HAPPINESS

Todd Solondz’s HAPPINESS is one of the most notorious American comedies of the late 1990s, and still one of the darkest. It takes suburban loneliness, sexual frustration, bad manners, failed relationships, and private shame, then turns them into something so uncomfortable that the audience often ends up laughing before they have fully decided whether they should. Solondz is not interested in making you feel safe. He's interested in exposing the gap between what people say, what they want, and what they're capable of hiding.

This is ensemble filmmaking at its most acidic. The cast is extraordinary, the writing is merciless, and the film keeps pushing into places most comedies would never dare go. It's very funny, but not in a casual, easygoing way. This is confrontational comedy at it's most challenging. I love it and I hope you do too!