Smile Pretty (2009) Reviews

• An amazing movie for what it is, Scout outshines even the biggest stars today

  TeamStrode2009-09-21

  Smile Pretty. Now, apparently Scout's character is supposed to be a victim and to an extent she is. But she is very ala Evie Zamora from thirteen-nix the drugs, amp up the sex, you get the idea. She is cold, calculating, manipulative, and when combined, the idea of feeling remorse for her drains away. I'm not saying this was bad, no, the entire cast was amazing, Scout especially, talk about 360s. Ah Harry Bromley-Davenport, I want to welcome you to the club-the Sickos Club! Welcome! Embrace it! The most amazing thing about this was how all these damage and down-right *beep* up people found each other. Nasty and Matt, that I can understand, but throwing in Sam and at the end? It was the only part that felt forced and somewhat unplanned, yet turned itself around quick. Matt and Nasty-I can't even imagine what prompted any sane parent to give their blessing to this movie. About sixty-nine minutes into this movie, it isn't what you see, it's what you hear that will turn your stomach. Basically, Nasty escapes with Matt who is by def. a pedophile and they are living together as brother/sister. She claims to be in love with him but I don't buy it. "He is a stud"-ha ha ha I wonder how many takes before Scout could say it with a straight face? Stud? Right-and Michael Myers is sane. I fell off the couch laughing when this scene came to-not going to lie, alcohol did not help. Nasty-boy is she. From the way she talks which can sound like the way a trucker would sound to the way she acts, she is damaged goods that will never be right. Scout plays it perfectly, never missing a step, a beat, a frown, a tear, whatever the scene called for, she nailed it. If there is a hell, then Matt and Peter are surely destined to burn there for all eternity. People like Matt should be arressted and castrated and then released back into society, people like Peter, we should just line up along a wall and gun down. Pete Cheklev or something is Matt who is quite weak though circumstances in his life made him this way. He can not make it with adult females they have to be young girls-how he managed to escape jail after sleeping with a 14-year old is mind-boggling (this was before Nasty). Alexander Knezevich is Peter he runs on a very short fuse and every scene he is in provoked an anger I hadn't felt in a long time. He is sort of like a jealous pimp and he is down-right evil. Much like H2, I am still trying to figure out exactly what I felt overall. I will say that Scout left me speechless, the second best performance from her. She has the ability to run circles around full-grown adults in the acting biz. As long as she doesn't fall into any pitfalls of young people in the industry and does more thought-provoking films like this, she will go far. Oh and Harry welcome to the Sickos club.

• Pretty brave if nothing else

  lazarillo2012-10-23

  This is kind of an interesting modern-day film about child sexual abuse that manages to make a couple rather "politically incorrect" points that most films would have avoided in this play-it-safe cinematic age. The first is the basic truism that many sexual predators themselves were sexually abused as children. The character "Matt" here falls into this category--he is a disturbing, but not entirely unsympathetic character. The second is that abuse victims, especially teenage abuse victims, are not always sympathetic and innocent, and may at times even be complicit in their own abuse. The character "Nasty" certainly falls into this category. She has been abused and exploited by her adopted father, but in her relationship with "Matt" it is SHE who is the sexual aggressor (just like "Lolita" in the famous Nabokov novel). Not that this movies excuses child sexual abuse in any way, but it adds a few shades of gray that serve to make it a little more realistic than your usual film on this type of subject. Perhaps, the most interesting point though is also the one that is the most mishandled--the idea that the most ardent moral crusaders out there, the ones who want to hang, castrate, and burn all the dirty pedophiles, might perhaps be over-compensating for their OWN repressed attraction to adolescents. They're not unlike the repressed people who can't deal with their own homosexuality and react by being virulently homophobic (I'm NOT trying to equate pedophilia and and homosexuality, but there is a kind of a "pedophile-phobia" in America these days where some people lack any kind of rationality on the subject and are just overly hate-filled and paranoid). A similar point was made--much better--in the Kevin Bacon film "The Woodsman". Of course, one doesn't exactly have to be a pedophile to be attracted to 19-year-old Scout-Taylor Compton here, and that's kind of a problem with this movie. Compton does do a very good acting job, but she doesn't look much like a fourteen-year-old, which is especially apparent in one awkward scene where she accuses an older male character of being attracted to her himself--well, obviously! This would have been more believable with a younger-looking actress (albeit it probably would have been a lot harder to watch too), but while it is not entirely successful as movie, it does manage to provide a lot of food for thought on its disturbing subject matter. It'a pretty brave film if nothing else.

• Very Amazing Movie...

  Slasher_Lover232009-08-15

  Wow. This was an AMAZING movie. It's depressing, but it's also informative. This is definitely Scout's BEST performance. I felt for her character throughout the whole thing. I really praise Scout for taking on this role that most girls wouldn't. She brought forward something that most people don't think about. Once people see this, it will really hit them hard and make them think about the innocent girls that go through the things Nastalia did. Scout's performance, as well as the others, were great. And the writer and director picked a great topic to make a movie about. It's kinda sad that this won't get as much attention by the public like it should. It's not like "To Catch A Predator". Smile Pretty actually focused on the victim and just how bad it affects them. Scout really proves herself here, that she is truly an extraordinary actress. I've always known she was great, but this proves it. It was really different seeing Scout in a role like this. And for all of you who've seen Scout's films and seen what she's like in her youtube vids. Once you see this, you know that Scout picked this part for a reason and a purpose.

• Very sick

  WakenPayne2012-11-08

  This movie to be honest looked interesting because Harry Bromley-Davenport made a good movie with Mockingbird Don't Sing and I wanted to see how he handled another true story. This movie deals with a very sick topic (child pornography) and the way they handle it is not much better. Most of the movie is about a 15-year-old girl's relationship with a man twice her age. Scout Taylor Compton is good as a teenager that likes to have sex and is in love with a man twice her age. In a way I can see why people will hate it (obviously due to the topic matter). If you aren't disturbed by the movie then there is something seriously wrong with you. So in a weird way I don't really know what to give this movie. It is effective in creeping me out but the ending came with a sense of being unfulfilled from me. I would have actually have liked to see Nastalia adjust to having a normal life. THAT would have been a great movie.

• A little to straightforward...

  savannah4566542009-09-04

  I was at looking at Scout Taylor Compton's movies and I saw the movie "Smile Pretty" and I thought that I should go and rent it. I rented it and I will say that Scout did a really good job in it. The movie was a little to straightforward in a way where they didn't give any innuendos and it kind of made it just an OUT THERE movie. It is a very inappropriate movie for anyone under 18, a lot of sexual content and language, a little bit of violence and a child in adult situations. It was most likely one of Scout Taylor Compton's best work so far.It could have been a little better though...but over all it was good. I give it 5 out of 10 stars!