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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Lions Gate
Salesrank: 37059
Released: June 3, 2003 |
| Our Price: $8.15 |
| Used Price: $6.73 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Meet three sisters at the center of a struggle with the secret demons of middle class perfection. Theres joy who is rebounding from a break-up with her latest loser boyfriend helen a glamorous writer looking for drama in a relationship with a obscene phone caller and trish the housewife. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 09/14/2004
Description of Happiness:
At times brilliant and insightful, at times repellent and false, Happiness is director Todd Solondz's multistory tale of sex, perversion, and loneliness. Plumbing depths of Crumb-like angst and rejection, Solondz won the Cannes International Critics Prize in 1998 and the film was a staple of nearly every critic's Top Ten list. Admirable, shocking, and hilarious for its sarcastic yet strangely empathetic look at consenting adults' confusion between lust and love, the film stares unflinchingly until the audience blinks. But it doesn't stop there. A word of strong caution to parents: One of the main characters, a suburban super dad (played by Dylan Baker), is really a predatory pedophile and there is more than an attempt to paint him as a sympathetic character. Children are used in this film as running gags or, worse, the means to an end. Whether that end is a humorous scene for Solondz or sexual gratification for the rapist becomes largely irrelevant. Happiness is an intelligent, sad film, revelatory and exact at moments. It's also abuse in the guise of art. That's nothing to celebrate. --Keith Simanton
Happiness Reviews:
Happiness does not wear well... 
2008-11-28 - I first saw this movie several years ago and, I guess, my mood was such that, aside from brilliant acting; I found the film wildly amusing despite its central theme. I ordered copies for several friends who seemed to find it "strange" to "wierd"...not very funny.
I remembered it and tried it on a new friend last night. It is still shocking, brilliantly acted...but it isn't very funny after all. The big laughs I remembered just weren't there. The film moved quickly but I kept thinking, "now comes the REALLY funny part"...and there just isn't one.
It is brilliant, disturbing, shocking. It is not a comedy. Those who turn it off after ten minutes may be missing an experience in cinema...but a very ugly one.
Horrible mess of fringe people 
2008-11-16 - Only in a film could one find such a menagerie of social misfits that somehow all manage to intersect in some tangential way. While lunatics, perverts, the socially inept, the depressed, ugly, fat and others do in fact exist, to find them all in such close proximity to one another is of course farce. Excuses can be give for why this is, given that it is a film and this is the story the filmmakers choose to tell. Fine. I still hated it. None of the characters were compelling and I could not relate to barely any aspect of this film. Like that horrid overrated garbage CRASH, this film supposes the entire world is a certain way. I say no, no the world is not this way. This film reminds me more of CNN or other such news organizations where the news is always bleak when you watch. Aliens might imagine this to be an awful place if they used the news for a guide. hurricanes, floods, murders, rapes, and so on and so forth. Turns out my life is not like that, my friends and families lives are not like that and in my almost 40 years I have encountered very little of what i have seen on the news. This film is the same. Although people like this do exist, to find them all existing together on the screen in an intersecting mess is unbearable. I am not sure of even what this films aim was. While art itself does not need a reason of course, a film still should at least be watchable and enjoyable on some level, even if only to communicate other kinds of people that the film viewer may be unaware of. Usually there is someone in the film for the viewer to relate to, a character that arcs, a mildly satisfying ending, an attempt at making some aspect of the film worth the torture one may see. This had none of that. Since I love films and tend to watch films many times. I could no sit through this mess again. It was the most depressing and awkwardly compiled collection of societies fringe. It also made no attempt at showing any semblance of reality that one may be exposed to. One or two odd people I could have accepted. All of them off the deep end was a bit much. I could not think of anyone who I would recommend this to, except perhaps a psychiatrist working in a mental ward.
Happiness... Not What You Think... 
2008-10-21 - This film explores the ravages of sibling rivalry, the painful torment of twisted sexuality, and the loss of love and discovery of a new life. An amazing cast gives amazing performances. This film is not to be missed but it is also not for the faint of heart.
A Must See
2008-09-28 - This movie reminds me as a dark comedy for personality disorders. Philip Seymor Hoffman does a fantastic job playing his rolse, as does Jon Lovitz, and the rest of the cast. Definitely a Must See!
Adequate DVD edition of the most touching comedy ever filmed 
2008-09-26 - Jared Harris' performance of "You Light Up My Life" serenades the main menu of this DVD. The fake cheeseball Russian accent and guitar strumming are sure to put a tingle in your tummy and warm you up for all of the sheer joy to be cherished in this film.
This disc's special features are sparse and typical of those found in early DVDs, but on the whole, they're competently implemented. Filmographies and brief career profiles of Jane Adams, Dylan Baker, Lara Flynn Boyle, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jon Lovitz and Todd Solondz are included. I can't understand why Lovitz was chosen for inclusion among these listings over Ben Gazzara, whose career and role in the film are much more significant. As usual, English, French and Spanish subtitles and a comprehensive scene selection menu are included.
The home video trailer on this disc is quite upbeat, and by downplaying the severity of this film's depravity, it's almost misleading. Really, I can't imagine how a comedy of such perversity could be accurately and successfully advertised.
Oddly, the disc is double-sided, with identical content (the aspect ratio doesn't differ) on both sides. I would have liked to see some nice artwork on it, but I suppose that this is a potentially useful feature if one side is accidentally scratched.
