An adorable wiener-dog changes owners, impacting these four different miserable and frequently humiliated people, each with terrible personal judgment, who clearly can't take responsibility for her. Remi is a lonely 7-year-old cancer-survivor. He once calmly mentions to his mother "we're all going to die". Dawn, though now an adult, remains naive, and reacting far too positively to Brandon. Gerwig does, some of the time, evoke Matarazzo's spot-on performance. Dave is a middle-aged struggling screenwriter who teaches film school, facing students who are particularly painful to endure. And the elderly Nana is kept company by little other than her regrets.
The director's pitch black humor stays strong. We meet more people who definitely shouldn't be taking care of kids, and children who are comprised entirely of depression. One mother describes cremation as "sort of like... being put in an oven". The acting is all good. This is incredibly quotable, why is there only the "heel" one on the page? The fake intermission gave me cramps from laughing. How have DeVito and Todd not worked together before this? The only of his films I haven't watched now is Dark Horse. I love them all(this very much included), though I admit they aren't all equally good(this is one of the "not the best" ones. But I'm ecstatic that I watched it). I watched this as soon as I could, it's available for free streaming on my library's website. It never hit my cinema, an indie and all.
The trailer tells you it's hilarious, in that dark way he does: if you watch that, you should have a fair idea of what to expect. Note that a lot of the negative reviews are from people who saw the title, and nothing else about it, and expected it to be heartwarming, rather than, y'know, soul-rending. Storytelling has problems from pacing as it's about such different people and stories; Happiness, the people have stuff in common. This fares pretty well. More exploration of "the h*** of suburbia", and the misery of middle America. The running time is 81 minutes without credits, or 84 with.
Yes, the ending is shocking. But if you don't think there was a reason for that...then your mind is not twisted enough for Solondz' work. I recommend this to any fan of his. 7/10
The director's pitch black humor stays strong. We meet more people who definitely shouldn't be taking care of kids, and children who are comprised entirely of depression. One mother describes cremation as "sort of like... being put in an oven". The acting is all good. This is incredibly quotable, why is there only the "heel" one on the page? The fake intermission gave me cramps from laughing. How have DeVito and Todd not worked together before this? The only of his films I haven't watched now is Dark Horse. I love them all(this very much included), though I admit they aren't all equally good(this is one of the "not the best" ones. But I'm ecstatic that I watched it). I watched this as soon as I could, it's available for free streaming on my library's website. It never hit my cinema, an indie and all.
The trailer tells you it's hilarious, in that dark way he does: if you watch that, you should have a fair idea of what to expect. Note that a lot of the negative reviews are from people who saw the title, and nothing else about it, and expected it to be heartwarming, rather than, y'know, soul-rending. Storytelling has problems from pacing as it's about such different people and stories; Happiness, the people have stuff in common. This fares pretty well. More exploration of "the h*** of suburbia", and the misery of middle America. The running time is 81 minutes without credits, or 84 with.
Yes, the ending is shocking. But if you don't think there was a reason for that...then your mind is not twisted enough for Solondz' work. I recommend this to any fan of his. 7/10