Happy Times Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Happy Times Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson February 20, 2021

The Haifa-born filmmaker Michael Mayer has employed the title "Happy Times" with great irony in his second feature. Mayer's black comedy/horror movie Happy Times transforms into an American/Israeli version of Ira Levin's Deathdrap, with Mayer taking things to the extreme when a bunch of Los Angeles-based Jewish partygoers roast each other. On an early Saturday night, Sigal (Liraz Chamami) and her husband Yossi (Ido Mor) are prepping a post-Sabbath dinner and Havdalah party (ritual ceremony) for their family members, friends, and business colleagues. The movie opens with the hosts' kids chasing each other around with nerf guns, which portend the intemperate evening activities the adults will exchange in. After Sigal sends her children off to see friends, she receives some late-afternoon visitors: her cousin Michael (Michael Aloni), an up-and-coming actor, and his non-Jewish girlfriend Aliyah (portrayed by French singer and actress Stéfi Celma). Also arriving at the same time is Maor (Daniel Lavid), Yossi's employee at work. There's an immediate problem since Maor has parked his vintage Mercedes sedan on the street in front of the driveway entrance, which blocks Michael from backing up. Michael asks him to move it but Maor puts up a fuss and gives Michael the keys to do it himself.

As all the guests file into the Brentwood McMansion (sans Yossi's rabbi), everyone sits down for dinner. Most of the guests don a yarmulke except Michael, who refuses to wear one. Yossi is ready to read from the sidurim (Hebrew prayer book) but Michael contends that it contains racist language and inaccurate material. Michael's protest greatly angers Yossi as he and other guests begin to spar with his wife's cousin. Seated by him is Avner (Alon Pdut), a tech executive, and his wife Hila (Iris Bahr), a former lawyer. Michael gets riled up and spills wine on Hila, causing Avner to punch Michael and leave him unconscious. After Michael is brought upstairs to one of the bedrooms, one tussle seems to lead to another. Maor enters the kitchen with only Sigal present and expresses his lust for her. He can't but help kiss her and when Yossi notices them, it looks much worse. In an uncontrollable fit, Yossi scurries after Maor and starts beating him. Tensions also flare between Yossi and Ilan (Guy Adler), a divorced contractor and construction manager, over a disputed business deal. Ilan is there with his lovely girlfriend Noya (Shani Atias) who, along with Aliyah, are the film's most sympathetic characters. Mayer confines the entirety of Happy Times to the confines of the mansion, which becomes an epicenter of bloody mayhem. The hosts and guests attack each other with everything from the shofar and hamsa hanging on the wall to Yossi's medieval crossbow.

Dinner time.

Happy Times takes its time to establish the character arcs and social milieu. Once it reaches hard-boiled action, it hardly lets go of the cutthroat violence. Since several of the characters are odious and wholly unlikable, the fistfights and weaponry inflicted on them earn the audience some guffaws. But even if the ultra-violent sight gags show some variation from one another, the movie becomes too much of a one-trick pony. Happy Times is at its best when Mayer and co-writer Guy Ayal's snappy dialogue makes sharp commentary on its characters' socioeconomic status and cultural positions in the Jewish community. My favorite scene is when two LAPD cops ring the doorbell and want to proceed past Sigal, who tells the officers that everything is alright inside after a neighbor reported hearing gunshots. Hila steps in and uses all of her lawyerly expertise to lecture the policemen about search warrants. Happy Times could have used more of those enlightening monologues. The violent scenes involving the nouveau riche remind me of one in Jordan Peele’s superior and quite different horror-mystery Us (2019).

Happy Times Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Artsploitation Films has released Happy Times on an MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-25. The movie appears in its originally composed aspect ratio of 2.39:1. Cinematographer Ziv Berkovich shot it all on DV. The image has very sharp and glossy look to it. The afternoon scenes are naturally bright as are the daytime interiors. A lot of lamps and LED lights illuminate the mansion as the fracas gets underway at night. Happy Times turns darker during its last third, particularly when Sigal shuts down the electricity for a time. Some of the rooms assume an aqua and dark gray appearance (see Screenshot #s 3, 17, and 18). The authoring and encoding could have been better as I noticed a little banding. Background figures and objects occasionally appear somewhat hazy in multi-plane shots. Artsploitation has encoded the feature at an average video bitrate of 23998 kbps.

Eight scene selections accompany the 93-minute feature.

Happy Times Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Artsploitation supplies a Hebrew & English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (3019 kbps, 24-bit) and a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (448 kbps). The movie's sound mix is D-Cinema 48kHz 5.1. Spoken words are mostly in Hebrew but Spanish and English lines are also delivered. Sometimes, characters will change languages in mid-sentence. The first half of Happy Times is dialogue heavy but I had to turn the lossless 5.1 track up higher than normal to make out the dialect and enunciation. When the rampant violence begins to ensue, the satellite speakers become more active. Since Avner is a war veteran afflicted with PTSD symptoms, Mayer amplifies the sounds of a helicopter emanating inside his head. That is a highlight on the 5.1 mix. Traditional Israeli folk songs and Spanish ballads (five in all) are presented in the film.

Artsploitation gives the viewer an option of English SDH for all dialogue and English subtitles for words delivered in Hebrew. I first played Happy Times with the latter subs and it transcribes some of the English dialogue, too.

Happy Times Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Scene 26: Alternate Cut (1:24, 1080p) - an alternative scene featuring Aliyah and Noya. Dialogue is all in English, with English subs available. They display toward the bottom of the screen.

• Scene 32: Deleted (0:51, 1080p) - an excised scene between Aliyah and Avner on the couch. Aliyah shows him her bicep and tells him about her kickboxing. They both speak in English. The scene isn't subtitled.

• Blooper Reel (7:35, 1080p) - a slew of various truncated scenes (including several of the same one) in which actors either flubbed their lines or broke into laughter (often both). In some scenes the actors dance to Juan Avila's "Esta Noche." Some scenes are subtitled, while others aren't.

• Trailer Reel - bonus trailers for other Artsploitation titles, including Beasts Clawing at Straws, The Dead Ones, Red Christmas, and An Exquisite Meal.

Happy Times Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A character in Happy Times makes a reference to Tarantino early in the movie and the two-time Oscar winner would surely have had a field day directing Ayal and Mayer's screenplay. But the slapstick violence and pandemonium aren't the film's core strengths. The movie is at its slyest and wittiest when poking fun at Jewish customs, making snarky inside jokes as well as cultural references. Its omnipresent ultra-violence during the second half certainly isn't for the squeamish. Artsploitation Films delivers a solid transfer and above-average uncompressed audio. Extras comprise of just a couple alternate scenes and a gag reel. A group commentary with Mayer and the cast would have been riotous fun to listen to. I'd go for a RENTAL of Happy Times for the first viewing.