Directed by:
Todd SolondzScreenplay:
Todd SolondzCinematography:
Maryse AlbertiCast:
Jane Adams, Jon Lovitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dylan Baker, Lara Flynn Boyle, Cynthia Stevenson, Justin Elvin, Lila Glantzman-Leib, Louise Lasser (more)Plots(1)
As disturbingly funny as it is audaciously empathetic, auteur of unease Todd Solondz’s portrait of damaged souls reaching out for connection reveals the existential void underneath middle-class suburban “normalcy”. An extraordinary ensemble cast - including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jane Adams, Lara Flynn Boyle, Ben Gazzara, and Dylan Baker - embodies an array of loosely connected New Jersey deviants, depressives, and misfits, among them a frustrated phone-sex pest, an all-American dad concealing his pedophilic urges, and a lonely woman with a grisly secret, all of whom want just one thing: to be loved. One of the most controversial films of the 1990s, the unflinching Happiness unnerves precisely because it dares to see the humanity in those most often denied it. (Criterion)
(more)Cast
Wai Ching Ho
China
Best movies:
Happiness (1998)
The Greatest (2009)
Keeping the Faith (2000)
Joe Lisi
USA
Best movies:
Happiness (1998)
The Company (2007) (series)
Quiz Show (1994)
Gerry Becker
USA
Best movies:
Home Alone (1990)
The Game (1997)
Sleepers (1996)
Dan Moran
Best movies:
American Gangster (2007)
Happiness (1998)
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)
Socorro Santiago
USA
Best movies:
The Devil's Advocate (1997)
Happiness (1998)
Music of the Heart (1999)
Ann Harada
USA
Best movies:
Happiness (1998)
Jerry & Marge Go Large (2022)
The Art of Getting By (2011)
Lisa Louise Langford
Best movies:
Happiness (1998)
The Spitfire Grill (1996)
Cherry (2021)