Really Surprised!

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Lynn (Ellen Barkin) is coming back to the family home with his sons Elliot (Ezra Miller) and Ben (Daniel Yelsky) Her eldest son Dylan (Michael Nardelli) is getting married. Her daughter Alice (Kate Bosworth) is also coming. She's a fragile mess. Elliot is a cynical trouble maker who causes havoc. Lynn struggles with her parents (Ellen Burstyn, George Kennedy), her sisters (Siobhan Fallon, Diana Scarwid), her ex-husband (Thomas Haden Church) and his second wife Patty (Demi Moore).This is Sam Levinson's directorial debut and a writer as well. The cast list is very impressive. That may have something to do with the fact that Sam is the son of Barry Levinson. The great actors do some big performances here. Besides the big names, Ezra Miller also gives a good performance. However the whole movie is a chaotic mess of excessive drama with too many characters. More is not always better. The amateur directions never really allow the film to settle down and find a member of this family that we can root for.

What a surprise this was. Wasn't expecting much, due to mixed reception, but immediately I realized this is not only a drama, it's a dark comedy, and added that to the description here at IMDb. The title "Another happy day" is completely ironical, something I can see some reviewers of this really haven't grasped. There's simply no happiness here.It's a story about an extremely dysfunctional family, the Helmans (as in Hell mans) and it's tragic, this family event, which makes everything come to the surface. This is a comedy filled with black humor, mixed with life tragedies and lots if irony, which obviously many must have had problems in understanding. Maybe you've got to know a dysfunctional family to appreciate this film, or even be a part of it. The film is a gathering if most common problems which may occur in lives, though it might be a big much since everything herd is within a family.Drug abuse, depression, self destructive behavior, therapy, domestic violence, alcoholism, difficult parents-children relations, adultery, Alzheimer's, neighboring conflicts, family secrets, suicidal tendencies... It's all here. The film resembles a couple of other tragic comic family disasters I've seen, like "Festen" ("The Celebration"), August: Osage County" and "Cabin fever"/("Når nettene blir lange"), "In bed with Santa"/("Tomten er far til alla barnen") and even "Hotel New Hampshire" though I haven't seen the latter since it came out. Well I tend to enjoy these kinds of tragedy portrays, and this is up among them.Maybe not great to watch either, if you're right in a family crises, if you don't then find this comforting. Someone always got it worse. Anyway, this is beautifully acted, not only by Ellen Barkin, which is perfect in a tragedy like this, but by the whole ensemble. I simply wax blown away by Ezra Miller and Kate Bosworth, Ellen Burstyn is as always great. I completely enjoyed the play with differences in a big family.The film is greatly summed up in the son Elliot asking the bartender to give him three scotch whiskeys. The bartender asks "How old are you?" before getting this answer: -I'm 17. This is my family, and this is Hell! The bartender serving the three drinks without any hesitation.Lovely dark comedy!

Watch and see people's real lives. The acting in this movie is superb, as one sees a group of dysfunctional people interact. A teenager with a drug problem is accurately if sadly depicted, as are friends, a mother confronting his problems but accomplishing little, indeed aggravating the issues.Perhaps the central point is how little some people know about interacting with others, as this dysfunctional family increases problems, aggravates family's members, and fails to understand one another.Yes, this is depressing and it may well hit a little too close to home. But if you want an emotional experience that leaves you understanding a little more about human experience, see this.This should win awards and I'd rank it as one of the top 100 movies of all time.

I just saw this on TV and wasn't wholeheartedly paying attention during the opening credits, but thought the graphics indicated I would be seeing a Woody Allen film. Nope. Sure it had the humor and depth from some of the earlier and lesser known Allen flicks (Interiors), but this film had the unconscious fluidity and stellar acting that Allen's films of late have been regrettably lacking.The writing and direction by Sam Levinson were nothing short of incredible; I totes want to be his new best friend. The casting was phenomenal, and were I in charge of doling out the awards Barkin would've certainly garnered a best actress, Miller best actor, Burstyn best supporting, and of course Best Original Screenplay to Levinson. The screenplay had more meat on it than the Atkin's diet. It never faltered in relating throughout. Levinson must be extremely self aware and a professional at observation to write such tangible characters in the configuration that he did. A weekend of American family dysfunction was under the microscope and Levinson didn't paint with broad strokes nor did he get lost in the details.I can't say enough positive things about the film and the only thing I would take a few digs at would be a couple of tunes in the soundtrack, but that is so minor compared to this work that will resonate with you if you have sort of been "there".