HAPPINESS - Comedy Film Fest at FOMO Cinema

Todd Solondz | 1998 | USA | 2h14m | English audio with English subtitles

Todd Solondz’s HAPPINESS is one of the most notorious American comedies of the late 1990s, and still one of the darkest. It takes suburban loneliness, sexual frustration, bad manners, failed relationships, and private shame, then turns them into something so uncomfortable that the audience often ends up laughing before they have fully decided whether they should. Solondz is not interested in making you feel safe. He's interested in exposing the gap between what people say, what they want, and what they're capable of hiding.

This is ensemble filmmaking at its most acidic. The cast is extraordinary, the writing is merciless, and the film keeps pushing into places most comedies would never dare go. It's very funny, but not in a casual, easygoing way. This is confrontational comedy at it's most challenging. I love it and I hope you do too!

WHY I'VE INCLUDED IT IN THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM: Because comedy can also be cruel, unsettling, and morally dangerous. HAPPINESS is here to give the week some teeth. It's certainly not the friendliest or most accessible comedy in the lineup, but it's possibly most memorable, and it demonstrates just how far black comedy can go when a filmmaker refuses to soften the material. I highly doubt it would ever be made today.

LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.

HOW TO FIND FOMO: Enter Bazari Orbeliani via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left to the first floor. You can also check our Instagram story highlights for a video showing exactly how to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17933106294029235/