Happiness
Todd Solondz · 1998
Todd Solondz’s 1998 ensemble film follows three sisters and their circle across intersecting stories of loneliness, repression and violation. Shot by Maryse Alberti and scored by Robbie Kondor, it treats pedophilia, obscene phone calls, marital drift and suicidal despair with unblinking, tonally level observation. Its power lies in accumulation, not climax — in the weight of unspoken things, the silence after a confession, the banality of moral collapse. It won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes and the National Board of Review’s Top Ten Films award, and was released unrated after surrendering its NC-17 classification.
