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"Happiness" When I sit on the toilet I scroll through my phone and look at stupid things. I also read while I’m pooping, so deal with that, and then read on…  Anyways, I recently came across a silly bit of nothing while on Yahoo that piqued my interest. It was a list of movies “too disturbing” to finish or something like that. When you see this sort of thing you generally expect to find 8 of the top 10 are horror films; things like “Human Centipede”. This list was pretty typical, except it had one entry that I was beyond delighted to see made it; a flick called “Happiness”. I don’t recall the first time I saw “Happiness” but it left an indelible impression on me. It is one of the movies I always try to have a copy of, so when I saw it on the list I was of course compelled to watch it again. Some films age well, while others scream the era they were made in, but the great thing about scripts that rely almost solely on acting is that they can feel timeless. Sure hair styles and wardrobe are a big indicator, but when you kind of make everything generic on purpose and leave the focus on the acting it tends to make when the story happened irrelevant. “Happiness” is one of those movies to me. I’m not transformed to the 1990’s when I think the film was made, I am simply in a unspecific place and time, watching events unfold. There are 2 or 3 story lines to follow in “Happiness” but it is very easy to do so. There’s nothing particularly complicated going on, it’s just dark, sick, patently offensive humor. I’ll give you a quick example; throughout the movie a Father who is clearly attracted to little boys has various discussions about sexual topics, such as the definition of the word “cum” and penis size, with his 11 year old . As a sort of punchline to the end of the scene about penis size, for example, the Father asks the , very seriously, “Do you want me to measure?” so if that sort of dark, fucked up comedy does not appeal, stay away from this movie. The first time I went through those scenes I practically burst a blood vessel laughing. They are beyond “wrong” which makes them that much more funny to fellows like me. Twists in films are fun but “Happiness” has one that I swear you won’t see coming, or be able to anticipate. When I put the DVD in it was not on my mind, and as the stories unfolded it did not resurface in my memory until right before the reveal, as it were. As with the other tragically comic, totally fucked up elements of this movie I found myself practically rolling on the floor with one part humor and two parts shock and surprise. What fun! There are some movies you can see once a year and it feels like that is the perfect amount, but there are others you put away for a while, so you can savor them a bit more when you watch them again. For me, I’ll watch something like “Idiocracy” every year, never get tired of it, and always love it just as much as I did the first time but films like “Happiness” get played every 2 or 3 years, maybe. I’d say it was akin to savoring a fine wine but I know nothing about wine, and if “Happiness” were wine it would be thick, bitter and get you fighting drunk I guess. You might be embarrassed to recall what you saw, and laughed and marveled at, but I guarantee you a few years later you’d be feeling an urge to do it again. If for no other reason than to be reminded that you aren’t numb, that you can still be shocked and appalled while at the same time being entertained. That’s “Happiness” in a nutshell. |
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