Happiness - Enzian Theater

Winner: FIPRESCI Prize (Parallel Sections), 1998 Cannes Film Festival

Winner: Metro Media Award (Todd Solondz), 1998 Toronto International Film Festival

Winner: Best Acting by an Ensemble, 1998 National Board of Review

Nominee: Best Screenplay – Motion Picture, 1999 Golden Globe Awards

The search for happiness connects lonely lives in this blisteringly subversive film from Todd Solondz, director of Welcome To The Dollhouse. Centered around the three Jordan sisters; Joy (Jane Adams), who moves through lackluster jobs with no sense of purpose. Now employed teaching adults, she is dating a student, Russian taxi-driver Vlad (Jared Harris). Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle), an esteemed poet who becomes amused by her perverted neighbor, Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman). And eldest sister Trish (Cynthia Stevenson), who is married to Bill (Dylan Baker), a psychiatrist with a very disturbing secret life. Solondz wickedly dark tale takes a Lynchian-razor blade to the façade of middle-class perfection. Challenge your sympathies and see the movie that made over 50 top ten lists of 1998.

Due to Graphic Content, Recommended for Mature Audiences Only

1998, 134 minutes, USA, Directed by Todd Solondz, NC-17

“Unnerving because it forces us into uncharted waters: Solondz doesn't tell us how to feel but makes us thrash out our responses for ourselves. In doing so, he has made one of the few indelible movies of the year.”
– David Ansen, NEWSWEEK
“It has taken only two films for Todd Solondz to establish his as one of the most lacerating, funny and distinctive voices in American film.”
– Janet Maslin, NEW YORK TIMES
“It is not a film for most people. It is certainly for adults only. But it shows Todd Solondz as a filmmaker who deserves attention, who hears the unhappiness in the air and seeks its sources.”
– Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
“Tragic, funny and deadpan dark, it's easily one of the best films of the year...It's the brutally unsentimental, intelligent, unflinching heart at the film's core that makes it a marvel.”
– Ernest Hardy, FILM.COM