VERDICT: Delivered in his typically playful style, John Smith’s latest film is a wry reflection on the conventionality of his name dotted with radical flourishes.
It’s a hard life Being John Smith, in amongst a sea of similarly named John Smiths.
He might be one of the most consistently excellent avant-garde filmmakers working today – or, indeed, ever – but there is no doubt that Smith’s commonplace name seems to belie the idiosyncrasy and distinctiveness of his oeuvre. “I desperately wanted to stand out,” he reveals in his newest film, Being John Smith, while reminiscing about plans to change his name during his youth which he abandoned in a fit of bloody-mindedness. This new work, which screens as part of the Paradocs section of this year’s IDFA, is a meandering pseudo-autobiography, which considers
Smith’s life, career and legacy through the lens of his all-too-familiar moniker.
As with all of Smith’s films, it is consistently hilarious and meticulously crafted, combining still images and short video clips with his own deft voiceover. Smith’s voice will be recognisable to those who have seen his films before – he has spoken previously about its neutrality being useful to him in personifying the unreliable narrator’s that often present his stories. Here, his deadpan delivery only heightens the sensation of an artist reflecting on having to forge and wrestle with an identity and self-esteem in a world in which so dominated by the cult of personality.
As with all of Smith’s best work, the playfulness and comedy are balanced against an array of genuinely thought-provoking ideas, incisive political anger, and perfectly attuned form. His early admission that after an early growth spurt, when other kids at school caught up with him, he went from being ‘Big John’ to ‘Piddly Smith’ is self-effacing and funny but returns with poignancy later on. The notion of self-confidence and being undermined by your own name becomes something far more nuanced and intrinsic to the work than just a humorous observation that Googling his name is more likely to bring up a still from Disney’s Pocahontas than his half-century spanning career. “If you do a Google search for John Smith online, you’ll get about 35 million results,” he explains at one point. His new film is a succinct reminder, though, that there is only one John Smith.
