Happiness

By Todd Solondz

A stark, black comedy about the search for love and happiness, Happiness is a deeply ironic film that centres on the emotional and sexual relationships between three sisters and the men in their lives - one of whom discovers that her husband is a paedophile. Award-winning film-maker Todd Solondz charts the interactions of the men and women in the film - as they desperately try to make emotional contact with each other - with the same unremitting glance, and taste for dark humour, that gave his portrait of adolescence in Welcome to the Dollhouse such disturbing power.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571197922
• ISBN13: 9780571197927
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 116 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.3" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Good movie, good scpript.

This is the exact dialog that's in the movie, Happiness. I have all of Todd Solondz's other script books, and if you (really) like his movies, this, (and the others, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Storytelling) are recommended, because it's fun to read the movie when you are unable to see the movie. The subject matter in Happiness is dark, but very funny, and at times very sad. "I came."

OUTRAGEOUS,OFFENSIVE...HILARIOUS

Happiness is a masterpiece for Todd Solondz in writing and directing. With wonderfully real characters and actors this is truly a remarkable piece. Dialogue and situations will offend everyone at the Rainbow Coalition.

Better than Pulp Fiction

It was the Dan Clowes's artwork on the movie poster that first caught my attention. I had to watch the movie. But, alas, too much was censored. Fortunately, I managed to get a copy of the screenplay (plus the Dan Clowes cover as a bonus!).In my opinion, I rank it above Pulp Fiction. While Pulp is intentionally made to be cool and stylish, Happiness is totally honest, minus the coolness and style. I know they're a totally different movie, but I can't help making the comparison because Pulp Fiction is mentioned in the blurp by Vogue on the back cover.Well, I'm sorry if you're a Pulp's fan...

MOST ORIGINALLY SHOCKING, FUNNY, AND DISTURBING SCRIPT EVER

Todd Solondz's "Happiness" is so insane and enjoyable that it is, in my opinion, the best original screenplay since Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction." The characters are so disturbed and conflicted that when they come together the scenes are so honest and filled with disparity. Not one word is out of place. Todd Solondz has a great ear for dialouge. A super terrfic screenplay.

"A comedy that cuts deep- hilarious and horrifying."

"Critically acclaimed at Cannes yet threatened with censorship abroad, 'happiness' deserves to do for Todd Solondz what 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Boogie Nights' did for Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson. Although it lacks some of the punch the stellar ensemble provided for the film, Faber and Faber' s screenplay allows you to focus on Solondz's prodigious talent as a screenwriter. Painstakingly funny yet deeply disturbing, alternative cinema at it's finest.