On Happiness

Fuck this movie. Seriously. Dear god. It's been a while since I have HATED a film. I've been racking my brain since 10:45 last night trying to figure out what it is about the movie. All I can think of is the friends I had in college who had the movie poster in their dorm...

I've been sitting down watching movies on netflix for the last two months, catching up on the kind of fare that everyone "needs" to see... your 'Godfathers,' your 'Deer Hunters,' Woody Allen films, Blade Runner, etc. You name it I have it on my queue to catch up. I no longer want to be out of the cultural loop. First I'll tackle movies, then i'll tackle novels. Either way, the best part of doing this now, at 25, out of film school, is I have been free of expectations... which is impossible to avoid. But, I sit down, and watch these movies, based on their merits and take from them what I can.

I watched Rain Man, and Scent of a Woman this weekend. I didn't love it, but you know what? I'm glad I saw it!

Happiness... you piece of shit. You manipulative, gross-out, ensemble piece from hell. What were you trying to tell me? That everyone is suffering, even the culturally, and morally damned? That people find ways to keep themselves miserable? That child molesters are people too? You know what? I didn't get any of that... because you didn't resolve any of your one-dimensional character's story lines. Instead you show me a twelve year old boy cumming on the rail of his grandmother's balcony, and have the dog lick it up. "I came!" haha, very funny, Todd. The twelve year old boy who wants to be able to ejaculate the entire movie gets his way. That's ripe with metaphor. Happiness is the little things? Is that what it is, Todd? Great! Then tell me that fucking story, and leave the rest of the useless characters, and their miserable lives out of it.

I really HATE hating things, so I have really been trying to think of something to like about this movie. The pedophile father was the only story line that was even remotely telling. So Why did I need to meet Joy's parents? Why did I need to meet the woman who killed the door man? Why did I need to know Lara Flyn Boyle? What did Phillip Seymour Hoffman suddenly care about the annoying next door neighbor? Why did you start the movie with a character like Joy with an amazing opening scene, and then end her story with NOTHING! NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS MOVIE! It's on par with your typical gross-out comedy, except melodramatic, and pathetic. It is American Pie for the pretentious. Fuck this movie. I want my time back.