The lives of many individuals connected by the desire for happiness, often from sources usually considered dark or evil.

Quote:
Todd Solondz’s “Happiness” is a film that perplexes its viewers, even those who admire it, because it challenges the ways we attempt to respond to it. Is it a portrait of desperate human sadness? Then why are we laughing? Is it an ironic comedy? Then why its tenderness with these lonely people? Is it about depravity? Yes, but why does it make us suspect, uneasily, that the depraved are only seeking what we all seek, but with a lack of ordinary moral vision? In a film that looks into the abyss of human despair, there is the horrifying suggestion that these characters may not be grotesque exceptions, but may in fact be part of the mainstream of humanity. Whenever a serial killer or a sex predator is arrested, we turn to the paper to find his neighbors saying that the monster “seemed just like anyone else.” “Happiness” is a movie about closed doors–apartment doors, bedroom doors and the doors of the unconscious. It moves back and forth between several stories, which often link up. It shows us people who want to be loved and who never will be–because of their emotional incompetence and arrested development. There are lots of people who do find love and fulfillment, but they are not in this movie.

Happiness.1998.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	2 h 19 min
Size: 	3.32 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x554 
Aspect ratio:  	1.85:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 200 kb/s
BPP: 	0.235
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/FE2640D9C158B48/Happiness.1998.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English, French, Spanish, Romanian

The post Todd Solondz – Happiness (1998) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
A fable of innocence: thirteen-year-old Aviva Victor wants to be a ‘mom’. She does all she can to make this happen, and comes very close to succeeding, but in the end her plan is thwarted by her sensible parents. So she runs away, still determined to get pregnant one way or another, but instead finds herself lost in another world, a less sensible one, perhaps, but one pregnant itself with all sorts of strange possibility. She takes a road trip from the suburbs of New Jersey, through Ohio to the plains of Kansas and back. Like so many trips, this one is round-trip, and it’s hard to say in the end if she can ever be quite the same again, or if she can ever be anything but the same again.

2.08GB | 1h 40m | 720×478 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/358FCC6004D8CB7/Palindromes.2004.DVDRip.x264-FiZ.mkv

Language:English,Hebrew
Subtitles:None

The post Todd Solondz – Palindromes (2004) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

All Movie Guide says:
This film focuses on the trials and tribulations of Ira (Todd Solondz), who is an unsuccessful playwright trying to find himself in New York City. — Iotis Erlewine

Fear.Anxiety.and.Depression.1989.VHSRip.x264-FiZ.mkv

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	1h 24mn
Size:	1.53 GiB
DXVA:	Compatible
Minimum settings:	Met
Video
Codec:	x264
Resolution:	700x476 ~> 700x525
Aspect ratio:	4:3
Frame rate:	23.976 fps
Bit rate:	2 325 kb/s
Audio
English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 256 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/9CEE6296FBF79D3/Fear.Anxiety.and.Depression.1989.VHSRip.x264-FiZ.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:none

The post Todd Solondz – Fear, Anxiety & Depression (1989) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

A student film with no synced sound, Babysitter is a humorous nine-minute short made as Todd Solondz’ graduate film for NYU film school in 1984. Eric Schwartzman narrates and plays the lead role of a young boy who tells his history with babysitters, and how his life was particularly touched by his last one, a teenager (Patti Seitz).

http://nitroflare.com/view/C91C9CE833B7878/Todd_Solondz_-_Babysitter.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:none

The post Todd Solondz – Babysitter (1984) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
If you’re in the business of selling dog food, you’ll know that dog owners are in the habit of projecting their own personality onto their precious pooches. What then, does a Wiener-Dog have to say about its owner? Hell, what does a dog resembling a frankfurter have to say about life, death, addiction and despair? These are the (not entirely serious) questions posed in Todd Solondz’s latest film. A short, bittersweet comedy which connects four separate stories of everyday weirdness through the welcome denominator of dogs short in limb and long in torso.

First off is the parenting challenge that dog ownership poses for combative couple Danny (Tracy Letts) and Dina (Julie Delpy). They hope that caring for a pet will teach their son some important lessons about life and responsibility, not realising that little Remi (Keaton Nigel Cooke) will also have to confront the darker side of inter-species relations. We’re then treated to a loosely plotted week in the life of awkward drop-outs Dawn (Greta Gerwig) and Brandon (Kieran Culkin). They take a depressive road-trip that feels pitched somewhere between David Lynch and the Farrelly brothers. The final two stories concern sad-sack screenwriter and teacher Dave Schmerz (Danny DeVito) – struggling to keep pace, creatively, with the very millennials who turn to him for guidance – and the even sadder story of Zoe (Zosia Mamet) and her Nana (Marcella Lowery).

