Happiness

Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: 'Happiness' is often referred to as a 'provocative', 'sad' and 'unsettling' movie which deviates from the typical Hollywood 'sugar coated humanist approach' which tries to manipulate audiences and insult our intelligence simultaneosly. While the film is obviously subversive and an interesting depiction of the shallow and overall 'depthlessness' of human interaction which unhappiness and self loathing manifest themselves, it somehow falls short of it's target. Todd deserves credit for attempting to convey the sheer desperation and depravity evident within mankind and forcing us to symphathise with the protagonists to a certain degree. While occassionally disturbing and thought provoking, this film offers little insight into the human condition for the cynics of this world. The lack of atmosphere and an overdose of ironic situations tends to detract from the overall picture. A brave and confronting film perhaps but certainly no masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: What a film, what a film
Review: I watched this film as a comedy and laughed the whole way through... I didn't realize how "disturbing" it was until I talked to my friends afterwards and they expressed their complete shock and disgust. Happiness is the ultimate human comedy. It takes sexual perverts of all kinds and shows them as real and beautiful human beings. I guess that's too challenging for the general audience. While watching it I was mostly amused by the dark humor and grossed out at the semen gags... my strongest reactions came when I was thinking about it practically non-stop for the next week or so and I realized what a beautiful and thought-provoking film it is. Please watch it

Rating:
Summary: funny, sad, exhilarating, painful, & mind-blowing at once
Review: This movie is right up there with Pulp Fiction and Dr. Strangelove as one of the best black comedies ever made, though DEFINITELY not for all tastes. I read the screenplay twice before seeing the movie and didn't think it was all that great, but after seeing it I was blown away completely. I'll try to give my opinion without giving anything away. The first thing I noticed about it was how perfect the cinematography is. The way the color overloaded the screen gave it an after-school-special look which really added to the movie's effect. The characters were perfectly fleshed out, both by the story and the performances. The movie's implications, that we are all alone in our lives and that we don't know how to make ourselves happy, were astounding. Some of it was a joy to watch, some of it was very painful to watch. Most of it was both. Todd Solondz has been criticized for making filth for its own sake and seeking only to shock us, but I think those people were missing the point. He uses the sensitive subject matter and the shock comedy to pull the viewer directly into the story, so that we can at the same time sympathize with the characters for who they are and hate them for what they do. These characters are aware of what they do; they hate themselves for it, but they cannot help themselves. The movie's only flaw is its length. It's exhausting to see all at once and should probably be seen in segments, because it doesn't really have a plot in the traditional sense of the word. It more or less stays on the same note throughout the movie (which makes its message all the more effective) until the end when it all comes together. And in the last scene, true to the title, one of the characters (little Billy) does find happiness.

Rating:
Summary: Funny and Good
Review: Its funny, and a good movi

Rating:
Summary: Wow. A daring glance at what we are capable of becoming.
Review: This film stands alone in several ways. Most strikingly the content of the film is downright deviant, but never fantastic. At every turn there is a bedrock plausibility that lends the movie a sort of credibility. As depraved and even criminal as the characters become, they remain as real as any character on screen can be. As the story runs, there are scores of intense dramatic situations that enthrall the audience. But days after watching the film, for me, the questions that it poses are fresh and unresolved. This is certainly not a subtle film on screen, but I cannot recall any film that left me pondering more subtle and difficult questions afterwards. There are times while watching this film that your body will tremble with laughter, then sit still with sadness, and even the most hardened should count on their stomach turning at least once. Ultimately the film has a dark message for me: we cannot escape who we are. The natural follow-up is then: are we responsible for who we are? A resounding yes.

Oh yeah, don't watch this movie on a date (and if you are a chronic masterbater, try watching this movie as a cure).

Rating:
Summary: Ditto what Dementia said.
Review: I can't add anything to what Dementia25 said. All I can say is that this is one intense, perverse, incredible film, and that the cinematography is brilliant not just by itself, but as a player in the film's overall effect. I must say that I am quite conservative, but this film is just too well done to be cast off as "morally objectionable". Rent or buy this film ASAP.

Rating:
Summary: It moves you, one way or the other.
Review: People tend to feel strongly one way or the other about this film. To me, reading the previous reviews, I could say without having seen the film, that it was a successful piece of art. Having seen the film, I know how terrible it is to stomach. And how hilarious. Yes, it reflects a twisted society and, yes, it may not be the life you live, but there's nothing unbelievable about any of the scenarios. It happens. This is as good as it gets. We're a bunch of strange creatures here on this earth moving this way and that, and sometimes some sick ones intersect.

I had to cover my eyes a few times. I wanted to cover my ears. My stomach turned. I didn't leave feeling quite as buoyant as after SOUND OF MUSIC, but I knew I'd been through something intensely emotional. And that's all I ever want from a film. And it's something that happens far too infrequently.

Grab this art while you can. This world fears power like this. The film equivalent of Picasso's GUERNICA in its emotional intensity, HAPPINESS is a must-see, even if you only see it once.

Rating:
Summary: A dark and original look at happiness in America
Review: Most people would probably be turned off by a movie such as "Happiness". In telling the story of a group of characters' search for joy, writer/director Todd Solondz doesn't shy away from the darker sides of their personalities. One of them is a psychologist/father/pedophile and another makes obscene phone calls to the woman of his dreams. With America being as confusing as it is though,it seems appropriate to show the despair through the eyes of these bewildered souls.

Rating:
Summary: Represents everything good about indepent film
Review: Definitely one of the best movies of the decade, and one of the best independent films of all time. I saw this movie in the theater because i was already of fan of the director, Todd Solondz, after seeing and loving his first film, Welcome to the Dollhouse. This film goes where no film has dared even think about going in the past, completely redefing the term "black comedy". The movie intertwines several loosely related plotlines(a la Pulp Fiction), all involving outwardly banal suburban characters whose private lives are actually teeming with depravity and tragedy, ineptitude and self-loathing. The film is at its most audacious when following the trials and tribulations of an average suburban psychologist who also just happens to be a homosexual pedophile. In this particular storyline, Solondz takes this repellent figure, this Grendel of modern society, and exposes his life in such tragically comic and crushingly depressing tones as to make you reevaluate your initial preconceived notions of the John Wayne Gaycie's of the world. This film has the singular distinction of containing the only scene in which i felt the urge to laugh, vomit, and cry simultaneously. If you are a prude or a moralizing, close-minded fundamentalist of one type or another, you will probably find this movie "filthy" and "morally bankrupt". If so, then you, of course, are the type of person who needs to see this movie most of all. Anyone else with an open mind and a taste for shocking, thought provoking media of any kind will enjoy this unsentimental look at the by-products of America's Suburban Utopia.

Rating:
Summary: guilty pleasure
Review: Call me weird if you like, but i found this movie absolutely hilarious. This is the kind of subject matter that seperates the people that take life WAAAAY too seriously from the rest of us. This movie never had a dull moment. I was glued to the screen from beginning to end. It's a roller coaster ride thru the dark side of life. This is the first Todd Solondz movie i've ever seen, but a guarantee you, it's not the last. Great flick.