Happiness
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Synopsis
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.
Picture 9/10
The Criterion Collection presents Todd Solondz’s Happiness on Blu-ray in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on a dual-layer disc. The 1080p/24hz high-definition encode is sourced from a new 4K restoration, scanned from the 35mm negative. For this review, I’m working from the Blu-ray included with the 4K edition.
As I mentioned when covering the 4K release, the only prior home video edition was a 25-year-old non-anamorphic DVD, so any update would be a welcome improvement. While the Blu-ray doesn’t quite match the quality of the 4K edition, it still delivers a substantial upgrade, with a sharper, cleaner image. Fine details are no longer smudged, and textures are now clearly rendered. The encode is solid, with no obvious issues coming to the forefront, and the grain maintains a natural texture throughout.
The color grading here leans a bit greener, but this is still a vast improvement over the old DVD, which pushed magentas heavily. As a result, I found the colors more satisfying in this presentation, with skin tones looking far less pink or oversaturated. As to the restoration, outside of a split-screen sequence, which has a slightly "dupey" appearance, it looks incredibly clean with no significant signs of damage.
Black levels are deeper and richer, far better than the DVD, but this leads to one minor drawback: how shadows and darker areas are rendered. The film is noticeably darker in this new restoration compared to the DVD, though the Blu-ray presentation is not as dark as the 4K edition, likely due to the limitations of SDR. Criterion seems to have adjusted the brightness and contrast to keep the image visible, but this results in blacks appearing a bit too thick in some darker regions. The broader range of HDR in the 4K edition allows for more nuance in those areas, while the Blu-ray’s more limited range causes some loss in detail and depth. Despite this, the presentation is still far more photographic and natural compared to the older DVD, which suffered from poor gamma and contrast levels.
It’s a minor issue, but worth noting. That said, after being stuck with the awful Trimark DVD for years, this Blu-ray will still be a sight for sore eyes for many.
Audio 7/10
Criterion includes the 2.0 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD MA. While not the most dynamic audio presentation, it’s perfectly serviceable. Dialogue is clear and articulate, though it remains fairly level throughout. The music offers slightly broader range in comparison, but rarely reaches any notable highs. Again, it's serviceable.
Extras 5/10
Disappointingly, Criterion includes only a couple of features, though they are solid. The most significant is a new 41-minute conversation between director Todd Solondz and filmmaker Charlotte Wells, who studied under Solondz and worked as a crew member on Wiener-Dog. The conversation starts off a bit rough—Solondz comes across as awkward, and it almost feels like Wells doesn’t want to be there. Thankfully, it seems like initial nerves, because once they find their rhythm, the discussion takes an engaging path, covering the highs and lows of making independent films—or any film, really. Along the way, Solondz shares insights into writing Happiness after the success of Welcome to the Dollhouse, how he showed sections of the script to friends as he wrote for feedback, and how the film’s development took the shape it did. He also talks about casting (to my shock, he was unsure about Philip Seymour Hoffman at first) and the mixed audience reactions, including some test screenings (which Solondz wildly chose to do). The conversation becomes more personal as they discuss Wells’ student work and what Solondz saw in it.
As great as that conversation is, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t more captivated by Dylan Baker’s 14-minute contribution, where he discusses his character, a “complicated individual.” Baker explains what draws him to playing darker roles, how he mentally prepares for them, and how he balanced his performance, avoiding the extremes of over- or underplaying the character. Though it’s disappointing that Criterion wasn’t able to gather more cast or crew members, Baker was the one I, and likely many others, was most eager to hear from. His insights into acting and embodying complex, unsettling characters make for an incredibly compelling discussion.
The disc rounds out with the film’s trailer (which is amusing for how it tries to sell Happiness as a relatively safe comedy) and an insert featuring an essay on the film by filmmaker and Solondz’s friend Bruce Wagner, one of the individuals Solondz had been showing sections of the script to. As much as I enjoyed the content provided, I can’t help but feel let down by the lack of scholarly material. If ever there was a film in need of academic analysis—whether positive or negative—it’s Happiness. Still, given the film’s home video history, we’re lucky to get anything at all, and for that I'm still grateful.
Closing
The limited supplemental material is a bit disappointing, but at this point, I’m just happy to have anything. Ultimately, the new presentation looks excellent and is a drastic improvement over what was previously available.
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