75 Slant Magazine | First-time writer-director Michael M. Bilandic's tongue-in-cheek, bare-knuckles approach to his ultra-low budget paean to a dying breed is a welcome piece of independent filmmaking. Read full review
60 Village Voice | Nick Pinkerton The most spot-on scenes show passive-aggressive hipster clerks snorting at Keith's flyers for a comeback fundraiser rave and a city suffocating on its own cool. Read full review
60 Variety | Ronnie Scheib Set in cramped apartments and hole-in-the-wall storefronts in the East Village, Michael M. Bilandic's nanobudget comedy Happy Life plays like a poor schlub's "High Fidelity." Read full review
40 The New York Times | The film advances the "let's put on a show" genre into a grim and hopeless direction, just right for hard times. In different hands Happy Life might become a decent movie. Maybe it's best thought of as a demo. Read full review