Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

classicsoncall This is a subversively dark yet sometimes funny movie that on the surface seems to deal with a bunch of pathetic losers. Those losers however simply turn out to be every day people dealing with their own bouts of loneliness, obsession, and quiet desperation. Though we don't know it at the start, most of the principal characters all belong to a single family, handling their neuroses in the best way they can without making much progress. An odd aspect of the film is that it takes a look at human frailties that lead their characters into various forms of depravity without making a moral judgment, leaving that pretty much up to the viewer. For that reason, there will be those who abhor the picture and those who may take away some meaningful insight. Dylan Baker, as the tortured psychologist Bill Maplewood is a case in point. His portrayal is probably just a bit too candid for most folks, and quite frankly, I didn't see any credibility in his frank discussion about sexual abuse and masturbation with his own son. Maybe I'm naïve, but I'd bet if there were one in a million parents like him discussing such a personally depraved topic while implicating himself in a crime, then I just don't comprehend human nature. Ditto for Kristina (Camryn Manheim) laying bare her slice and dice of Pedro the doorman to neighbor Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman). On the flip side, Allen's behavior as a serial phone call abuser seemed all too credible and I don't doubt there are any number of perverts like him running around getting their kicks anonymously. The best that can be said about the film is that each of the players effectively demonstrate their own failures as human beings while striving for their own definition of happiness, elusive as that may be. Among the principal cast members, there's really no one who evokes enough sympathy to be considered a good guy or gal, so ultimately, a happy ending is deemed inconclusive. One surprise in the picture though was the appearance of the real estate agent who showed Mona Jordan (Louise Lasser) an apartment. I'd never seen Marla Maples in a picture before, and her identity eluded me until I looked up her credit for the film here. It made me wonder if her ex-husband Donald Trump ever saw this picture.

petarmatic When I watched this film I knew I was going to love it from the beginning. It simply describes life! Most of us would love that time does not pass but it does. For some it passes quickly, for others slowly, but it passes. Little children grow up and eventually become adults. They have to perform sexual act to continue the species. Some parents take that fact with normal attitude, others do not. Also, time passes for some male adults who develop interest for young(er) people. Hm, hm, may be a little too young. This film describes this film so well.Acting is excellent. Plot is excellent as well. Everything is excellent about this film. Please make sure you watch it!

Pozdnyshev I watched this movie when I was a film school student. It was brand new, hot out of distribution, and I'd heard of Todd Solondz as a filmmaker who dared to make "different" films, which I figured meant "superior." See, it worked as entertainment, the acting and photography was fine. And yeah, it WAS "different." A pedophile is shown in a sympathetic light. Some fat loser uses his own jizz to stick pictures to the wall of his tiny studio apartment. Yeah, that's different. But what was the point in showing us all this sh*t? And why is it even entertaining to watch? Because the movie conditions me to think that this is reality, and that I should join the director in being comfortable with reality. Like, if these sick situations are so common that all these people are having them at once, then I should be cool with it and be a little proud of how this movie enlightened me.It's scary how they pulled this off. Young and impressionable, I ignored how disgusting and bereft of meaning this movie was because it LOOKED good and I understood it was "hip." I ate it up and almost fifteen years later, the foul aftertaste still lingers in the back of my mind.Ugh. Everything's propaganda now. I have had my share of sickness, and this movie isn't "groundbreakingly truthful," I think it's the director trying to convince everyone else of his deeply cynical and unrealistic view of middle- class America. Also, I don't know how this would play out in reality, but I doubt that a little boy getting sodomized by a grown man during a drugged stupor would just wake up the next morning without being being very upset and in a lot of pain. Exploiting child rape and trying to pull it off like it's dark comedy, there should be a name for that. Something that means "vapid and often offensive bullsh*t masquerading as having substance." I think "hipster crack" is a good enough term. There's just something off about it, something fake, something truly sick and immature. Like a friendly kid who wears expensive clothes and has lots of cool stuff, but when you visit his house he wants to play by torturing cats.

SnoopyStyle Joy Jordan (Jane Adams) and Andy Kornbluth (Jon Lovitz) are a sad couple on a really bad date. He berates her mercilessly. Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a pervert and his psychiatrist Bill Maplewood (Dylan Baker) cares little for his fantasies. Helen Jordan (Lara Flynn Boyle) is a lonely successful author whose neighbor Allen makes obscene phone calls. Trish Maplewood (Cynthia Stevenson) is the oldest Jordan sister and married to Bill Maplewood. She's bossy to her youngest sister Joy. She has 3 children but she doesn't know that her husband has disturbing thoughts and they have a sexless marriage. The Jordan sisters' parents Mona (Louise Lasser) and Lenny (Ben Gazzara) are separating after 40 years of marriage. And that's not to mention the disturbing things that Bill Maplewood gets up to.This is a mass of unhappy people. The title is a bit of a joke. Everybody is damaged. They do disturbing things. They hurt each other. Mostly they are their own worst enemy. It's not funny. It's not lovable. I have no wish to spend any time with any of them. It is a disappointing turn from writer/director Todd Solondz who made 'Welcome to the Dollhouse'. I actually like the character in that movie. I find no happiness in wallowing in this tale of human misery.