Happiness (1998)

The critic finds Solondz's ensemble portrait of dysfunctional New Jersey families both darkly comic and morally probing, praising its refusal to offer easy sympathy or condemnation. He singles out Dylan Baker's performance as the paedophile father for its courageous blend of bland normalcy and inner torment.

Solondz's brave second feature takes misery and cruelty as given in suburban life and delivers a bible-black comedy of assurance that shifts into despairing human sympathy. The paedophile father's conversations with his son form the emotional backbone.

Solondz presents suburbia as a peripheral hell of drab normalcy masking runaway psychosis and taboo desires. The film succeeds through its tense balance of queasy comedy and genuine recognition, with the central performance of the outwardly upstanding child-molesting psychiatrist singled out as key.

Solondz works on a wider canvas than before but fixates on sex in a way that makes the movie more repressed than its subjects; the notorious father-son scene rings untrue and the film levels everyone into drabness.

It's a vision of hell but moving and entertaining, with truthfulness and humanity; praises the beyond-black comedy handling of difficult subjects and performances.

Solondz pushes boundaries with jaw-dropping situations and an impeccable ear for speech but the glacial pace, flatness, and distance keep characters from connecting with viewers despite strong performances.

The critic calls it an astonishing tragicomedy that disquiets and affronts but is worth seeing for its honest take on suburban deviancy. Praises the ensemble cast, especially Dylan Baker and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Solondz establishes himself as one of the most lacerating and distinctive voices in American film with this murderous comedy of manners. The film draws the audience into sharing the ordeal of its most shocking character through an understanding rather than judgmental lens.

Solondz sustains a tricky tone of low-key morbid humor while exploring taboo territory with moral ambiguity; Baker delivers an amazingly sensitive performance as the central pervert amid an overlong but skillfully made film.

The critic finds Todd Solondz's film a disturbing yet funny exploration of suburban life and sexual abnormality. They praise the sharp performances and the script's biting honesty in exposing hypocrisy.