The greatest 01 hour: and 29 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This movie was one of the worst I have ever seen. The computer camera in one scene had showing the girl and on the black and white CRT she was viewed as a rabbit. How sltupid that was. In one black and white flash back (I guess) the girl hugged something with its head covered with something that looked like a knitted hood. What was that? Thumb's DOWN on this movie! I would like to add that music was very good and the acting was good.

(*** 1/2): [img]http://images.chrc4work.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] A strange but intriguing film.

Amelia has just arrived in New Orleans to find that her sister, Muriel, has gone missing without a trace. The only clue which Amelia has is a stranger who her sister chatted with online. Michael Almereya's film is a strange, interesting commentary on technologies influence on our identities and the isolation which it tends to cause. It's an interesting theme but the execution is not nearly as good as the idea. Its a very meditative flick, with the disappearance being the driving force of the story. I found the film to be too muddled throughout except for the last 10 minutes or so, which were more clear and concise. A film that definitely will make you think, but it could have been executed better.

An atmospheric film from New Orleans that explores the loss of identity we experience as technology encroaches, even to the point of mediating our relationships for us. Can we know people better if we have no opportunity to touch them? The film has a rather meditative quality about it, while the mystery of the central plot carries the characters along. The first and final sequences of the film are one of the best edited scenes I've seen in some time, a visual poem that create beautiful bookends.

Slow, mundane, don't care.

Started out promising with some interesting character studies & great shots of the real New Orleans pre-Katrina, but not much of a story. Just as I became interested in the characters, it ended. See Ally Sheedy in HIGH ART for her best performance yet.

This pre-Katrina New Orleans film is gorgeously shot, very nicely acted, and, for the most part, is diverting. The fact that it is a David Lynch/Jim Jarmusch hybrid (with perhaps a little Wim Wenders thrown in) actually works in its favor. The final reel, though, is frenetic and narratively unsatisfying and, overall, there are numerous opportunities for greatness that just don't pay off. Still, worth a look for the amazing N'awleans locales, incredible soundtrack, and the final (and possibly first?) film appearance of the late Ernie K. Doe!

Interesting story about trying to find someone you love.

<div style="width:650px;"><a href="http://www.flixster.com/photos/happy-here-and-now-12024609"><img src="http://content7.flixster.com/photo/12/02/46/12024609_gal.jpg" border="0"/></a><div style="text-align:center;font-size:10px;"><a href="http://www.flixster.com">Liane Balaban</a> - <B><I>Happy Here And Now</I></B> </div></div> <i>Happy Here and Now</I> 2002. Written and directed by Michael Almereyda With Clarence Williams III, David Arquette (who co-produced), Ally Sheedy, former super model Shalom Harlow, model Gloria Reuben, Karl Geary and rhythm and blues star Ernie K-Doe. <I>Happy Here and Now</I> is a surrealistic satire in which a young woman tries to find her missing sister by investigating eccentric New Orleans characters who are entangled in a web of cyber-intrigue. This movie is unusual in its story telling structure. It guides us through a netherworld of oddball people, their weird behavior and strange gadgets via a series of vignettes that are ultimately connected. In this quirky odyssey, Canadian actress Liane Balaban plays Amelia. She has come to New Orleans to locate a missing sister who has erased every trace of herself. Clarence Williams III plays a limping ex CIA agent with an unexplained leg wound that just won't heal. Williams forensically dissects the sister's laptop hard drive. He finds traces of cryptic conversations held online with a poetic but sinister misfit (Karl Geary). The stranger uses a special technology to change his real-time appearance and country of origin on webcam-conference. Amelia attempts to determine the presence of a connection between the late night Internet chats and her sister's disappearance. She does so with Thomas' assistance by contacting Greary's puzzling character and conducting a fresh set of webcam conversations. What are his motives, what is he truly capable of? Why does he change his appearance and answer questions with questions? Did this enigmatic stranger lure Amelia's sister to her fate in a snuff film? Amelia must figure out how to trace and outwit him by playing a game of deception online. Throughout her quest for answers, Amelia encounters a cascade of artistic dilettantes. One of several exceptions is the real-life Ernie K-Doe, famous for his 1961 number one hit, "Mother-in -Law," who appears as himself in his actual New Orleans club. Nearly all of the characters are in some way unknowingly interconnected via a subplot orchestrated by David Arquette's character, Eddie Mars. Mars is a creatively misguided, self-employed exterminator who entwines the protagonists via a film project. It is a soft-porn, direct-to-digital Internet film about a time traveling Nicola Tesla. (And there might be some termites and a spherical fire breaking out in a space station, he hasn't decided yet.)) <I><Happy Here and Now</I> is a dream-like atmosphere piece which artfully combines unusual visual and acoustic elements. It highlights a smattering of New Orleans lore and culture. Thomas' character weaves a narrative of local lore as the camera pans by local cemeteries, barbecue joints, The Napoleon House, and a few other unconventional landmarks. We get a nice sample of New Orleans homes and interiors, blues clubs, fauna, and steamy avenues by streetlight. Odd characters such as man wearing Napoleonic clothing wander the streets. The conclusion, while not a blockbuster of revelation, amusingly ties all of the characters and vignettes together. The film is open-ended as to its message. Enthusiasts of movies that conclude with a concrete sense of finality should look to <I>Happy Here and Now</I> as being a piece that is intended to inspire the imagination. The film features musician, performance artist and electronics whiz "Quintron" (Robert Rolston's stage name) as himself. Quintron has distinguished himself in arcane circles for among other things, inventing clever but peculiar electronic musical instruments. One of his Tesla coils is featured in the film. "Strange by even its director's ultra-eccentric standards, <I>Happy Here and Now</I> takes Michael Almereyda's usual reality-blurring, video-mediated experimentation to what the f*** new levels..." -David Ng, <I>The Village Voice</I>, December 6, 2005 MGM DVD.

I am probably alone in the world for loving this movie. A young woman ventures to pre-Katrina New Orleans in hopes of finding her sister. Her search leads her onto the internet, where a new technology allows your mind to transport into cyberspace in the guise of your chosen avatar. Strange and elliptical for most of its running time, the last fifteen minutes or so are strangely transcendantly beautiful.

i give it a one solely because of nic ratner and ally sheedy

Precisely, I think, because I have been glued to my computer for some days now and only on impulse took a break for an on demand flick, did I find this movie so wonderfully disturbing. Despite the fact that it makes little sense I could completely relate to the blurring between the virtual and the actual. Watch this in the middle of the night by yourself when your life is in tatters, flux or a bit of both and I doubt you'll be disappointed.

[font=Century Gothic]"Happy Here and Now" starts out with Amelia(Liane Balaban) venturing to New Orleans to look for her missing sister, Muriel.(At the same time, a firefighter is agonizing over the loss of a fellow firefighter.) Bill(Clarence Williams III), a former CIA Agent, now cab driver, is helping with the search and uncovers a connection to an Eddie Mars who Muriel was communicating via the internet.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic](And what all of this has to do with Nikola Tesla, Blaise Pascal and the price of 7-Up in New Orleans, I have no idea.)[/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Happy Here and Now" begins well and ends up being totally incoherent. Basically the movie wants to be a commentary about not being able to commuicate with our fellow human beings, thus resorting to the company of computers instead. But if you want to chat with people on the internet all day long, be my guest.[/font]