Decent, but not nearly as darkly comedic nor as powerful as its predecessor “Happiness”.

With Life During Wartime, Todd Solondz again proves that he is probably the most divisive filmmaker working today. A follow-up to the characters he introduced ten years earlier in Happiness, it follows the miserable lives of three sisters, Joy (Shirley Henderson), Trish (Allison Janney), and Helen (Ally Sheedy) and the delusional characters who orbit their misery. Solondz manages to pull some very dark humor from mental illness, pedophilia, prescription drugs, depression, suicide, narcissism, nihilism and a host of other bleak subjects and manages to do it with some stylish panache. Of course, it's perfectly understandable that many will find the entire thing incredibly distasteful, hence the divisiveness. Those unfamiliar with Solondz will know within a matter of minutes what their feelings are about the film, so if you don't like the first scene you'll probably hate the whole thing…and vice versa.

I absolutely love Todd Soldonz because he will work with subject matter that other directors will not (I particularly love Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness, Storytelling, Palindromes and Weiner Dog) but I wasn't really that impressed with film. I love Happiness but this was just sort of meh. I want to see all of his films so if you are a fan like me, it's worth watching but I would have preferred a completely original story. I don't know why the original needed revisiting.

Most certainly a refined taste, Todd Solondz is a very unique and gifted Director whose films you will love or hate. I thought it was quite good and was filmed beautifully using the Red One Digital Camera which delivers a stunning image quality on the Blu-ray version. The film itself is the story of several unhappy and deeply wounded people who all have their own ways to deal with their problems, both good and sometimes fatal. Recommended if you can handle complex issues with real world results, not a happy ending where everyone lives happily ever after, or for that matter, lives.

Very strange movie . Very dark . Very indie . All mixed together it was in the middle of not very good and decent 2.9

After the seriousness of Palindromes Solondz returns to his wonderfully warped sense of humor with this excellent film.

I thought this a hilarious theater of the absurd type comedy! Excellent cast that delivered this darkly funny lines that would have cracked me up to try to deliver with a straight face, but they all pulled it off. And who lets their kid actually take lessons to do karaoke? Who would even think of giving lessons for it?? So ridiculous that it's unbelievable funny!

Made from the leftover scraps of "Happiness," this loose sequel to the 1998 comedy-drama left me wishing it was that film.

Blacker than black comedy from one of cinema's most delightfully spiteful directors. A angry yet elegant assault of the idiocy of the middle-class.

Though this film is a fractured part of related stories and characters -- it stands on its own as an examination of the human condition. Brilliant.

I'm not sure how I missed this gem from Todd Solondz who lives up to "Happiness" in this really good but not Great film.

I adore Paul Reubens.

A bizarre sequel to Happiness, this one never quite takes off but it is hardly a loser either. The theme of forgetting and what it entails is powerful throughout. I want to marry Allison Janney.

Y'a pas à dire. Le cinéma de Solondz est particulier. Un mélange entre Woody Allen et Wes Anderson. Tout ce passe dans les dialogues assez savoureux. L'humour noir et l'imaginaire des personnages. Pour public avertis seulement.

Good dark comedy. I love how it's a continuation from happiness without clearly stating it. Helps you to see where the family went after happiness.

Potent and uncomfortably funny continuation of characters Solondz created in the his 1990's film, HAPPINESS. An odd and unsettling film that comes close to being surreal.

http://filmreviewsnsuch.blogspot.com/2013/10/life-during-wartime.html

A much weaker than I expected sequel to Happiness. The original didn't need a sequel, and the follow-up had little substance and nothing really new to say. The re-casting choices didn't always work. Signature Solondz black humor was present, but genuinely funny moments were few and far between, and little of a story there was, it wasn't really funny.

Another foray into Cinema of the Grotesque--The enemy is within!!

This is a stumbling, though interesting, attempt by Solondz to bravely reimagine the characters from his ``Happiness''. It doesn't really work, though it has a (very) few moments. It certainly doesn't capture whatever made Happiness so great. Even all that said, however, if you really loved Happiness, it's fascinating to see how Solondz comes back to the characters. I can't promise you'll like it, as it's largely mediocre, but it does make Solondz seem more human, for being able to fail to make a colossally excellent film, which I think just makes me like him all the more.