Another Happy Day 2011

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: "Another Happy Day" becomes increasingly difficult to watch, despite its intelligence and strong cast. You wish this family well, but you're grateful to see the last of them. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Both anguished and histrionic and in its strongest moments very, very good. But it is also overpopulated, strident and constitutionally unable to step back and scrutinize itself. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: A collection of Chekhovian characters sitting on a powder keg in a match factory. Read more

Sam Adams, AV Club: The movie works the audience's nerves with enough determination to get under the skin and stay there, a sensation that comes awfully close to an earned emotional response. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Dislikable movie characters don't always result in dislikable movies but that's certainly the case with Sam Levinson's Another Happy Day. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Ellen Barkin - playing the estranged mother of the groom - does a big heap of acting as one of the more histrionic members of the clan. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Laugh-laced dark drama of family angst overcomes the hurdle of its wedding-weekend setting. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: For all of difficulties, there is an authenticity in Levinson's work that you can see in the film, and his is a compelling voice playing in that minor key. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Levinson piles on the anguish with such abandon he never convinces you that these people would ever speak to each other, much less live under the same roof. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Sam Levinson has proven that he can get a movie made. Good for him. But he still has to prove that he has a story to tell. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Levinson's uneven family drama bears all the hallmarks of a self-conscious indie debut. But he has one distinct advantage many young filmmakers lack: a powerhouse cast. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: If you liked Rachel Getting Married or Margot at the Wedding, you probably have good taste, so you should avoid this one. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It's good to see so much talent and feeling in one movie, and Another Happy Day has plenty of it. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Levinson's movie is highly enjoyable, if cast in a conventional mold, but I'm fully going on the warpath for Barkin, who has soldiered on through a long period of post-stardom and deserves an Oscar nomination for this role, right now. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Combines some of the stock elements of a family film with an extra something - a go-for-the-jugular quality, a kind of Ingmar Bergman-like honesty and viciousness that brings it up a notch. Read more

Leah Rozen, TheWrap: Altmanesque in its sprawl and sympathetic attitude toward even its most flawed characters, Happy Day marks a mostly promising debut for director-writer Sam Levinson. Read more

Rob Nelson, Variety: [Mistakes] over-the-top dysfunctional family cruelty for comedy and drama. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: Hoping to distract us from the zero ideas found in his film, Levinson demands that his cast act loudly and unbearably... Read more