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HAPPINESS *** Todd Soldonz 1998. The title of this independent film is of course deeply ironic, given many of the characters in this films posture at being happy yet are deeply unhappy, troubled and disturbed to the point of dysfunctionality, particularly sexual dysfunctionality. It is a critique on American urban hypocrisy. It concerns predominantly 3 sisters their parents, offspring, spouses, lovers; and also various other charactors that fall within their sphere. As well as clearly displaying various degrees of sexual dysfunctionality the film also happens to focus on paedophilia in a fairly uncompromising way. Dylan Baker as Bill is a married man with two young boys, a syrupy yet rigidly vain wife, yet he is a paedophile and is eventually discovered to have raped/buggered two of his elder son’s school-mates. The character of Bill is portrayed in a surprisingly frank and sympathetic light and there is a riveting scene when his elder son, (who has been obsessed with being able to cum) grills his father as to how, why, and where he is a paedophile, all questions which his father answers with complete honesty. This scene is quite harrowing and superbly played by Rufus Read as the young son. This is only one of several sexual vignettes in the film, which includes a brilliant Philip Seymour Hoffman who plays an anonymous phone wanker. There is an amusing string of events when Billy finally learns to cum and to the destination of that cum, which is how the film ends, but this light touch of amusement is not typical of this rather unrelentingly grim study of awful Americans on the hump.Read full review
Great insight and candid look into the satire of real life. If honest, viewers should be able to relate to such aspects of life even at a distance.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
If you like whiney, Woody Allenesque ensembles, then this film may be worth wasting 2 1/2 hours of your time on. I only rented it in the interest of research - having been quite frankly appalled by another of Solondz's offerings - 'Palindromes' - I wanted to see if this film was as bad/sick. As in the former, this film again touches on the subject of paedophilia - although much more briefly. One of the leading, adult male characters ends up drugging his whole family so that he can have his way with his young son's best friend. It does seem to be one of the director's most focussed upon topics! Quite apart from being the most tedious and boring film ever, there were other elements that I found particularly offensive dressed up as 'comedy' that crossed the boundaries into indecency and downright nastiness. The last scene for me as a parent and pet owner was particularly unpalatable. I also watched 'Welcome to the Dollhouse' from the same director and, whilst it was not quite so distasteful as the other two, you have to wonder about the use of the child actors in all of Solondz's films which I find quite disturbing. Don't bother with any of Solondz's films - I have only had my opinions confirmed and strengthened by watching them - and that is that they serve no purpose, they are not entertaining and really didn't need to be made.Read full review
For me, this movie is an excellent portrayal of the best and worst of what makes us human (kindness, compassion, naivety, selfishness, twistedness and so on). I think Solondz beautifully captures both moments of sublimity and moments of shameless secrecy - the pluses and minuses of human existence :) I saw this movie a few years ago. At the time, I was reading Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil and I recall that I linked many metaphors in the movie with the whole issue of virtues... Anyway, I found this movie a total masterpiece and recommended it to virtually everybody I know --many of them are thanking me now :) Buying the DVD now came as a result of having a discussion with my husband about the things we used to enjoy before we met. He is a musician and does not particularly enjoy sitting for two hours watching movies so we hardly ever go to the movies. Plus, he claims that movies these days are commercial crap. I am an independent film lover and assured him that I could prove him wrong with this movie. I think I have. He has agreed that it both makes powerful viewing because it is very well made and also generates conflicting emotions based on the things it chooses to address. I am very happy to have bought it!!Read full review
I love this Director's work, he has such a dark sense of humour, hillariously twisted storyline with supurbly acted characters that all interweave to create a real gem of a film! A must see.
Wrong in so many ways, but a great film! Don't expect a light, fluffy film that will make you feel happy! Do expect to be drawn into it, grossed out, feeling like you should stop watching, but loving it all the same.