It’s no fault of Sarah Silverman‘s that her latest movie, I Smile Back, is so thematically, narratively and artistically clueless. The movie’s about her character, housewife and mother Laney Brooks, battling chronic depression, though, upon further reflection, the film is better described as a chronic depression simulator, a bridge-to-nowhere of a story that subjects us to grotesque acts of domestic horror without providing any worthwhile insight into its subject’s tragic condition as consolation. Silverman’s great—this may be the best she’s ever been on the big screen—but the truth remains that this is borderline sadistic cinema that lacks empathy and will ruin your day, if not your entire week.

Director Adam Salky and writers Amy Koppelman and Paige Dylan (who adapted Koppelman’s own novel) put Silverman in an incredibly precarious position, asking her to lay it all on the line as an actor on every level. Valiantly, she holds up her end of the bargain, committing herself to every disturbing scenario thrown her way. Silverman’s the real deal—comedy may be her forte according to current public opinion, but as she hinted at in Sarah Polley‘s Take This Waltz, she can win audiences over as a dramatic lead just as well as she can as a stretchy-faced tomboy comedienne.

The big letdown here is that there isn’t enough dimension to Laney or her story, which means all the horrible things we watch her go through—sex addiction, drug and alcohol dependence, a self-destructive case of habitual lying—are in service of no larger meaning. In short, there doesn’t seem to be a point to all the torment.

The narrative is skeletal, essentially charting Laney’s downward spiral as her demons overtake her being and consequently push her family away. Her life falls apart in slow motion as she cheats on her husband (Josh Charles, a great onscreen partner) multiple times and emotionally traumatizes their two young children via random, unspeakable acts. Chronic depression is ugly, serious business that can lead to far worse things than what we see here, but the filmmakers are needlessly cruel to Laney in that they don’t give her the benefit of a complex personality; other than her bout with depression, the only thing that defines her is that she’s an upper-middle class soccer-mom cliché.

If you adjust the lens a bit and look at I Smile Back from a moment to moment perspective, it actually works on a few levels. The actors are pretty great across the board (even the kids) and Silverman and Charles are immediately convincing as a couple. Eric Lin’s cinematography is evocative and sumptuous and Tamara Meem’s editing fits the material well, reflecting Laney’s clouded mental state with disorienting skips back and forth in time. What’s frustrating is that there’s good stuff in there; with a greater sense of cohesion and a bit more narrative context, the movie might have been decent. It’s like opening up a puzzle set only to find a third of the pieces missing.

The story purposefully holds back all but a few bite-sized details about Laney’s sordid past (parental abandonment is a prime factor), but it’s hard to guess what the filmmakers’ intent was. Surely we’d empathize and identify with her more if we could understand more clearly the path that led her to such a self-destructive place. It’s just too hard to invest in Laney’s journey, which is a shame considering how much Silverman’s busting her ass. The ending feels…arbitrary. To be honest, you could cut the story off at any point of the movie’s gauntlet of crash-and-burns and the film’s emotional impact would be the same: negligible.

Joining the show this week is James Vanderbilt, a veteran screenwriter whose directorial debut, Truth, is out in theaters this weekend. The movie stars Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford and revolves around a the controversial report Dan Rather gave on 60 minutes in 2004 about the alleged fraudulence of George W. Bush’s military record, a piece that would lead to Rather (Redford) and his longtime producer, Mary Mapes (Blanchett) losing their jobs. Also on the show Bernard and CJ run their mouths (as always) about the Mill Valley Film Festival and festival fatigue as well as share their Indie Picks of the Week.

Topics

• Indie Picks (1:17)
• MVFF38 (7:18)
• Festival Fatigue (31:27)
• James Vanderbilt Truth Interview (39:57)

WTI Articles Referenced in the Podcast

MVFF38 Diaries
I Smile Back TIFF Review
Room TIFF Review
Son of Saul Cannes Review
The Forbidden Room Review

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The second day of MVFF38 saw the arrival of Sarah Silverman to promote I Smile Back, the actress’ first dramatic lead. I had the pleasure of meeting Silverman during a private cocktail party set up for the San Francisco Film Critics Circle (of which I am inexplicably a member) and she was sweet as can be. Despite the film’s dark subject matter and the fact that she’s been receiving some serious praise from critics and moviegoers for her impassioned performance, she was all laughs and accepted the adulation with humility and self-deprecation.

Enter the Void

After watching I Smile Back, I came away with two main thoughts. a) Sarah Silverman is a real-deal actor who should do more dramatic work and b) I Smile Back is one of the cruelest, bleakest, most upsetting, unappetizing movies I’ve seen all year. Silverman plays a stay-at-home mom whose bout with chronic depression dismantles everything in her life and pushes her husband (Josh Charles) and two kids far, far away. Directed by Adam Salky, the movie is primarily concerned with exploring in upsetting detail the different effects and stages of depression, but the story feels like a bridge to nowhere. Chronic depression is serious business, but the material doesn’t have enough depth to warrant how borderline sadistic it is. Silverman’s character gets beat up, humiliated, abandoned, and everything in between, and while the actress fully embraces the role and all the challenges that come with it, the film provides little insight, making it feel more like a depression simulator than a work of art.

