I certainly am not target audience for this short film because, although his photographs went viral, I had never seen them nor heard of them until this short film. Obviously knowing about Smith's model world and his photographs of a long gone era of Americana would help get into this film, but it does well enough has a character piece so that really pre-knowledge is not necessarily required. What we get is mostly detail of a reclusive man who has worked many jobs and has a hobby of creating these models and photographing them. The impact of internet success is one thing that the film covers, but additionally we get more of a sense of the darker times behind the models.
As such it becomes quite an intimate piece, with Smith being both cheerful about all subjects, but also brutally honest about his childhood, the things that happened to his family, and other such detail. With this context it is interesting to see the way that internet success was such a positive force for his life – interesting but yet also curious in the way that he seems to take so much from it. I don't mean that in a negative way, just a genuinely interesting one – I think most people get a buzz off online success, whether it is Reddit's front page, or a retweet by someone famous that catches on; does it add validity to the post or comment to have it liked? Maybe not, but I guess it certainly feels like it does – and this is an interesting aside in the film, albeit one that is not hugely pursued.
It is not an amazing film, and it will help to have an interest in Smith's work, or at least some knowledge of it, but even without this there is a honest intimacy to him and the way the film opens him up that is engaging, refreshing and easy to watch – and for 10 minutes that is more than enough.