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Happiness

Happiness

Comedy · Drama · 1998

The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.

Movie details

Happiness

“You want. He wants. She wants. But nobody wants what I want.”

1998 Comedy · Drama 2h 20m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.7 / 10

78.7K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

84 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

81 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.4 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Happiness?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Shame

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Brandon, a thirty-something man living in New York, eludes intimacy with women but feeds his deepest desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his younger sister temporarily moves into his apartment, stirring up bitter memories of their shared painful past, Brandon's life, like his fragile mind, gets out of control.

Neds

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Bully

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A group of teenagers in South Florida enact a murder plot against their mutual bully, Bobby, who has emotionally, physically, and sexually abused them for years.

Martha Marcy May Marlene

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After several years of living with a cult, Martha finally escapes and calls her estranged sister, Lucy, for help. Martha finds herself at the quiet Connecticut home Lucy shares with her new husband, Ted, but the memories of what she experienced in the cult make peace hard to find. As flashbacks continue to torment her, Martha fails to shake a terrible sense of dread, especially in regard to the cult's manipulative leader.

Requiem for a Dream

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Bailey and Darla embark upon a misguided and mutually deceitful form of therapy, one in which they must drive across the country, re-enacting Darla's colorful history as a sex addict. As their true motivations for the road trip come to light, the unlikely pair force one another to confront their issues, discovering that there might actually be more to love than just sex.

Somewhere in Queens

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Leo and Angela Russo live a simple life in Queens, surrounded by their overbearing Italian-American family. When their son finds success on his high school basketball team, Leo tears the family apart trying to make it happen.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Todd Solondz

Written by

Todd Solondz

Jane Adams

Jane Adams

Joy Jordan

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Allen

Dylan Baker

Dylan Baker

Bill Maplewood

Lara Flynn Boyle

Lara Flynn Boyle

Helen Jordan

Cynthia Stevenson

Cynthia Stevenson

Trish Maplewood

Louise Lasser

Louise Lasser

Mona Jordan

Ben Gazzara

Ben Gazzara

Lenny Jordan

Court is in session

Put Happiness on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Form is the argument.”

Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Technique in search of a pulse.”

Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.