Tiempos Felices

There are probably few better ways for a movie to ingratiate itself with me than to open with a Kinks song. So "Monica" was a good start. I had been expecting a dark acerbic comedy based on its premise, but was not let down at all by it's decidedly more absurdist bent. The overall premise of a clingy woman looking for marriage and a nerdy man looking for a newer hotter woman are tired and not in themselves funny, but the dialogues with his nitwit friends and small surprising details were. But then that all dried up at some point as it settled into being mildly quirky indie fare and pretended to care about the protagonist's feelings rather than eliciting laughs. It was very inconsistent in tone, style, and comic appeal, and a big let down in the end.

It took several minutes after this movie had ended to realize that my Hollywood-and-Britain-conditioned reaction to it was wrong. This is a pretty darn good film.

A man who really doesn't know what he wants, but thinks he wants out of a relationship with a clingy woman, hires a mysterious firm to do it for him, because he's too weak-willed or too nice to just come out and do it. The breakup firm works strangely, and you suspect it's a scam, but by the end of the movie you realize they were playing a long game - though not necessarily the game you expect.

Happy Times is a bit wacky, a mix of light comedy and serious drama with intrigue mixed in. In the end, it works well. The acting and the technical elements are fine. And in a sneakily grown-up way, this movie reminds us that infatuation is not love, that love is not trivial, and that marriage is not to be entered into lightly. While many movies mix fun with a message - the raunchy sex comedy Dirty Grandpa being perhaps an extreme example - Happy Times does it better than most. I quickly came to care about both lead characters, and was kept wondering right up to the end what the mystery firm's real goal was.

It's worth watching.

Theres evan a major character named max who looks like a double of jason schwartzman in rushmore and listens to kinks!!!!!

Its a debut film and the guy knows how to do it, but dont bother to check this one and stick with the real thing.

As human beings we get used to things and people. As that happens we strive for change. Well some of us do. The challenge is to keep a flame going and that goes for man and woman alike. In this case we focus on the male part. A guy who wants to break up with his girlfriend but it's way more complicated than he thought it'd be (and when is it ever easy? Especially in real life).

Having said that, this does not pull any punches. It may miss quite a few of its jokes, but it's not afraid to not be PC. The characters do things you probably wouldn't see in a PG-13 US romantic comedy. So if you can stomach that and like weird comedies, than this is for you