It was on Flix yesterday, a Saturday, the one day of the week where they dump all the tepid films, they just line them up and bang them out. Every cliché you see in this film was done better by other films, from the gradually intersecting multiple character story arcs to the free-spirited young girl to the pre-twitter explanatory narrative panels that give you a glimpse into each character's life. A yawnfest from beginning to end, this film appears to be the product of a class project, every single scene starts with two people quietly enjoying office/work/home/sitting in a car, and it gradually escalates into some kind of dramatic altercation and culminates in an argument, shouting, gunfire, etc. Here's a tip: have more than two people in every scene, and throw your money at a skilled screenwriter instead of compromising with evenly-paced soap-opera style rollouts that you can see coming a mile away. Everything that is wrong and awful and boring and headache-inducing about mid-2000s films is encapsulated in this lackluster enterprise. Don't waste your time watching this, go to the zoo or something.

The movie Happy Endings was supposed to be a dark comedy. But I don't recall laughing once. I didn't find anything about the story to be anything but tragic. And yes, tragedy does happen in life but I have enough of it on a daily basis that I feel that I don't need to be reminded of it on my Friday night. I thought there would be more lesbian subject-matter. But instead there was a lot of homosexual - male gay sexual and male gay ideas in the movie. And of course, the typical straight story.There were these stories of people which to me, did not interconnect properly. The story, in my opinion, was not coherent. It did not make sense. I much prefer stories that make sense from beginning to end. Give me a typical Hollywood story any day.

Every now & then, a quietly magnificent film sneaks up on me & manages to both astound me with its craftsmanship & move me poignantly. "Happy Endings" is one such cinematic treat. Its power lies in both its contrasting simplicity of cinematography design & its nuanced, depth of character explorations. At no time in this picture was I able to "catch" anyone acting nor "define" the immediate POV for the director Roos. This fine work virtually "reeked" of independent filmmaker authenticity while managing to engage a Robert Altman-like immersion into the prolific ensemble performances which literally transfixes its viewer. The film compelled my desire to "understand" both what toke place & why it all happened the way it did. I was absolutely flabbergasted by Kudrow's magnificent performance...The camera loved her every scene & her acting went "toe-to-toe with the incredible yet subtle & nuanced 'performance to die' for by Maggie... I had to watch this flick TWICE back-to-back after thirsting for greater comprehension of each character's motivations...This movie is now ranked as one of the best, stumbled-upon 'diamonds in the rough/underrated gems I have ever seen since I accidentally saw "Closer" Hell, even Tom Arnold & Jason Ritter killed in this gem...

This movie has what 99% of most movies don't have: originality. This is a movie like none we've ever seen. It's clear that Don Roos wanted to make something different, something that would go way over the line. And, he accomplished that. I loved it. Don Roos stepped way over the boundaries of most current movie making. I almost consider him the American version of Pedro Almdóvar. The movie is riveting, cute, original, and most importantly, almost completely unpredictable. The crap that Hollywood has been putting out lately comes nothing close to Happy Endings. Kudos to Roos and his team for putting such an awesome movie and clearly trying to offend at the same time. I love it when a movie tries to offend its audience. This movie did just that and I loved every minute of it. Truth is, most of us cannot be offended and we loved it for that exact reason. We love imaging others watching this movie and by imagining their offense, we enjoy the movie even more. The movie steps over so many boundaries and rules and it's pulled off flawlessly.