Throughout, Solondz never allows a situation to get too serious. Something clownish or ludicrous is always peeking round the corner. At times, as with the very finale of the film, this works brilliantly: generating something darkly hilarious and cutely uncomfortable. At other times – as with the ending of Dave Schmerz’s tale – the effect can feel slapdash and dispiriting. The wiener dog is always present somewhere, a constant source of silliness in a film that also contains hard drug use and a discussion of human sterilization. You can never tie down where the film is coming from; it’s never quite clear if the dog owners are being mocked for caring for these ridiculous animals when their own lives are in such disarray, or if the tenderness felt for these hapless creatures is something redemptive and noble. It’s strange, a little maddening, and utterly compelling. Big league dog-lovers probably won’t like it.

https://nitro.download/view/32C9B063BEA36E2/Todd_Solondz_-_(2016)_Wiener-Dog.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Todd Solondz – Wiener-Dog (2016) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Todd Solondz is back with Life During Wartime, his sixth feature and a sequel of sorts to his crowd-pleasing 1998 effort, Happiness. Solondz once again follows the joyless Jordan sisters (played by new actors this time around) as they attempt to navigate life and love in sunny Miami. Consisting of a series of loosely connected vignettes and brimming with Solondz’s signature deadpan humor, Life During Wartime skirts the uncomfortable line between pathos and tragedy, all the while maintaining a pitch-perfect tone that never alienates the audience (but still manages to keep them safely at arms length). Solondz is most definitely an acquired taste, but Life During Wartime may just be the film that introduces his work to a wider audience. More accessible than both Storytelling and and featuring stellar performances from Allison Janney (Juno), Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) and Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club), Solondz has crafted an ironic exploration into the dark heart of America at its most vulnerable: when it thinks nobody is watching.

https://nitro.download/view/1589D5EC332A245/Todd_Solondz_-_(2009)_Life_During_Wartime.mkv

https://fikper.com/YZ9yT4kRRb/Todd_Solondz_-_(2009)_Life_During_Wartime.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post Todd Solondz – Life During Wartime (2009) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
“Dark Horse” tells the story of Abe, a loser who leads a life of such agony that he might explode in misery if he weren’t protected by his cluelessness.

A tubby, balding, 35-year-old arrested adolescent, he lives at home with his parents, in a bedroom still containing his action-figures collection. He wears tight-fitting T-shirts printed with inane messages. He drives a bright yellow Hummer, which he carefully locks, as if anyone would want to steal it. The last man who looked cool driving a Hummer was Arnold Schwarzenegger.

We meet Abe (Jordan Gelber) at a wedding, during the dancing, while he’s sitting alone at a table with another person sitting alone. No one would ever think they were sitting together. She is Miranda (Selma Blair), darkly morose. Almost with a sigh, Abe asks her to dance. No luck. He coaxes her phone number out of her, oblivious to her extreme reluctance to provide it. He asks her on a date and mistakes her refusal for acceptance. Almost immediately, he asks her to marry him, and within a day or two, she astonishingly accepts.

Surely these two unhappy loners could only increase each other’s misery. But we’re hardly invited to feel sorry for Abe, because he is also a spoiled, petulant, obnoxious, infantile schlub. He “works” at a real estate company owned by his dour father, Jackie (Christopher Walken), a compulsive critic. Abe hides behind his computer screen while making bids on eBay, while the office assistant Marie (Donna Murphy) does most of his work. At home, he’s gushed over by his smothering mom, Phyllis (Mia Farrow). He breaks out in whiny rants about how his parents favored kid brother Richard (Justin Bartha). He is a piece of work. You don’t know whether to pity or insult him.

Abe is the latest in a gallery of walking wounded populating the films of Todd Solondz, who has never met a character he didn’t dislike. And “Dark Horse” is another of his portraits of anguish in suburbia, joining “Welcome To The Dollhouse” and “Happiness.” There are times when it is dark humor, and then times when it is simply dark. But there is something more going on here, something deeper and more … hopeful?

Someone like Abe could only prevail through the powers of denial and optimistic wishing, and Solondz makes that happen, as the film gradually slips into fantasy. Many of the fantasies involve the character of Marie, the office wallflower who materializes at key moments in Abe’s life, warning him not to marry Miranda, and then revealing her private life as a seductive man-eater with startling modern art in her luxurious home. Then there are scenes that raise questions. When Abe tries to return a scratched action figure to a toy store, for example, why does the mall’s parking lot have no cars? Why does the store have no customers?

Then there’s the question of Miranda’s communicable disease. And a hospital scene in which Abe has turned a sickly yellow. And a choice of sad and happy endings. And a moment when the Christopher Walken character abandons his dyspeptic character and speaks, sadly and directly, to his son.

These mood shifts prevent “Dark Horse” from declaring what it really feels about Abe, and they make it curiously more effective. At the end, Abe has made a strong impression, but we can’t be sure what it is. We feel contempt. We feel pity. We shudder and identify. It is a vortex drawing us down into dark defeat and yet admitting glimmers of hope. Abe is as permanently damaged as someone with a serious birth defect, and he is a force of life insisting that he has his rights. There is truth here, we sense, but no consolation.

http://www.nitroflare.com/view/65F05C75BA20A46/Todd_Solondz_-_%282011%29_Dark_Horse.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Todd Solondz – Dark Horse (2011) first appeared on Cinema of the World.