FILM

An autobiographical reflection on his unassuming name leads the filmmaker down a wayward path through family photographs, personal archives, and internet searches. Alternately wry and wistful, peppered with Smith’s characteristically droll commentary, Being John Smith flits between self-deprecation and ’cris de coeur’ , offering quietly hilarious observations on Smith’s lower middle class origins and career as an avant-garde cinema luminary, as well as unexpectedly melancholic impressions on age and extinction. (NYFF)