Todd Solondz‘s 1998 black comedy Happiness has become a cult classic among film fanatics, but multiple attempts to censor its taboo content very nearly prevented the project from reaching completion. Now, Solondz admits that Happiness would not survive a release in the modern movie industry, despite his obvious affection for the controversial film.
Happiness follows the lives of three sisters and their families, each of whom find themselves in the midst of all-too-contemporary challenges. While the film depicts a number of hot-button issues, including infidelity, sexual harassment and assault, and mental health, the primary reason for the controversy surrounding Happiness is due to its explicit portrayal of pedophilia.
Speaking with The Guardian, Solondz described the unexpected empathy that actor Dylan Baker evoked among audiences with his portrayal of Bill Maplewood, the father, family man, and pedophile that features during the first third of Happiness. It is this aspect of the film, perhaps more than any other, that makes Happiness impossible to recreate today — especially considering the backlash Solondz faced even in 1998.
In fact, Happiness was originally released without a rating, since its graphic content would’ve been firmly earmarked as NC-17, severely limiting the number of theaters that would play the movie.
Still, Solondz seems to look back fondly at his disturbing masterpiece. Although many distributors fought to block Happiness from a U.S. release, while initial viewers condemned the film as “despicable,” Solondz considers Happiness to be an essential — if discomforting — examination of the dark side of idyllic American suburbia. “It’s a sad, grotesque place,” Solondz stated.
“How do you teach your children to be decent, respectful, kind people, when on the news, you see how savage the dialogue is?”
The World According to Todd Solondz
Opponents of Happiness are likely unfamiliar with the rest of Solondz’s filmography, which — although devoid of the pedophilia that so shocked viewers and distributors in 1998 — still runs rife with taboos and obscenities. It’s Solondz’s trademark style, after all: a cynical scrutiny of suburbia topped with absurd humor and unexpected sprinkles of empathy.
The goal of Solondz’s films isn’t just to point out how dark and dismal the world can be, however. Speaking about the “miserable” characters of Happiness, Solondz confessed:
“I’ve never looked at it that way. Everyone has their struggle. And I can’t make a movie if I don’t have an emotional investment in my characters — if I don’t believe in that struggle, live with that struggle, be true to that struggle.”
This emotional investment and capacity for empathy is integral to Solondz’s films, even when the characters in question are people that would typically find despicable, like Bill Maplewood in Happiness. Other masterpieces like Welcome to the Dollhouse also demonstrate a necessary sense of heart and determination that characterizes Solondz’s films. Although Solondz doesn’t shy away from portraying the harsh realities of the world, he also strives to convey how, day after day, we continue to face and overcome those realities with incredible strength and humanity.