The latest addition to a genre that looks at discontent twenty-somethings struggling with social- and self-expectations, Whatever Makes You Happy is like an EKG monitor, offering peaks and valleys, emphasizing the highs and lows in sound quality, acting, screenplay, and theme. At times, it is difficult to decide whether stalely delivered lines should deter you from proceeding to the next, rather predictable, scene. Voices echo when they shouldn’t, but there’s a charm contained here. It says Andrew Sayre has worked on a minimal budget. There’s also a slight injection of realism here. Voices on a T-train are not clearly understood in real life, so why should they be in a film?
And perhaps the predictability of the narrative is more akin to real life than it is to cinema. Perhaps this is also true for the cynical look at adulthood and responsibility, though Whatever is at times too cynical and polarizes its characters. The one exception might be Anna Kemp (Rachel Delante), the female protagonist (?) of the film, whose life with her live-in boyfriend is in an upheaval created by her own angst. Her boyfriend, Kevin (Jon Miguel), seems nice enough. He’s successful, he’s faithful, he talks about the economy, but all in all he seems like a vehicle to foreshadow Anna’s actions. The same might be said for the man she falls for: Alex. He’s in a band; he’s a player; he’s not ready for relationships, but he allows himself to fall for a taken woman.
Despite the clichéd progression, Whatever Makes You Happy offers a bit of commentary on social and cultural norms. There are two shining moments in this film. The first is when the selectively shy Alex tries to friend Anna via Facebook. Trying to find the right words, he types and deletes a series of introductory messages. While this exposes one of Alex’s weaknesses, the more profound look here is at the way we create disguises in a technologically-hyped (and addicted) society. There is a touch of irony that the rockstar, who loves the spotlight, can find nothing to say on a personal level, and this is an effused dialectic throughout. There’s little talked about amongst the “adults” outside of money, relationships, and lamenting the past. Most men, Alex accepted, note the things they are no longer able to do, whether it’s staying out late, or playing music.
These laments are a fine attempt at commentary on how we (possibly) are forced to become adults before we wish, but most often, the dialog is expository and strictly defines each character, so the thought is stunted, and we’re driven back to the simultaneously budding and wilting relationship between Alex and Anna.
The moments that Whatever handles the best are after Alex and Anna hook up and become a something kind of like a relationship. Kevin is tossed aside, given a few melodramatic lines, and Anna is left to sleep in the bed she’s made, and this is mostly what she and Alex do. They lay in bed; they play video games; they banter with each other; they walk around in pajamas. She has disavowed all responsibility, and Alex enables her. The scenes here are sad in that we see the ultimate outcome. We know one of them is escaping and the other is simply living, but this is not exposited. Instead, it’s shown, and it spins our look at Anna. In truth, she’s not the most likable character throughout. She’s dishonest, but her cuteness and mousy smile often create a façade over this.
These moments and those that offer Anna around Alex’s friends (though they are rather hyperbolically depicted) make her condescending and shallow. They transform our protagonist into an antagonist, and leave us wondering how far into humility she will sink five minutes after the film ends. In the last few moments, Whatever Makes You Happy informs the audience that its writer and director is ready to discuss darker themes, abandon traditional heroes and villains, and adulterate familiar genres, even if the journey to this message takes a familiar path.