Trekkies VS Happiness
Trekkies
This documentary film by Roger Nygard about the lives of uber geeks who eat, breathe and sleep Star Trek was a surprising upbeat breath of fresh air. I have never been one to understand the devotion required to learn Klingon or to write a homoerotic story of Captain Kirk and Mr Spock, but I do understand the love that is obvious between the fans and the actors/creators of this franchise. I fully expected to find these people pathetic and in need of a life, but instead, what I found was a wonderful give and take between them. There is a real love and appreciation for the obsessions that these Trekkies/Trekkers bring to the table - even more important - there is a lot of respect flowing between both groups. I found James Doohan's particular story of his interaction with a suicidal fan powerful and moving. While it might not be for me - these people have created a real community - and shelter in the storm perhaps as (unfortunately) a lot of them would have a difficult time finding acceptance out there in the "normal" world.
Technically - this doc was nothing special - a series of talking heads and slice of life vignettes of the fans interspersed with the same of the creators/actors. Hosted by Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar of The Next Generation), it's strength lies in its message and the very sympathetic portrayal of some very odd people.
Happiness
Happiness, by Todd Solondz, is a narrative film that follows the lives of 3 sisters and people around them. In short, Solondz creates no truly redeeming characters and brings up some unsettling subject matter- among them child molestation, murder, rape, loneliness, despair...the list goes on. In the midst of all this - Solondz creates some darkly comic moments but through it all - I was never quite comfortable laughing. The performances are deep and layered and quite good, especially Dylan Baker as the child molesting, pedophile therapist and Jane Adams as one of the sisters who is NEVER lucky in love.
For me, this film brought to mind the deep sumptuous colors of Douglas Sirk and also Sirk's twisted vision of suburban america - all is not well out here in what is supposed to be the safe and secure suburbs of New Jersey - danger, unhappiness, loneliness lurk just around the corner, preying even on the little children. No one seems to find any closure or moves any closer to the happiness seemingly promised in the title. Solondz seems to enjoy dumping more and more pain on his characters who never look to fight back at their circumstances - they take whatever comes their way.
I know for most of you, this seems like a slam dunk, an easy choice - Happiness is a film geek's dream - it's darkly disturbing, it has a lush look and great performances but it's also unapologetic and cavalier with some very dark material. It made me uncomfortable and I am pretty sure that's what Solondz's intention was.
Trekkies made me feel good. It gave me hope where Happiness took it away and I spent a good portion of last night before I went to sleep and this morning when I awoke wondering how I was going to justify sending such a downer of a film on to the next round when my heart was with the documentary about the geeks but in the end - the choice is obvious - Happiness's twisted vision unfortunately will stay with me longer than the inspiring hopefulness that is Trekkies and that makes it the better film (not my favorite between them) and so it is with a heavy heart that I send Happiness on to the next round.