Storytelling
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Movie Reviews of Storytelling
Movie Review: It's not as good as Happiness but give it a try!
Summary: 4 Stars
Many people did not like this film which is hardly surprising given its subject matter. It is, however, much better than most of the mainstream films that Hollywood produces these days. Spielberg, Lucas or Ron Howard etc. etc. would never be able to make anything even remotely as interesting as this film. Still, it must be said that Storytelling does not reach the same heights as Happiness, but it was never going to be easy to repeat an achievement like that. Overall, though, it is well worth a look.Movie Review: Not the Best Solondz, but good...
Summary: 4 Stars
I have to say I didn't enjoy this film as much as WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE or HAPPINESS, but it was still pretty good. Solondz sensibilities and dialogue are quite specific and any fan of his films must find that rewarding. This film has much of his trademark black humor and I did enjoy that. He has the uncanny ability to make you laugh at things you might feel like you shouldn't be laughing at. My first theatrical viewing of 2002 and a good one!Movie Review: FICTION SUCKED
Summary: 4 Stars
I would be giving this 5 stars but for some reason Todd Solodnz felt it necessary to throw in some weak side thing about some girl who has a retard boyfriend and gets raped by a big black guy. Non-fiction however was incredible (especially the little kid) When you watch this movie skip right past the fiction part.Movie Review: franka in this movie
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie has 4 minutes of Franka Potente (pronounced - Potenta)the german superstar from Run Lola Run, BLOW and Bourne Identity.Movie Review: uneven but often powerful film
Summary: 3 Stars
"Storytelling," a film written and directed by Todd Solondz, is actually made up of a pair of stories combined into a single work. The first, entitled "Fiction," is the shorter and lesser in quality of the two, telling the tale of a waiflike young college student who, tired of relationships that seem to go nowhere, finds herself having a kinky, almost racist sexual encounter with her black writing professor, then using the experience as source material for one of her amateur stories. Selma Blair does a beautiful job in the role of Vi, a quiet, taciturn girl who finds herself drawn to an experience she quickly comes to regret. Even though she is a "willing partner" in what happens to her, she also comes to see the exploitative nature of the event. When she attempts to confront the professor by reading her tale in the writers' workshop session he is hosting, she discovers that few of the other writers are able to see the story for what it is and dismiss it as trite, racist and exploitative fiction. That seems to be the theme of this first episode - that everything becomes fiction once it is committed to paper - but because the episode itself is so short, it somehow feels underdeveloped and incomplete. Despite the excellence performances and the assuredness of the direction, this opening section comes across more as a clever conceit than as a fully developed work in its own right.The second story, which is almost twice as long as the first, creates much more of an impact, due largely to the fact that it gives itself more time for the development of character, milieu and theme. In this tale, entitled, not surprisingly, "Nonfiction," Solondz presents us with a view of an upper middle class suburban family caught in major crisis. The story focuses on young Scooby Livingston, a high school senior so devoid of ambition, drive and motivation, that he is literally drifting through life, indifferent to family, school, peers, anything but his pie-in-the-sky dream of becoming a talk show host like Conan O'Brien (who makes a fun cameo appearance in the film). Scooby's family resides in one of those perfectly manicured suburban residences replete with a maid from Central America whom the family members either ignore or treat with hurtful disdain (the mean-spirited action of the youngest son in this regard provides one of the truly disturbing, haunting moments of the film). Solondz does a beautiful job conveying the quiet desperation that defines so many lives lived behind such suburban facades. Scooby's parents are at a loss to understand why their sterile home environment fails to elicit the responses they think it should from their oldest son. Paul Giamatti plays Toby Oxman, a wannabe documentary filmmaker who decides to make a movie about Scooby's attempts to get into college. Toby is a man whose life has not turned out the way he had imagined it would. Unmarried, living with a roommate, and working as a clerk at a local shoe store, Toby latches onto the Livingston family as his ticket to fame and fortune. By the end of the film, Toby has gotten more than he bargained for as the family weathers some amazing crises and even provides him with the perfect "finale" for his nearly completed work.
"Nonfiction" takes a number of surprising turns, not all of which are entirely convincing or credible, but the film is more interesting for its characterizations and milieu than for its plotting. Scooby is representative of many of today's apathetic young people, cut off from both his own emotions and the emotions of those around him. Young Mark Webber captures Scooby's passive, glassy-eyed exterior perfectly. Equally impressive are John Goodman and Julie Haggerty as Scooby's well-meaning but hopelessly ineffective parents, who simply can't understand why their son fails to share any of their basic values. Jonathan Osser, as Scooby's youngest brother, Mikey, is a revelation, a smart kid who seems, on the surface, to be warm and caring, but who can, with cold calculation, destroy another human being without a moment's regret or hesitation.
As a director, Solondz creates an atmosphere and a world that is raw, stark and sterile, utterly drained of happiness and joy. In fact, I don't think a single character ever smiles in the course of either of the two stories (with the exception of Scooby and, of course, Conan, in the former's fantasy sequences). These are people sealed off from the possibility of happiness, who are just going through the motions because the only other alternative is death. As such, the film is, in many ways, a disturbing and depressing experience, but one that offers some valuable insights into human nature. You may not want to live in the world Solondz is showing us, but you may want to visit it for a short time to perhaps see how much better your own life is.