Hey!
Happy (2001)
When a gay film has three male main characters named
Happy, Spanky and Sabu, you know you are in for a unique
experience.
Dismissing "Hey! Happy" as a John Waters rip-off would
be untrue and unfair. Writer/director Noam Gonick creates
a world here that is very much in the Waters tradition,
but his film is also erotic and mystical, something
Waters rarely is.
"Hey Happy" has the hilarious Waters characters like
Spanky, a mentally unstable club kid wannabe with piercing
and tattoos everywhere. He looks like the lead singer
of Prodigy's bastard son. Spanky, played by Clayton
Godson, is hilarious. This guy gets the Waters tradition
of outlandishness and performs dizzyingly over the top
in every scene he is in. It's magic! He pops up at just
the right moments to add a sort of trashy, crazed humor
to the film.
This is to offset the main story where the delicious
and sweet druggie DJ Sabu (Jeremie Yuen) works to bed
his 2,000th guy. Sabu works as a rave DJ and as a porn
store clerk, so it's easy to believe he has bedded 1,999
guys before the film has begun. And he's just sexy as
all fuck. Anyway, Sabu intuitively knows that bedding
2,000 guys will lead to something "magical" happening
and there is no doubt about it when he picks the somewhat
goofy Happy (Craig Aftanis) as the lucky 2000th recipient
of his winning sexual ways. When Sabu and Happy finally
do hook up and the sexy Sabu performs orally on Happy,
he wins all our hearts by going at it in an erotic and
beautifully way. As Sabu blows Happy, he reaches up
to caress the guy on his face and chest. Wow. Boing!
Another important note of the film is that all the
action takes place out of doors. Even the porno store
is in a vast, grassy field. Gonick sets up his film
to be mystical and natural. There is a wonderful scene
late in the film where Sabu travels throughout the trashy,
industrial area of town, looking for Happy. As he does
he is confronted by many naked and semi-naked men sitting
on couches and in chairs in the out of doors. While
these represent the 2000th guys Sabu has "traveled through"
to reach his final enlightenment, it also provides a
lush and erotic backdrop, a visual motif to accentuate
the film's mystic sexuality. It's very natural as well
as symbolic and sensory to the story at hand.
Of course, story is about the least important thing
going on here. This is as much a chance for Gonick to
show off the talents of his crazy friends, drug addicts,
transsexuals, street hustlers and homos, as it is to
tell a story. Gonick, like Waters, seems to have a vast
array of unusual people in his life and, also like Waters,
he allows them to exploit their nefarious talents on
screen. The only difference here is that Waters exploits
Baltimore where Gonick is dealing with Winnipeg, Canada.
But the story, rambling mess that it is, still has moments
of uniqueness and fun to boot.
"Hey! Happy" is one of those wonderful, funny and
outrageous films that only come along once in a generation.
Combining the trashy fun of Waters, the low-budget post-millennial
angst of Gregg Araki and the science fiction of a Troma
film, (with hints of soft core gay porn) Gonick has
crafted a work that is original and charming. And he
has introduced myriad unique talent to boot. If this
film doesn't find a cult audience, it's a real shame.
If these actors don't get more work, it's a crime.
"Hey Happy" made didn't just make me happy - it made
me feel fucking gay! Hehehehe....
Note:
Lots of great rave music in the film.
Godson has appeared in Gonick's shorts "Tinkertown"
(which he also co-wrote), and "1919."
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Report
Card
Script:
A
Acting: A+
Cinematography\Lighting: A
Special Effects\Make Up: A+
Music: A+
Final
Grade: A+
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