regular fixture on lists of neglected 1970s cinematic 
diamonds in the rough, Smile became a critics' darling in 1975 thanks to its comedic look at beauty pageant culture while skewering some of the more absurd aspects of the American lifestyle in the process. Entertaining and featuring a stellar cast of character actors, the film seemed to fit snugly with the Robert Altman-style aesthetic of the time but ended up being largely sidelined in a year that saw such heavy hitters as Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Dog Day Afternoon dominating the mainstream conversation, not to mention Altman's own Nashville. The film also ended up fitting perfectly as the centerpiece of an American satire trilogy from director Michael Ritchie between 1972's The Candidate and 1976's The Bad News Bears, turning its sights to the "American Miss" craze instead of politics or sports. Despite the major decline in pageant popularity in recent years, the film still remains a potent and enjoyable gem of its kind, delivering plenty of sharply-observed laughs while paving the way for future barbed looks at the subject like Drop Dead Gorgeous, Little Miss Sunshine, and Miss Congeniality.
colorful characters involved in the statewide contest are judge Big Bob Friedlander (Dern), the executive director Brenda (Get Smart's Feldon), producer Wilson Shears (Lewis), and no-nonsense choreographer 
Tommy French (MGM musical legend Kidd) imported from Hollywood. The contests themselves are dealing with body image and self-worth issues as well as not-so-underlying sexism and racism, with the young women including such familiar faces as Body Double's Melanie Griffith, Cat People's Annette O'Toole, and a pre-Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2's Caroline Williams. As the big day approaches, town drama erupts involving a chicken-oriented hazing ritual, a production injury, an attempted suicide, and mounting costs and emotional tensions galore. 
Thankfully the powers that be made sure all the legal requirements were handled 
for the numerous songs on the soundtrack (including the title song by Nat "King" Cole, The Beach Boys, and lots of cover performances), so the film has managed to escape the pitfall that sabotaged many of its peers from around the same time. In 2021, Fun City Editions added this to its impressive roster of overlooked '70s essentials featuring a new 2K restoration from the 35mm interpositive; in keeping with their usual approach, it's been left intact in terms of film grain to keep that distinctive 1975 look intact, with very robust colors throughout. It's a big leap over the DVD for sure and the best this has looked on home video to date by a long shot. The DTS-HD MA 2.0 English track sounds excellent as well and features optional English SDH subtitles. A new audio commentary by actor and filmmaker Pat Healy and Wisconsin film curator Jim Healy features them chatting remotely about their enthusiasm for this film, the backgrounds of the major players, and observations about the on-screen action. (It also has quite a few silent gaps studded throughout, which may be due to the same reason that afflicts many MGM-connected releases.) In "Dernsie's Credo" (27m51s), Dern provides a lengthy and very funny interview about his character's philosophy, the political climate during shooting, the state of his career and United Artists at the time (including the recently removed David Picker who got this one off the ground), and lots of tidbits about the shooting of the film, not to mention a fun trivia segue. Also included are an SD open matte theatrical trailer, a very hefty image gallery (6m), and an insert booklet featuring a witty and perceptive essay by the late Mike McPadden.