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Happiness (1998)

tomatometer

84

Average Rating: 7.9/10
Reviews Counted: 45
Fresh: 38 | Rotten: 7

No consensus yet.

80

Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 10
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 2

No consensus yet.

audience

88

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 38,591

My Rating

Movie Info

After his 1995 breakthrough, Welcome to the Dollhouse, director Todd Solondz was courted by a number of studios to make a big-budget film with top stars. Instead, he chose to make this aggressively dark comedy-drama of perversions and twisted lives. Andy Kornbluth (Jon Lovitz) explodes with anger after rejection in a restaurant from Joy Jordan (Jane Adams), one of a trio of middle-class New Jersey sisters. Joy's sister Trish (Cynthia Stevenson), a housewife with three kids, is married to

NC-17, 2 hr. 19 min.

Drama, Comedy

Todd Solondz

Apr 27, 1999

Trimark Pictures

Cast

All Critics (69) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (40) | Rotten (8) | DVD (17)

Exhibits an almost pitch-perfect balance between condescension and compassion.

October 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | Comment
Lessons of Darkness

Happiness is tough stuff -- quietly confrontational, genuinely haunting, and, most disturbing of all, unexpectedly moving.

September 17, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

By far Solondz's best film, an original exploration of American suburban angst, with three Chekhovian sisters at the center and a gallery of "deviant" characters that are presented with humor in non-judgmental way.

October 10, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

It'll soon have you quoting German existential philosophers in coming to terms with it . . .

September 24, 2003 Full Review Source: Movie Gurus | Comment

Regardless, if you can stomach the incredibly disturbing and challenging core of the film...then you're in for at least half of an interesting ride. It's worth a rental if you meet these qualifications.

August 17, 2003 Full Review Source: Needcoffee.com | Comment
Needcoffee.com
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Happiness

Brutal, beautiful, and hard to watch...this film tests a viewers mind and has a cerebral aftereffect

October 26, 2011
paul o.
paul oh

Super Reviewer

Todd Solondz is a brillant filmmaker and "Happiness" is a masterpiece. Incredibly complex and incredibly dark, this 90's independent classic does everything right. What else can I say? It's hilarious, it's disturbing, it's controversial, it's stunningly written. If you are any sort of serious fan of cinema, you must

August 31, 2011
stevenecarrier
Steven Carrier

Super Reviewer

    1. Billy Maplewood: [last line] I came.
    – Submitted by Blake J (2 months ago)
    1. Helen Jordan: If only I had been raped as a child. *Then* I would know authenticity!
    – Submitted by Blake J (2 months ago)
    1. Billy Maplewood: Would you ever fuck me?
    2. Bill Maplewood: No, I'd jerk off instead.
    – Submitted by Blake J (2 months ago)
    1. Andy Kornbluth: You're shit and I'm Champagne.
    – Submitted by Blake J (2 months ago)
    1. Diane Freed: I want kids that love me as much as I hated my mother.
    – Submitted by Todd B (2 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Felicidad (ES)
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