Happiness [Blu-ray] [Criterion Collection]

Director: Todd Solondz Todd Solondz

Overview

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 psychiatrist Bill (Dylan Baker), who counsels the lonely, overweight Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Allen is obsessed with Joy's other sister, the successful poet Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle), all the while ignoring the attentions of his seemingly sweet yet overweight neighbor Kristina (Camryn Manheim). Bill has fantasies of turning an assault rifle on families in a park, masturbates to teen magazine photos, and develops an unhealthy interest in a classmate of his 11-year-old son, Billy (Rufus Read). After a telephone sales job, Joy moves on to substitute teach at an adult education class, where she falls prey to the advances of an insensitive cabdriver, Vlad (Jared Harris). Allen's series of obscene phone calls to Helen come to an end when she challenges him to come next door and carry out his sexual threats. Meanwhile, the sisters' parents, Lenny and Mona Jordan (Ben Gazzara and Louise Lasser), find their marriage collapsing after 40 years. Lenny has sparked the interest of divorc?e Diane Freed (Elizabeth Ashley), but he actually would prefer to be alone. The path to happiness, it seems, is littered with dreams, despair, and abnormalities. Winner of the International Critics' prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, Happiness met with much controversy both in pre-production and upon its release, as chronicled in producer Christine Vachon's book Shooting to Kill.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/24/2024
UPC:	0715515302210
Original Release:	1998
Source:	Criterion Collection
Language:	English
Sales rank:	370

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jane Adams	Joy Jordan
Jon Lovitz	Andy Kornbluth
Philip Seymour Hoffman	Allen
Dylan Baker	Bill Maplewood
Lara Flynn Boyle	Helen Jordan
Ben Gazzara	Lenny Jordan
Jared Harris	Vlad
Marla Maples	Ann Chambeau
Cynthia Stevenson	Trish Maplewood
Elizabeth Ashley	Diane Freed
Louise Lasser	Mona Jordan
Camryn Manheim	Kristina
Rufus Read	Billy Maplewood
Anne Bobby	Rhonda
Dan Moran	Joe Grasso
Evan Silverberg	Johnny Grasso
Molly Shannon	Nancy
Justin Elvin	Timmy Maplewood
Lila Glantzman-Leib	Chloe Maplewood
Gerry Becker	Psychiatrist
Arthur Nascarella	Detective Berman
Ann Harada	Kay
Doug McGrath	Tom
Eric Marcus	Courteous Waiter
Eytan Mirsky	Angry Picketer
Lisa Louise Langford	Radical Picketer
Socorro Santiago	Crying Teacher
Allison Furman	Consoling Teacher
Wai Ching Ho	Student No. 1
Bina Sharif	Student No. 2
Tsepo Mokone	Student No. 3
Hope Pomerance	Hysterical Woman
Matt Malloy	Doctor
Dan Tedlie	Don
Marina Gaizidorskaia	Zhenia
Johann Carlo	Betty Grasso
Joe Lisi	Police Detective
Jose Rabelo	Pedro
Diane Tylor	Janet
Olga Stepanova	Zhenia's Mother
Robbie Kondor	Composer

Technical Credits

Todd Solondz

Todd Solondz	Director,Screenwriter
David Linde	Executive Producer
James Schamus	Executive Producer
Christine Vachon	Producer
Ted Hope	Producer
Ann Goulder	Casting
Drew Jiritano	Special Effects
Neil Danziger	Sound/Sound Designer
Damien Volpe	Sound/Sound Designer