Review of Another Happy Day (2011) by Bill R — 11 Nov 2011

I just had the good fortune of seeing Another Happy Day at a SAG screening. It is a profoundly satisfying movie - screamingly funny, and at turns tragic and confounding. There are a lot of dysfunctional family films out there ala Rachel Getting Married, but they pale in the face of this movie.

Somehow at age 25 (the same age Orson Welles was when he directed Citizen Kane) writer/director Sam Levinson (son of director Barry Levinson) was able to attract a magnificent cast, and with no post-modern cinematic tricks, he tells a complex multifaceted story that made me laugh, cry, and wonder how he did it.

He gave roles of a lifetime to Ellen Barkin, Ellen Burstyn, Demi Moore, George Kennedy, and a half-dozen other terrific character actors. And like Orson Welles and French master Jacques Tati, Levinson often fills his intimate frame with numerous characters at a time, all interacting, one-upping, and carrying us deeper into the story.

Levinson has not only launched the careers of young Daniel Yelsky and a devastatingly handsome and talented Ezra Miller, but he has also given us the opportunity to see a large ensemble cast of actors do some of the best acting of their careers.

The only question is how many Oscar nominations this film will garner for the acting and for Levinson himself.