Built to Last

Nordic humor, in all its dry, dark, offbeat glory, makes me laugh harder than just about anything these days, and director Gunnar Vikene’s Here Is Harold is one of the funniest Nordic comedies you’ll find, period. It’s my favorite thing I’ve seen at the festival so far, and considering how much I loved Spotlight, that’s saying a lot. Bjørn Sundquist plays Harold, a furniture shop owner who gets driven out of business by the new IKEA across the street. Having lost everything, he hatches a half-baked plan to kidnap IKEA’s founder (Björn Granath) and force him to apologize to the world for selling them shoddy furniture. The snags, follies, and friends Harold meets on his journey are best left a surprise, but I will say that the story is surprisingly moving and soulful, with touching moments that blindside you in between the laughs. Nordic humor has an obsession with death and misfortune that allows it to couple beautifully with even the darkest material; look no further than Here Is Harold for proof.

The Mill Valley Film Festival, which kicks off tonight in Marin County, Calif., is the perfect place to movie lovers to collect their festival-season thoughts and look forward to the approaching awards season. Boasting a lineup of some of the best films that played at the likes of Cannes, TIFF and Sundance, MVFF38 is one of the best festivals on the West coast and has a long history of showcasing films that go on to win Best Picture prizes at the major awards shows.

I’ll be posting daily diaries from tomorrow until closing night on October 18th. Stay tuned for updates on the Oscar hopefuls as well as coverage on the festival’s particularly excellent foreign feature, indie and documentary lineups this year.

The festival opens with Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight, which garnered considerable acclaim coming out of TIFF. Starring Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton, the true-story drama should continue to pick up momentum in Mill Valley. Co-headlining opening night is Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl, starring Eddie Redmayne in a role that could earn him his second-straight Best Actor win.

Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette, starring Carey Mulligan, will close out the festival, capping off a program with a decidedly strong female presence. Spotlighted this year are Sarah Silverman and Brie Larson, who both give standout performances in I Smile Back and Room, respectively, as well as Suffragette‘s Mulligan. Receiving the MVFF award will be Catherine Hardwicke, whose female-friendship dramedy Miss You Already stars Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette.

The foreign feature lineup has got me particularly excited this year, with even the deepest cuts looking irresistible. A great example is Here Is Harold, from Norwegian filmmaker Gunnar Vikene, follows an aging furniture dealer who wages war against IKEA by kidnapping its founder. What’s not to like about that? Other foreign highlights include French director Malgorzata Szumowska’s Body, Jacques Audiard’s Palme d’Or winner, Deephan, Jocelyn Moorhouse’s The Dressmaker, Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang, and Grímur Hákonarson’s Rams.

For more info on MVFF38, visit mvff.com

What’s the point of a good performance if it’s wasted on a bad film? That’s the question I had in my head after watching Adam Salky’s I Smile Back. Sarah Silverman plays Laney, a wife and mother of two kids with a successful husband (Josh Charles) who’s about to publish a book. But Laney has severe issues with addiction, clinging on to any possible vice she can get her hands on if her mood happens to go the wrong way. She stops taking her prescribed medication to curb her addictions, and soon finds herself drinking, snorting cocaine, popping Xanax and sleeping with a family friend (Thomas Sadoski). Janey hits rock bottom, goes to rehab, and then tries to re-adjust once she gets out.

The film’s focus on the struggle to break the cycle of addiction feels refreshing in its frankness, but Salky’s direction and the script (by Amy Koppelman and Paige Dylan) fall into a rather simplistic, familiar depiction of addiction that feels more at home in a TV movie. Laney is a textbook example of daddy issues, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that her father winds up throwing her into yet another self-destructive phase. As a result, there’s a dated feel to the entire film, with its entirely white, affluent cast of characters dealing with their rich people problems. It might have worked better in the 90s.

And while the material is lacking, Silverman commits to every piece of it with full force. Some people might find her performance a little too obvious in its attempt to play against type, but even if that were the case nobody could deny that she completely hurls herself into the role, going to places a lot of actors wouldn’t dare. It’s just too bad she commits herself to a film that’s clearly beneath her efforts. Even an abrupt ending, one that’s admirable in its refusal to give any resolution, can’t land because it’s preceded by a sequence that can only be described as abysmal in its attempt to be “raw” and “gritty.” Other than acting as a curio for people wanting to see Silverman’s range, I Smile Back doesn’t offer much else.