Life During Wartime
2010 Directed by Todd Solondz
Synopsis
Friends, family, and lovers struggle to find love, forgiveness, and meaning in a war-torn world riddled with comedy and pathos.
Life During Wartime is a film by Todd Solondz. It is a sequel to his 1998 film Happiness, even though the characters are all played by different actors. It stars Allison Janney, Shirley Henderson, and Ciarán Hinds, among others. The official synopsis of the film is: "Friends, family, and lovers struggle to find love, forgiveness, and meaning in a war-torn world riddled with comedy and pathos". Solondz said Life During Wartime was "a little more politically overt" than previous works." It won the Golden Osella award for best screenplay at the 66th Venice Film Festival.
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Whenever I laugh during a Todd Solondz film, it reminds me that I am a bad person with no morals.
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Todd Solondz has some issues he should work out with his therapist, that being said he does have a unique style of film making. He's a Wes Andreson clone but more "edgy" and his films aren't as accessible as Wes Anderson's beloved films are. In fact Life During Wartime along with Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse are all quite disturbing and possibly mentally scaring films. At the very least they will make you feel confused and uneasy.
Life During Wartime is a supposed "sequel" to Happiness same characters, different plot and different actors. Having not seen Happiness I can't compare the two films together. Life During Wartime on it's own for me was hard to watch and I considered…
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This ain't no party. This ain't no disco. This ain't no foolin' around.
Aaaaand here's where Todd Solondz lost me. I can't understand the purpose of this film (a sequel to his wonderful "Happiness" with an entirely new cast filling the roles), the stylistic choices that it makes (the ghost of Pee-Wee Herman trying to sexually assault Moaning Myrtle?), or the philosophy that it tries to espouse (about the nature of forgiveness, I guess). The joy of other Solondz movies is that he cuts his incredibly uncomfortable plots with enough black humor to make the whole thing palatable. Here, the humor is sparse and, to quote Jeff Mangum, blacker than black. The result is a grim, meandering, unfocused film that…
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Returning to the characters he established in his controversial black comedy breakthrough Happiness, Todd Solondz casts new actors in each role for this strangely experimental sequel. Perhaps to diminish pre-existing sympathies; perhaps to physically express the passage of time; perhaps simply because no actor would willingly appear in two child molestation comedies: whatever Solondz’s casting rationales, the outcome is a bizarre experience for those who well remember the original film. The loss of Dylan Baker as Bill—a convicted paedophile released from prison as the film begins—is sorely felt, though Ciarán Hinds does well to fill his shoes as best as possible. It’s a film of even darker humour than Happiness, if that’s possible, finding things to laugh at in some remarkably tragic human circumstances. It might not have the same jarring challenge to the sympathies as its predecessor, but Life During Wartime is a worthy follow-up, a film just as terrifically twisted and trying.
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Much of Life During Wartime initially led me to believe it was a postmodern prank whose genesis took this form: “What if I made a sequel to Happiness? God, what a pointless, stupid idea. I’ll do it!”
As Michael Haneke’s Funny Games charges audiences with being complicit in the real-life violence they flock to see fictionalized on screen, Todd Solondz’s Life During Wartime seems to make a mockery of the compulsion to drag new and unnecessary narratives kicking and screaming out of any character that resonates even a little bit. It begins with an almost exact replica of the opening scene from Happiness, and much of what follows clumsily catches us up on what little has transpired in the eleven…
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Life During Wartime is like a Wes Anderson film but without the whimsy. The film is about an oddball family and its dark problems. Molestation, rape, child depression, and suicide are just a few of the dark problems the family is dealing with.
The central theme of Life During Wartime is about the need for forgiveness, and I think it's a good one. Although I found the characters interesting and the theme worthwhile, I struggled with the pace of the story.
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El jodido Bergman americano, no me cabe la menor duda. Es tan despiado y patético con sus personajes que fascina por esa forma misteriosa en que logra la conjunción de disfuncionalidades mentales y emocionales (más que nada) de sus personajes. Un espiritu hipersensible a la emoción de una cultura, por eso invoco a Bergman, o al menos eso nos hace creer despotricando en la forma en que lo hace, contra la sociedad americana o de un parte. "Estamos en guerra" no dudan en decirnos esto los personajes, ya sea expresándolo abiertamente o con un gesto decadente como tomar drogas, cometer pederastia, y ejecutar cosas de importancia vital con una frivolidad pasmante. Y Bergman una vez más, tan solo al aparecer…
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A typical Todd Solondz film.
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Todd Solondz has some issues he should work out with his therapist, that being said he does have a unique style of film making. He's a Wes Andreson clone but more "edgy" and his films aren't as accessible as Wes Anderson's beloved films are. In fact Life During Wartime along with Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse are all quite disturbing and possibly mentally scaring films. At the very least they will make you feel confused and uneasy.
Life During Wartime is a supposed "sequel" to Happiness same characters, different plot and different actors. Having not seen Happiness I can't compare the two films together. Life During Wartime on it's own for me was hard to watch and I considered…
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While not really saying anything new, I was surprised at how invested I was in revisiting these characters some 10 years after the events of HAPPINESS. Solandz continues his experimental streak by recasting every major role from the earlier film (Henderson and Sheedy are standouts), and it's more artfully directed than anything he's done prior. Though bleak at times, it's the closest the director has gotten to anything resembling warmth.
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(para el artículo sobre fantasmas y sorpresas).
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Watching this before I've seen Happiness was probably a mistake.
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Life During Wartime is like a Wes Anderson film but without the whimsy. The film is about an oddball family and its dark problems. Molestation, rape, child depression, and suicide are just a few of the dark problems the family is dealing with.
The central theme of Life During Wartime is about the need for forgiveness, and I think it's a good one. Although I found the characters interesting and the theme worthwhile, I struggled with the pace of the story.
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Festa estranha com gente esquisita...
Weird people... -
Aunque "Life During Wartime" se sienta como una pseudo-secuela/remake de "Happiness", esta nos atrae con brillantes actuaciones. Lo que comprueba es que su director, Todd Solontz, es un fascinante cineasta, completamente dedicado a retratar la miseria humana y enfrentarse a los tabúes de nuestra sociedad. Aquí observamos a algunos de los mismos personajes de la película anterior pero interpretados por actores diferentes, lo cual redefine nuestra percepción que teníamos de ellos (es mas obvio darnos cuenta que la muerte es quizas su única forma de redención).
Hay audiencias que odian a Solontz por su supuesta visión pesimista de la humanidad pero yo lo veo como una persona con un humor negro y mordaz que de alguna forma demuestra simpatía por estas personas y sus perversiones. Recomendable.