Happiness (1998)

Whoa and wow! Happiness pulls no punches. It examines the lives of various people. Are any of these people you? The guy down the hall, too weird to talk to the girl he thinks he's in love with...will he stalk her, for his own happiness? The pedophile man who likes little boys, will he give in to his own sexual gratification...for his own happiness? Happiness, simply put, examines the lives of people, situations, and circumstances which finds the viewer unsettled, and a bit uncomfortable. In case you do not understand why this is happening, its because this film plays out almost perfectly on your raw emotions. It also gives a very brutal look at how we just feed off each other like cannibals, to get what we want in life. The film can be very depressing at times, it doesn't really work as a comedy, although some may be misled by the fact that it falls in this genre. No no. This one must be taken seriously, so I can't caution you enough to please be prepared for some very disturbing scenes. This is a solid piece of work, a little ahead of its time, and I assure you this is NOT suitable for children 17 or younger, so keep them away from this. Trust me, I know what's suitable and what's not. This is a NC17 film, you are warned.

I liked Happiness in some weird way. This movie is really interesting to watch despite all those disturbing scenes it has. You just cant stop watching until it's done, you wanna see what's gonna happen next. For that alone I give it 9, but because of some nasty things in the movie, gotta lower the grade by 1.8+

When I watched this film I knew I was going to love it from the beginning. It simply describes life! Most of us would love that time does not pass but it does. For some it passes quickly, for others slowly, but it passes. Little children grow up and eventually become adults. They have to perform sexual act to continue the species. Some parents take that fact with normal attitude, others do not. Also, time passes for some male adults who develop interest for young(er) people. Hm, hm, may be a little too young. This film describes this film so well.Acting is excellent. Plot is excellent as well. Everything is excellent about this film. Please make sure you watch it!

Happiness is nothing but cheap indie shock porn. A hollow, impotent Pink Flamingos wannabe that chooses easy subjects of provocation to just appease expendable income chic cine-masochists and leaves the more human among us asking why people's time and money was wasted on this spiteful, one note effort. Most insultingly, it has the nerve to ask us to care for its squirm suburban paranoia caricatures whilst simultaneously breaking out the Farley Brothers level of gross out humour every opportunity it can. Insincerity is the most evident sign of amateurism in a storyteller and this adolescent effort is the most blatant example I've ever come across in film. Worse than non-action, insincerity or a lack of moral stance is the bane of independent filmmaking, more often than not it's not an effort towards greater truth but rather one towards covering up an immature or trivial concept or a weak surface value vision which is what we have here. Todd Solondz aims just to cause his audience pain and even if he had higher aspirations, they definitely are not evident on screen, and if laughing at other people's misery is your idea of the epitome of cinema, well you are beyond help and your fabricated soul has no place being anywhere near a film screen. Your kind will have your time soon and it will be a spacious, lengthy, dark time. Admittedly, I should check out more from the wasteful decade of American independent cinema that spawned this faux-intellectual piece of inhumanity before I say anything too concrete, god forbid, but for now I'll just say bluntly that this film, and its defendants, can go to hell despite them not being flammable, what with all the fibre glass and all