Back in April, Kevin and Paul devoted half an episode of FilmCouch to Gregg Araki’s Smiley Face, a winning stoner comedy starring Anna Faris that earned lukewarm critical reviews, but was a hit with audiences at SXSW and Sundance. “I giggle just thinking about,” Paul said at the time. “[It's] the funniest stoner flick I have ever seen.”
Smiley’s distributor, First Look, had initially planned a platform release beginning on April 20 (get it? 420? Get it?), but that date came and went and Araki’s film still hadn’t made it to North American theaters. After the film played at Toronto a couple of weeks ago, it looked as though First Look might be gearing up for a new release date. But yesterday, MTV’s Larry Carroll confirmed that Smiley Face will open on just one screen in Los Angeles, before First Look dumps it on DVD.

This news has already sparked a mild eruption of outrage across the web. “Perhaps you’re wondering why the MTV Movies team would waste its energy writing about the sort of DVD burial that happens in Hollywood every day, and you’re right to do so,” writes Carroll. “The answer is a simple one: Smiley Face remains one of the funniest films we’ve seen in 2007, and it deserves better.” Christopher Campbell, Matt Dentler, and Jeff Wells have also weighed in.

Interestingly, commenters on both Campbell and Wells’ posts have laid the blame on First Look. At Wells’ site, commenter corey3rd writes, “First Look is dead meat. It’s a miracle they know how to book a single theater.” This could be true–they certainly don’t seem to be doing much in support of their current release, the Michael Douglas vehicle King of California–but I’m not sure the outrage is entirely warranted in this case. First off, the MTV story doesn’t specify *which* Los Angeles theater they’re booking it in––if we’re talking about the midnight slot at the Sunset 5, it could play there for six months. But more importantly, the fact is that movies like Smiley Face find their core audiences, and make the bulk of their money, on DVD. Any theatrical release for this films is only going to function for First Look as an expensive commercial for the home entertainment release. I just don’t think this  is really the worst case scenario for the film’s potential fans.