X
- 2013
- Not Rated
- Miasma Films
- 1 h 27 m
- 2013
- Not Rated
- Miasma Films
- 1 h 27 m
Summary Two young couples in New York-one black and gay, one white and heterosexual-find their lives intertwined as they create new relationship norms, explore sexual identity, and redefine monogamy.
Directed By: Rodney Evans
Written By: Ken Urban
- 2013
- Not Rated
- Miasma Films
- 1 h 27 m
- 2013
- Not Rated
- Miasma Films
- 1 h 27 m
The Happy Sad
49
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Where to Watch
Summary Two young couples in New York-one black and gay, one white and heterosexual-find their lives intertwined as they create new relationship norms, explore sexual identity, and redefine monogamy.
Directed By: Rodney Evans
Written By: Ken Urban
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
49
13% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
63% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
25% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
49
13% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
63% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
25% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
The cast—and Evans's deft hand with them—makes it worth checking out.
Evans directs energetically, and the personable actors help to keep us involved, but the picture skims stubbornly along the surface.
Full of warmth and refreshingly matter-of-fact sexuality, the film has its heart in the right place, yet it’s ultimately a bit blander than its subject matter ought to demand, and its chamber-piece intimacy and pileup of coincidences scan particularly awkwardly given its convincingly wide-open depiction of New York.
Aside from a few missing transitional beats and one too many coincidental encounters, the picture's fluid, zigzagging sexuality and emotional high-diving prove largely credible and diverting.
Kudos to Evans for making up for the galling lack of gay African-American screen representation while delivering hot-body eroticism, but reducing complex relationship issues to a typical indie-flick blatherathon—complete with performances of varying quality and stilted dialogue—isn’t helping anyone.
Ken Urban, adapting his own play, fumbles at injections of urban, and decidedly not urbane, levity, in addition to telegraphing entire subplots.
A movie about bisexuals sounds fresh and fun on paper, but a sensitive acoustic song under the opening credits shows exactly where The Happy Sad is going. Deadly earnestness and sex don’t mix well at the movies.
User Reviews
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Production Company
Miasma Films
Release Date Aug 16, 2013
Duration 1 h 27 m
Rating Not Rated
