--- title: "Happiness: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/happiness/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/happiness" critics_score: 73 critics_reviews: 14 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Happiness (1998): what the critics said Critics' score 73 from 14 reviews: 12 positive, 0 mixed, 2 negative. Most critics admire Happiness, and the praise gathers in two places. The first is Todd Solondz’s control of tone: the reviews describe a comedy that begins in mockery and shifts, without breaking, into sympathy for people most films would not go near. The second is Dylan Baker as the paedophile father, whose performance is named again and again for its blend of blandness and torment, and whose scenes with his son several critics call the emotional centre of the film. The ensemble as a whole is praised, with Philip Seymour Hoffman also mentioned. The dissent is small in number but sharp. The New Yorker finds the film more repressed than its characters and the notorious father-son conversation untrue, while the Los Angeles Times complains of glacial pace and a distance that keeps the characters at arm’s length. Even some admirers concede it runs long. Later writers argue it deserves better than its reputation for shock. ## The New York Times — Janet Maslin Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 9 October 1998. Festival review. 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. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/09/movies/film-festival-review-faulty-families-music-easy-listening-dessert-hard-take.html) ## Slant Magazine — Chuck Bowen Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 27 September 2024. The critic views the film as a caustic, moving, funny, tiresome, and brilliant Molotov cocktail that grapples with human misery and empathy for flawed characters. He singles out the daring, grounded father-son scenes involving the pedophile Bill for their emotional depth and ambiguity. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/happiness-4k-uhd-blu-ray-review-todd-solondz/) ## The AV Club — Keith Phipps Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 29 March 2002. The film reveals itself as something better than initial ironic scenes suggest, with thoroughly realized characters and masterful tone shifts from comic to tragic. It arrives at a touching and tragic vision of humanity that's hard to forget despite its dark subject matter. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/happiness-1798196226) ## The Guardian — Jonathan Romney Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 16 April 1999. 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. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian/0,,42537,00.html) ## Time Out — GA Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 23 April 2014. 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. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/happiness-3) ## Sight and Sound — Xan Brooks Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 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. [Read the review](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/74) ## Empire — Kim Newman Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. 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. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/happiness-review/) ## The Independent Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 14 April 1999. 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. [Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-the-big-picture-suburban-perversions-1087312.html) ## Variety — Todd McCarthy Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 1998. Festival review. 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. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1998/film/reviews/happiness-dark-side-of-happiness-explores-sexual-taboos-1200453662/) ## The New Yorker — Anthony Lane Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 12 October 1998. 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. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/10/19/no-picnic) ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 16 October 1998. 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. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-oct-16-ca-32889-story.html) ## Paste — Soham Gadre Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 24 October 2023. The critic argues the film deserves better than its edgy reputation, praising its deep exploration of the suburban underbelly through ironic humor and frank depictions of isolation, loneliness, and contradictory human impulses among the sisters. [Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/todd-solondz/happiness-todd-solondz-edgy-reputation) ## Collider — Thomas Butt Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 20 October 2024. The critic praises Solondz's biting satire and nuanced portrayal of flawed characters in suburban America, highlighting Dylan Baker's performance as particularly remarkable, while noting the film's enduring bleak humor and restoration on 4K. [Read the review](https://collider.com/happiness-4k-hard-to-watch/) ## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 19 January 2001. 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. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/happiness-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/happiness.md