Directed by:
Todd SolondzScreenplay:
Todd SolondzCinematography:
Maryse AlbertiCast:
Jane Adams, Jon Lovitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dylan Baker, Lara Flynn Boyle, Cynthia Stevenson, Justin Elvin, Lila Glantzman-Leib, Louise Lasser (more)Plots(1)
As disturbingly funny as it is audaciously empathetic, auteur of unease Todd Solondz’s portrait of damaged souls reaching out for connection reveals the existential void underneath middle-class suburban “normalcy”. An extraordinary ensemble cast - including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jane Adams, Lara Flynn Boyle, Ben Gazzara, and Dylan Baker - embodies an array of loosely connected New Jersey deviants, depressives, and misfits, among them a frustrated phone-sex pest, an all-American dad concealing his pedophilic urges, and a lonely woman with a grisly secret, all of whom want just one thing: to be loved. One of the most controversial films of the 1990s, the unflinching Happiness unnerves precisely because it dares to see the humanity in those most often denied it. (Criterion)
(more)Awards
- Winner
- Nominations
Independent Spirit Awards
- 1999 - Todd Solondz (Best Director)
- 1999 - Dylan Baker (Best Male Lead)
- 1999 - Philip Seymour Hoffman (Best Supporting Male)
British Independent Film Awards (BIFA)
- 1999 - Best Foreign Independent - English Language
Golden Globes
- 1999 - Todd Solondz (Best Screenplay)
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
- 1998 - Best Film
- 1998 - Dylan Baker (Best Supporting Actor)
- 1998 - Todd Solondz (Best Screenplay)
Toronto International Film Festival
- 1998 - Todd Solondz (Metro Media Award)