Mini Review: Happy End
Remember when the dark but moving Amour was nominated for some Oscars and you were going to see it but heard it was a tough watch? Happy End, the latest film from Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke (Funny Games), isn’t a sequel, but feels like it was conceived in the same headspace, even down to a blatant similarity in one pivotal scene. Instead of Amour‘s French take on love and death, we get a multi-generational French family’s take on rivalry, politics, suicide, alcoholism, love (ish) and death, all in a topical juxtaposition to what’s going on in Europe right now. Occasional humour but, damn, these people. Your response to Happy End will depend on whether you like your families even a little happy. This one is not. Starring Isabelle Hupert and Jean-Louis Trintignant.
A former ABC National, Dallas and Atlanta radio personality, Martina O'Boyle is now making movies and covering culture in London, Dublin, and as far in Europe as the cheapie flights will take her, for Pop Culture Beast.