Daniel Patrick Carbone s stellar debut Hide Your Smiling Faces has drawn deserved comparisons to David Gordon Green s George Washington and Terrence Malick s The Tree of Life in its capturing of the formative moments in which boys transition to men. While comparisons to masterful filmmakers often betray a critical inability to look deeper, the influences feel relevant here. Like Green s debut, this lyrical drama announces the arrival of a talented young director with a keen grasp of youth; a man who presents a truthful vision of how death impacts soon-to-be men differently depending on their ages.
Advertisement Hide Your Smiling Faces opens with a long shot of a snake eating an animal. It is a tone-setter in that what follows has the feel of natural progression; that of a teen into a man.