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A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
01
Why this pick
Solondz revisits the emotional terrain of Happiness with a different cast: antiseptic suburban spaces, damaged family bonds, deadpan cruelty, and an uneasy pull between compassion and revulsion.
02
Why this pick
A caustic, controlled chamber piece about cruelty disguised as ordinary social behavior; its pitch-black humor and refusal to soften its characters closely suit Happiness.
03
Why this pick
Like Happiness, it turns affluent everyday life into a merciless anatomy of loneliness, sexual resentment, and self-deception, using crisp dialogue and deliberately uncomfortable comic timing.
04
Why this pick
A chilly suburban ensemble in which adult desire and family dysfunction quietly poison the atmosphere. It is more melancholy than Solondz, but shares his precise discomfort and emotional distance.
05
Why this pick
For the same confrontational deadpan sensibility, this two-part satire attacks privilege, exploitation, and liberal self-image with Solondz's characteristically awkward, pitiless comic precision.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
Trish Maplewood, the eldest Jordan sister, is an upper middle class housewife married to Psychiatry Bill Maplewood and has three children. She appears to have the perfect marriage, but she is unaware of Bill's secret life: he is a Pedophilia who is obsessed with 11-year-old Johnny Grasso, a classmate of their son, Billy. When Johnny comes to the Jordan house for a sleepover, Bill drugs and rapes him. Later, Bill learns that another boy, Ronald Farber, is home alone while his parents are away in Europe. Under the guise of attending a Parent-Teacher Association meeting, Bill drives to the boy's house and rapes him as well. After Johnny is taken to the hospital and found to have been Child sexual abuse, the police arrive at the Maplewood residence to question Bill. After alerting his wife to the police presence, Bill begins by asking the two detectives, "You said something about Ronald Farber?" The two detectives, looking puzzled, say nothing. Bill then stammers, "I mean, Johnny Grasso." Out on bail, he tearfully admits to Billy that he "fucked" the boys, that he enjoyed it, and that he would do it again. When Billy asks, "Would you ever fuck me?", his father replies, "No... I'd jerk off instead."
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
Allen
Billy Maplewood
Helen Jordan
Trish Maplewood
Mona Jordan
Lenny Jordan
Kristina
Joy Jordan
