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Happiness (1998)

Director: Todd Solondz

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Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Centred loosely on a New Jersey family of three grown-up sisters, their parents, partners and children, Solondz's brave and adventurous second feature takes misery, loneliness and cruelty as a given in contemporary life; everyone here is (justifiably or otherwise) unhappy with their lot - or should be, if they could only stop deluding themselves. Right from the painfully funny opening, it's a bible-black comedy of considerable assurance, but gradually the humour subsides to be replaced by a core of despairing human sympathy, most noticeably for the paedophile father whose heart-to-hearts with his teenage son come to form the emotional backbone of the movie. Very often, you're unsure whether you want to accompany Solondz on his journey into a modern purgatory, but you should take the trip; it's worth it, and something you'll never forget.

Author: GA

Time Out Film Guide


User reviews of this film

  • James said...
    Posted on Aug 07 2009 20:46 this is the worse film I have seen in a couple of years - obviously a film about a bunch of losers and sexual miscreants is going to be drab and depressing but it is also contrived and poorly written. don't normally write comments but I thought I had to warn the world not to waste 2 hours of life
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