Venue: Tyneside Cinema
Dates: Tuesday 23rd March
Time: 8.45pm
Director Todd Solondz / USA 2009 / 96 min
Certificate 15 / In English
The distinctive, boundary-pushing writer-director Todd Solondz revisits his darkly comic 1998 ensemble “Happiness,” with this brilliant, sort-of sequel that may be his best film yet. Resurrecting the characters of Happiness, but recasting them with new actors including Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club) and Alison Janney (Juno), Life during Wartime looks at their lives a decade later, focusing on the various predicaments of the three Jordan sisters; Joy who is being stalked by the ghost of her aggressive ex-husband Andy, Trish, discovering love after her husband is incarcerated for being a paedophile, and Helen, a successful but overwrought TV writer. Solondz beautifully weaves these stories together; exploring the characters’ struggles to find a place for themselves and find forgiveness.
Tickets: £7 / £6, call 0845 217 9909
Buy Online
Anonymous 
LIFE DURING WARTIME
REVIEW
BY
LEON BELL
As the old saying goes: “Never go back to a lit firework.”
The sixth feature by Todd Solondz. A sort-of sequel to Happiness, following dysfunctional sisters and the males in their lives. Joy is haunted by the ghost of a man she rejected. Trish is still dealing with the fallout of her husband Bill’s incarceration for child abuse. Bill is released from prison and wants to reconnect with his children. Third sister Helen is a Hollywood success and still unhappy.
It is a gallant failure. Whereas Happiness, now recognised as an independent cinema classic, straddled the line between art film and mainstream, Solondz’s work since has often seemed like the auteur pouring his mind out onto the screen, free of restriction. Much time is spent referencing the first film due to the confusion that can be caused by recasting every part.
Forgiveness (which was the original title) is the theme. The word must have been said twenty times throughout. Whilst not considered a political film-maker, post-9/11 paranoia is prevalent as are Solondz’s recurring themes of suburban disaffection and paedophilia. It isn’t a bad film, it just suffers in comparison to the perfect mix of awkwardness, humour and pain in the first movie.
Grateful for the free ticket, but…didn’t really enjoy the film. Review below:
Life During Wartime
While I’m at the cinema, as well as watching the film, there’s another activity I like to partake in. Audience watching. Something about the facial expressions and body language of audience members interests me. I’ve seen quite a few bad movies where people have sat forward in their chair, back straight, eyes-wide, engrossed in a Colin Farrell performance. I’ve also seen more than my share of great movies where people have collapsed into their chair, yawning loudly, wondering what all the fuss is with the Coen Brothers.
By halfway through “Life During Wartime” the couple sitting beside me seemed to be ready for a nap. Audience reaction didn’t seem positive. My own reaction was less than favourable too.
You see, “Life During Wartime” is a sloucher. At the start of the movie I was all raring to go, brimming with enthusiasm for a new Todd Solondz’s film – a sequel to his hilarious movie “Happiness” – but as the minutes dragged by I found myself slowly falling deeper into my seat. Eventually I fell so deep that the chairs in front of me obscured the bottom section of the screen. I didn’t seem to be missing anything though.
The movie wasn’t just a sloucher. It was a head propper. The type of movie where you have to hold your skull up with your hand because there’s nothing of interest going on, nothing willing your eyes to focus on the screen. You try your best to get by this, you sit up in your seat, try to pay attention, but eventually you just find yourself back to slouching and head propping.
In essence, “Life During Wartime” is not an entertaining movie. Nothing about the characters will interest you because you’ve no doubt seen them all before in “Happiness” – where they were played perfectly by far superior actors.
Apart from a few sections the comedy is lacking, and what comedy there is misses the mark completely because the movie seems to be taking itself too seriously at times. The playfulness which was there throughout “Happiness” is gone, now to be replaced by a monotonous despair. The movie doesn’t have fun with how fucked up it is, it’s just plain fucked up.
As the movie came to an end I glanced at the couple beside me. They pulled their bodies up from their makeshift beds and one emotion showed on their faces: relief.