Director/Writer: Adam Sherman
Status: Screener Review
So Happiness runs is a drug induced craziness, teenage angst, brainwashed hippies, celebration, and mainly growing up in a hippie commune with no sense of direction flick. As it says at the beginning of the movie, it's based on a true story. All the actors in this flick are B.E.A Utiful! Starring as the main kids are Hanna Hall(The virgin suicides, Rob Zombies Halloween) as Becky, Mark L. Young(CSI, Big Love, Sex Drive) as Victor, Jesse Plemons(Observe and report and Varsity blues) as Chad, Steven Christopher Parker(Bad Blood, My suicide) as Teo, Laura Peters(Text , Without a trace) as Rachel, Tyler Steelman(17 again, The sweet life of zack and cody) as Nardo, and I saved the best for last..Shiloh Fernandaz(Deadgirl, Skateland, Wasted, Red) as Jake. Have I mentioned how much I adore Shiloh? Rewind to my Deadgirl review and I think you'll understand. Anyways we also have some spectacular actors playing the adults such as Rutger Hauer(Buffy the vampire slayer,Sin city), Andie Macdowell(Four weddings and a funeral, As good as dead), and Mark Boone Junior(Dead birds, 30 days of night). So after reading through the synopsis I glimpsed at Shiloh's name and got a little out of control. Shiloh plus crazy ass hippie brainwashing, I'M DOWN! For some reason Shiloh is not credited in this movie on IMDB.com, what the heck? Come on people he's SHILOH FUCKING FERNANDEZ, please catch up with the rest of us.
Okay let me start out saying I never got to see the cover art because I received a screener, and when I found it, I was impressed. If I saw that sitting on a shelf at the video store it would definitely make me want to rent it, you can tell these kids look a little dysfunctional on it. And I love fucked up kid movies, especially Larry Clark films. That man knows how to bring you real trauma! He blew me away with movies such as Kids, Bully, and Another day in paradise. I'll pry eventually review all of those, but that's not the case now. I get off topic so ridiculously easy. Anyways you get a really melancholy feel from the cover and then it has the tagline "generation lost", Love it! It would be 10 times better though if Shiloh Fernandaz's face was somewhere on there. Someone named Aleata would have really appreciated that! Anyways a group of kids that have grown up in a little hippie utopia have all become drug addicts, freaks, and uhm sluts. So we follow mainly the characters Victor and Becky. Victor is hell bent on leaving the community, but his mother won't give him his rightly owed cash monies. Becky has come back from college to take care of her cancer ridden dad, and is very depressed and acting out in a whorish manner. By that I do mean she's banging every guy she comes into contact with, ugh! That's no way to drown your misery..drugs and sex? Now you're dad will still be dying and you will find out you have AIDS AIDS AIDS! Yep, I couldn't help myself. Anyways one of the things that disturbed me was seeing Hanna Halls tits constantly, she looks like a little girl, it was creepy. Made me feel like a total pervert. What’s up with Hanna playing suicidal characters, haha. So Victor is the cutest little romantic and happens to be in love with Becky(like a couple other guys she’s fucking) and wants to take her away with him. She finally agrees and he’s like the happiest person ever, and this is after he finds out she just slept with Jake. At that point I would have been like, “bitch, go home”!
So when I first ordered the movie, I only knew A. that Shiloh Fernandez was going to be in it, and B. that it was about a bunch of old crazy hippies. I had no idea they were going to be focusing on the teenagers lives completely. It really didn't say much about them in the description. When I started watching it and got past the credits, I'm just like "fuck yeah"! I have a total thing for drug movies, I don't know why. They are always entertaining and pretty awesome, especially drug-horror. So there is so much groovy(I’m using this word in a Bruce Campbell way, not hippie) shit about this movie. First off these hippies have a fucking ferris wheel in there little commune, so people can just ride it when they want. I’m sorry, but that’s what the fuck I’m talking about! When I was little I always imagined getting rich and buying the zipper to put in my backyard. How badass would that be? But there is also a lot of twisted shit about this commune. For instance the fact that everyone fucks this OLD Insley(Hauer) guy, like all these young girls. You have to be a complete idiot to believe the shit the main men in the commune are talking about. It’s like yeah they are considering it “brainwashing”, but how stupid do you have to be to get brainwashed? Especially into fucking a bunch of saggy old men, EWWW! There's a scene that made me laugh when the character played by Junior is talking to a group of naked chicks. He's all like talking about them relaxing and floating yadda yadda yadda, then he's like "and everyday you become more and more attracted to me". Eeeek! The Insley character had made a comment to Becky when she was little. He drew a square on her ass and said it was his piece of ass, then when she was older he said, “he’s come to collect his piece of ass”. Oh my fucking god, how absolutely creepy is that? They also just let their kids run around and do drugs and drink. There’s a scene where these 10 year olds are smoking a joint in a tree, haha. Okay, I know you’re hippies, but it’s called child endangerment.
So the story continues as everything and everyone goes downhill. The Rachel character has a bit of a self mutilation problem. We see this when she goes to have sex with Chad, he goes to pull down her pants and her thighs are completely covered in scars. I actually really liked that scene, it sorta surprises you out of nowhere. Jake apparently has a drug and whore problem, but we get to see Shiloh look extremely sexy the whole movie. I would also like to mention that being stuck in a boring wilderness most of the time, these kids have great style! The Halloween costumes they wear in the movie are really neat as well. All the shots of Becky walking around in her angel costume were mind blowing. The director really knew how to convey that sense of loneliness and somewhat insanity she was plagued with after finding her father dead. A few more deaths happen as the movie comes to a close, but I’ll let you guys see for yourselves.
Another very nice touch to this movie is the fuckin’ kickass soundtrack. It’s made up of artists such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Buzzcocks, Bad brains, The Blue oyster cult, The avengers, UK subs, The Descendents, Joy division, and A flock of seagulls. That’s not all the bands, but most. So someone has quite outstanding music taste. It was shot in Malibu, California and the location was flippin’ beautiful. There’s so many great quick and trippy scenery shots, the sky was especially gorgeous! Well enclosing I would like to share a quote with you from the movie that I found very enjoyable. This is said by the pedoperv Insley and the line after that by one of his brainwashed whores. “I hear the angels trumpeting”, “Well tell the angels to fuck off”! This made me log roll down a flight of stairs with joy I thought it was so funny. I bet your wondering how I was so close to a T.V. and a flight of stairs...SHHHHHH! Go on with your bad self and see this movie!
5/5 Stars
Jenny Spain dead and alive
