Defining Favourites: Happiness (1998)
Todd Solondz's provocative ensemble dramedy is also one of the most empathetic American films of the 1990's.
Directed by Todd Solondz
Screenplay by Todd Solondz
Produced by Ted Hope, Christine Vachon
Starring Jane Adams, Elizabeth Ashley, Dylan Baker, Lara Flynn Boyle, Ben Gazzara, Jared Harris, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Louise Lasser, Jon Lovitz, Camryn Manheim, Rufus Read, Cynthia Stevenson
Premiere Date: May 15, 1998
Running Time: 139 minutes
Content warning: This essay contains descriptions of child sexual abuse.
According to writer-director Todd Solondz, Happiness is a film about âseries of intertwining love stories, stories of connections missed and made between people, how people always struggle to make a connection, and to what degree they succeed or donât.â But Solondz also knows that these impulses to find any sort of a truly meaningful connection would be built from very dark impulses, which would have effectively made this into the directorâs most controversial film to date. Yet at the same time, it also may be Solondz at his most empathetic, sensitive, while being simultaneously provocative.
Todd Solondz has never been a stranger to taboo material through his work: for his breakthrough hit Welcome to the Dollhouse approaches the discomfort and societal pressures that built the façade of the ideal American family through the perspective of a teenage girl. But with Happiness, it also becomes clear that he has found himself undoubtedly more ambitious than he was previously. Underneath the cruelty weâre seeing in Happiness, weâre also seeing moments of pure vulnerability that bring us closer to people whom weâve never thought about giving our time â resulting in an something so deeply uncomfortable, yet oddly hilarious and moving.
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