Happy Endings

This is a terrific example of what is wrong with independent cinema. Now don't get me wrong, it is by far my favorite kind of film to watch because they really do whatever they want, and is a great training ground for up and comers (Chris Nolan, Darren Arronofsky, even Sofia Coppola) But for all the good films that come out of that vein there are just as many bad ones.

I won't even try to give a break down of what the story is about, its just too confusing, and much to complicated, and right there we find the problem. If I cant easily describe what a film is about, and the film is under say...4 hours, then there is a problem with the writing. We are basically following a series of characters, most of whom are connected to one another in one way or another and are living sort of strange lives. The characters are by and large boring, and pretty flat, even with a pretty good cast, who do the best they can, there isn't much salvaging of the boring story and boring characters.

The idea of a story is to see change in a characters, usually from some state of "being dead" to "being alive" such as boy finds girl, or needing to destroy a ring to save the world, you get it. These characters do grow and change, but so much of it is minuscule and not really done by themselves, and is forced upon them that I don't ever really care about them...at all.

This is a personal complaint, but one that I think still holds water, I hate it when a film is made that depicts another film being made and it is so unrealistic and ludicrous that its laughable. If they are making a film, the one I'm watching, then how do they mess up a dramatization of making a film so badly. Also they make filmmakers look so stereotypical, and the thing is, is that I know people like the "filmmaker" they showed, and they after graduating, if they even got that far have failed because they never had talent and were never willing to actually understand film.

Long story short, they went high concept on this, but bottomed out quick, its not a good film. There are a few memorable parts, but over all in a month I wont even remember anything about it. 5/10 stars.

Director: Don Roos

Starring: Lisa Kudrow, Steve Coogan, Jesse Bradford, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Ritter, Tom Arnold, Laura Dern