The film Happiness Runs tells the story of a young man named Victor who contemplates leaving his commune, a polygamous cult, in order to escape with his childhood love.
Happiness Runs wears its air-quote truth like a protective cloak, to fend off dismissals of its narrative inadequacies: after all, if it's based on a true story, how could it not be infused with hidden profundity?
An unexpectedly subtle coming-of-age film, Happiness Runs is also something of an allegory for Generation X's conservative reaction against the flower-power excesses of their baby boomer progenitors.
O.K., life without structure or purpose leads to disillusionment and angst, but we knew that already. I'll be darned if I know what deeper lesson we're supposed to learn after suffering through 88 minutes of misery.
Moving Pictures Magazine
May 17, 2010
Sherman's macabre dream-fueled imagery elevates the material from solely navel-gazing, but only slightly.
