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Happy Here and Now
Metascore
60 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 11 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 11
  3. Negative: 2 out of 11
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  1. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    90
    Since premiering on the festival circuit in 2002, this small masterpiece has been one of the best films around not to secure a proper theatrical release, and while one week on a single L.A. screen at the height of the crowded holiday season may not exactly qualify as proper, it's nevertheless a joyous happening.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    80
    This is a droll, laid-back film noir steeped in Crescent City atmosphere and music that culminates in the colliding worlds of genuine and virtual reality.
  3. Variety
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    80
    Isn't for everyone. It seems certain to confound as many viewers as it will inspire. But pic will foster a core critical contingent that will find itself transfixed and, ultimately, deeply moved by the film's ravishing power.
  4. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: David Hunter
    70
    Beautifully acted and filmed, with the Internet imagery rendered in Pixelvision.
  5. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    70
    It's perhaps most remarkable as a sweet, mysterious portrait of pre-flood New Orleans, which Almereyda not incorrectly portrays as a land of wandering, uncertain souls.
  6. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: David Ng
    70
    When Amelia takes the full multimedia plunge in the movie's final moments, Happy becomes something inexplicably (and metaphysically) beautiful.
  7. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    63
    The soundtrack includes great songs by Andre Williams and Shirley Ellis, and music by local R'n'B legend Ernie K-Doe and electronic organ freakazoid Quintron, who both appear in the film.
  8. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    50
    Like some other contemporary films that try to stitch together a small army of characters into a community of sorts, Happy Here and Now feels like a symptom in search of a cure.
  9. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Tim Merrill
    40
    Rarely interesting, always confounding.
  10. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    38
    A few relevant themes do bubble up from this visually intriguing swamp of self-indulgence, but Arquette's pseudo-philosopher seems to speak for Almereyda when he says, "If there was a point, there wouldn't be a story."
  11. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    25
    Almereyda's muddled Happy Here and Now should have stayed on the shelf - where it's been gathering dust for several years.
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