“Editors note: ANOTHER HAPPY DAY, WINNER OF THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL’S prestigious Screenwriting Award, Opens in Los Angeles Friday NOVEMBER 18, 2011 AT LAEMMLE’S SUNSET 5″
ANOTHER HAPPY DAY REVIEW BY TERRENCE KELSEY
A new serious voice in cinema has emerged and his name is Sam Levinson, a young
20-something year old, who just happens to be the son of iconic director Barry
Levinson (DINER). His debut feature ANOTHER HAPPY DAY was well received at the
Sundance Film Festival and won the Waldo Salt Award for Screenwriting).
On par with Noah Baumbach’s MARGOT AT THE WEDDING (2007) and Dan Harris’
IMAGINARY HEROES (2004), Levinson’s ANOTHER HAPPY DAY is a dark dramedy
ensemble piece about a dysfunctional family getting together around an event.
Similar to Baumbach’s film, an upcoming wedding is the setting for the story.
However, many serious tragic issues continuously threaten to tear the family apart,
most of them involving the mother character, Lynn – defiantly played with extreme
vulnerability by actress Ellen Barkin.
The main conflict surrounds the arrival of Alice (one of 2 children from the union
of Barkin and Thomas Haden Church’s parental characters), who has a history
of cutting herself to ease her depression and how the whole family fears of her
having an emotional breakdown at being in close proximity to her estranged father
(Church). Flawlessly played by Kate Bosworth, Alice is a very complex character.
She has to be strong for her mother yet extremely vulnerable and scared when
dealing with her father for reasons that will eventually be revealed towards the
end of the film. It is because of this scenario that the over-protective, overbearing
Lynn becomes the bane of her family’s existence, including her two other troubled
children (Ezra Miller and Daniel Yelsky) from a latter marriage, who serve as the
Greek chorus, providing biting wit, commentary and comic relief. The story is
mostly told from their perspective, as they are occasionally documenting the family
gathering via a video camera, capturing secrets that should be better left unsaid.
Miller’s standout brooding performance is both humorous and terrifying, as we
watch his character self-destruct as a struggling drug-addicted teenager full of rage
and angst, especially towards his mother.
14-year-old Yelsky, balances out Miller’s older brother role, as the youngest (and
mildly autistic) sibling of Lynn’s brood. Yelsky delivers most of the film’s punch lines
with impeccable timing.
The one child we don’t really get to know is the eldest son Dylan (Michael Nardelli),
the golden boy who is getting married, as he is considered flawless and perfect. He
was also not raised by Barkin’s Lynn – an unfortunate deal made between Barkin
and Church at the end of their rocky marriage, and whose existence causes most of
the conflict between Barkin and nefarious stepmom (Demi Moore).
Barkin, known for playing many tough bag girl/femme fatale roles, carries this
film and shines as a troubled mother trying to protect her children from emotional
embarrassment by their relatives during wedding gathering.
An amazing supporting cast assists her, including Ellen Burstyn as her mother, the
stoic family matriarch trying to remain composed amidst the chaos, while dealing
with the rapidly declining health of her husband (George Kennedy).
Moore, looking extremely gorgeous as Church’s villainous lioness wife, exudes
alpha-female tendencies as she constantly finds ways to belittle Barkin at every
plot twist and turn. But not all is black & white with Moore’s character. She, like
Barkin, Burstyn and Bosworth, showcases layers of emotion that garner empathy,
laughter and frustration from us, the willing spectators. All of the lead characters are
surprisingly three dimensional, given the ensemble nature of the film.
Other performances I enjoyed were from longtime character actors Diana Scarwid
and Siobhan Fallon as Barkin’s annoying & funny bad sisters (almost akin to
Cinderella’s older sisters), who spend most of their time gossiping about her and
her kids. In addition, Jeffrey DeMunn has a minor role as Barkin’s current husband
and father to her younger sons (Miller and Yelsky). His nonchalant attitude towards
everything provides much comfort for Lynn. One can’t help but laugh every time he
appears onscreen with glazed eyes. I almost didn’t recognize him as Dale from THE
WALKING DEAD, yet I knew I had seen him before recently – aside from the fact he
has a lengthy career performing in film and television.
Overall, ANOTHER HAPPY DAY is filled with excellent performances throughout
from the entire cast, starting at the top tier leads and down to the minor supporting
players, many of whom are young adults and kids. Though the film is technically a
melodrama, it’s not saccharine or emotionally two-dimensional like your average
Lifetime Channel movie or typical soap opera.
I’m also impressed with how writer/director Levinson, along with his
cinematographer (Ivan Strasburg) and editor (Ray Hubley), handled the camera
shots, some of which were reminiscent of Roman Polanski’s ROSEMARY’S BABY
(1969) and Stanley Kubrick’s THE KILLING (1956). For instance, two of my favorite
shots (reminding me of the aforementioned classics) take place early on. One is a
tracking shot that starts from outside the window from one side of the family home
goes, then alongside the side of the house as we follow a character enter the home
and pass through the dining room towards another room where many folks are
gathered and we enter through the window on the other side of the house to finish
the scene. It is a shot very similar to a complex shot that Kubrick utilized (and got
into a notorious rift with his director of photography over) in THE KILLING. The
other significant shot (ala ROSEMARY’S BABY) is a view of the bedroom ahead from down a hallway corridor, where some more characters are gathered. We badly want
to see inside the room, but we don’t get that privilege as Ellen Burstyn emerges
from the room and we track her from the front towards the front door entrance.
That shot (to my eyes anyway) mimics a similar angle from Polanski’s film where a
character partially seen inside a bedroom via a hallway corridor talks on the phone.
But we can’t fully see the action ahead. Quentin Tarantino also did a similar hallway
corridor shot in RESERVOIR DOGS with Harvey Keitel and Steve Buscemi pacing and
talking in the kitchen up ahead. I’m curious if these films inspired Levinson. Judging
by the Q & A session after the screening I saw, he admits to
being inspired by many older films and how they were made.
In spite of his young adult years, Sam Levinson has created a richly dense film, and
he seamlessly conducts a wide range of characters with the utmost precision that
many seasoned professionals have yet to accomplish successfully. I look forward to
see how his storytelling & filmmaking craft develops for the years to come.
ANOTHER HAPPY DAY is both a haunting film & comedic joy that makes me fall in
love with cinema again. Highly recommended.