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Directed By
Todd Solondz
Written By:
Todd Solondz
Cast:
Dylan Baker, Cynthia Stevenson, Lara Flynn Boyle, Jane Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ben Gazzara, Louise Lasser, Jared Harris, Jon Lovitz, Camryn Manheim, Elizabeth Ashley, Marla Maples, Rufus Read
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Happiness (1998)
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Cult Films You Should Know
Favorite Movie Quote: "I wake up happy, feeling good... but then I get very depressed, because I'm living in reality."
This is certainly not a happy film. It will turn a lot of people off because of the subject matter.
It deals with the underbelly of life. We meet Andy (Jon Lovitz), who is being dumped by Joy (Jane Adams), one of three sisters. He doesn't take it well.
We next meet the boring Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who is describing his sexual fantasies to his psychiatrist Bill (Dylan Baker). The other sister Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle) is the object of Allen's attraction. He is afraid to speak to her. Bill fantasizes about walking through the park killing people, and masturbates in his car to teen mags.
The office scene after Joy learns about Andy's death was a riot. He actually worked in her office for a year, but no one remembered him.
Bill drugs his whole family so he can molest his son's (Rufus Read) friend.
You could go on and on with these characters who display various signs of arrested development and substance abuse. They are profoundly unhappy people who have no concept of how to operate in an adult world.
The performances by all, including Ben Gazzara and Cynthia Stevenson, were first rate, and the script by writer/director Todd Solondz was brilliant. Camryn Manheim telling the Pedro story was funny, but it shouldn't have been.
That is the irony of the movie. You laugh at the dysfunctional behavior of others. Maybe it is because you realize they are just like you - Bill excepted, of course.
At least Billy (Read) should turn out OK.
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