Institute History
Description
Happy Endings is a wildly original and supremely self-conscious comedy by a filmmaker, Don Roos, who clearly embraces the complexity and ambivalence of modern life. If you thought you knew all about love, relationships, and contemporary American families, guess again. Roos will further enlighten and entertain you in this often hilarious and always compelling treatise on our mercurial day-to-day existence. With its exorbitant wit and nonstop surprises, Happy Endings combines original storytelling with original stories that fundamentally question our presumptions about the way real America lives.
The multiple narrative lines include a filmmaker blackmailing a woman about a son she long ago gave up for adoption; a gay man whose partner was, or perhaps wasn't, the sperm donor for two of their best friends, a lesbian couple; and a 30-something girl who shacks up with a young man trying to convince his father he's straight and then moves on to the dad. In other words,
Aided by a fantastic ensemble cast that features Lisa Kudrow, Jesse Bradford, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and a great turn by Tom Arnold, and by a brilliant use of title cards, Roos is a filmmaker in complete control of his art, who understands that happy endings aren't always what you expect.