonder Woman 1984

★★★★★
Jake Cudsi
Read More

Come Away

★★★★★
Sylvia Unerman
Read More

Murder Me, Monster

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

David Byrne’s American Utopia

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Dreamland

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

The editorial unit

Hide Your Smiling Faces

★★★★★

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • You Me at Six – Suckapunch
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Outside the Wire
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • An interview with Ifrah Ismael: Tales from the Front Line and other stories
    Theatre
  • Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Female filmmakers lead nominees for the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards
    Cinema
  • Persian Lessons: Exclusive new clip
    Cinema
  • Jeremiah Fraites: Piano Piano
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Quo Vadis, Aida?
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Lonely the Brave – The Hope List
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • WandaVision: Marvel’s charming sitcom proves an astounding success
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Undercover at Morpheus Show Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Ten short literary collections to get you back into reading
    Literature
  • Mayor
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Lucy | Movie review
Original clandestine event with guest Kamil Foltan at The Red Bar