The Happiest Girl in the World

It's hardly the most subtle piece of irony; The Happiest Girl in the World concerns itself with a high school student who, in rapid succession, wins a car in a popular juice's promotional competition, heads for the big city to star in a commercial and finds herself very unhappy indeed. The plot points could easily be reconfigured into a terrifying new vehicle for Amanda Seyfried but painted in the stark post-Dogme palate of the Romanian New Wave – long takes, natural light, no score, no artifice – Radu Jude's film is a stern neorealist experience. Familial discord and adolescent self-absorption are expertly teased from every long take and sullen close-up, yet the film lacks a convincing dramatic structure to offset the miserabilism.