Life During Wartime

Beautifully-photographed and funny in the Solondzian way, and a good watch, but I didn't feel any degree of connection to these characters. There were plenty of moments, but overall it wasn't as effective as Happiness; I felt like more of a passive observer. Cast changes were mostly good but I wasn't big on the new Bill.

It's comprehensible that most people have no use for this kind of movie, for this kind of humor. Solondz did what he can do best, creating vicious dialogues full of black humor and continues where he once stopped with this new cast, that don't reach the brilliance Hoffmann and the others did in "Happiness" but who feel fit and make "Life During Wartime" highly recommendable to all Solondz Fans and those who love to say:" Oh my god, did she just really said that??" Hilarious

Life During Wartime might be the toughest American movie of 2010. Its audacity confirms Solondz's ingenuity and thematic focus.

There are a handful of great moments in this, and i "mostly" love the new cast, but unfortunately it doesn't have the same level of sincerity as it predecessor, and the whole thing ends up feeling a bit forced.

I never usually look at my phone during a movie but it’s been over a decade since I watched Happiness and I had no idea it would be such a direct sequel, I had to look up the cast list for each film just to figure out what the fuck was going on and who all these people were supposed to be

Not quite as good as Happiness, but the performances are unique.

A direct negative of the unforgettable "Happiness". Here literal new versions of the same characters emerge years later- immobilized by the pitch black of their repressed past. A uniquely uneventful tragedy that is completely dependent on its predecessor.

A hugely disappointing (although I expected it to be) sequel to Happiness. It feels more like a parody than a sequel. There were some funny moments, but nothing that keeps stuck in your mind (unlike unforgettable Happiness). Another down-grade is that the characters from the first movie are played by different actors - not only it adds confusion trying to understand who is who, but also the cast is much worse.

While there are a few decent scenes with interesting dialogue here, this seems like a lazy, half-baked continuation of Happiness. The film manages to be both confusing and frustrating to audiences familiar and unfamiliar with the original story. Helen feels like a caricature of her original self.

A strange type of sequel because of the new cast, despite how much this depends on continuity from 'Happiness', which is a frustration. There's also a plot-point about "inappropriate touching" which was contrived and very cliched -- which is odd, since the rest of the film is anything but. I'm a Solondz fan-boy and this film is further proof he touches upon some very dark, depressing, and suicidal subject matter other film-makers usually shy away from.

One of the best movies, ever.

66.000

A boring, idiotic, colossal misstep for Solondz. Completely ditches the oddly charming ugliness of his earlier films and replaces it with constant callbacks to earlier films and super-obvious satire similar to that of World's Greatest Dad. It's a film that requires having seen Happiness before going into it to understand anything, yet explains every little excrutiating detail of that film, ensuring that newcomers to Solondz will be confused and bored, and fans will be annoyed and bored.

Solondz demonstrates considerable growth and maturity since his Happiness days, and consequently this is a less glib and richer film both conceptually and thematically. However one could have hoped for something a bit more daring, especially after the braver, riskier Palindromes.

"As with Palindromes, Life During Wartime revolves around a casting gimmick, with its predecessor's roles now embodied by all new performers." - Nick Schager

I didn't find anything particularly insightful in this inane social satire. It essentially just recycles the same plot points, structure, and jokes from Happiness; this time around, however, the humor is more stale and the commentary is less relevant. It feels entirely superfluous, and its lousy script and forgettable characters ensure that it will appeal to neither newcomers nor die-hard fans of the original. As for those of you who didn't like Happiness ... stay far, far away.