In 2009, 11 years after this film's release, Todd Solondz wrote and directed Life During Wartime (2009), which is a sequel to this film. However, every returning character in the sequel was played by a different actor.
Philip Seymour Hoffman based his character Allen off of Ralph Reed, the founder of the Christian Coalition, and a Republican politician. During a run-in with Reed, he told Hoffman that Happiness (1998) was his favorite movie, apparently unaware that he was Hoffman's inspiration behind the Allen character.
This film was ranked number 19 on Premiere Magazine's list of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies".
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ben Gazzara are both in this film, but do not share any screen time. They had also both acted in The Big Lebowski (1998) earlier in 1998, where they also shared no screen time.