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Todd Solondz's Storytelling boasts an audacious narrative structure, but fails to deliver on the mechanics of its namesake, yielding a creative exercise that is more interested in satisfying the author's interests than the audience's investment. Read critic reviews
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"Storytelling" is comprised of two separate stories set against the sadly comical terrain of college and high school, past and present. Following the paths of its young hopeful/troubled characters, it explores issues of sex, race, celebrity and exploitation. This movie is divided into a fiction and non-fiction part.
Rating: R (Some Drug Use|Language|Strong Sexual Content)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Director: Todd Solondz
Producer: Ted Hope, Christine Vachon
Writer: Todd Solondz
Release Date (Theaters): wide
Release Date (Streaming):
Box Office (Gross USA): $912.4K
Runtime:
Distributor: Fine Line Features
Production Co: Good Machine, Killer Films
Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Surround, Dolby SR
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)
There's two stories here: the first is about a writing class, particularly the teacher and two students, all concerned with "creating fiction". The second part concerns a documentary filmmaker interested in showing the real stress applying for college engenders amongst high schoolers. But it's what's beneath the surface and how it's revealed that makes this a sparkler for me, a film that's aware that it's not for mainstream thinking, it's Armageddon without the SFX or CGI.
Depends on how you would view this film, It's quite bipolar. I loved it, very dark and thoughtful. Like most of the Todd Solondz films, it's controversial.
This is a two-part film, one story about the racial tensions that result when a creative writing student has a tryst with her professor and the other about a documentarian trying to film an unstable teenager. In every sense this is a Todd Solondz film: the long shots and silences, the out-of-place characters, and the cringe comedy. But of all the Solondz films I've seen, I think this is my favorite. The characters are more finely drawn, and even though the themes are opaque, like most of his work, there seems to be more cohesiveness to this effort. I also really enjoyed the performances in the first segment, especially by Selma Blair and Leo Fitzpatrick. The film's main flaw is the opacity of the themes. Why do these two stories belong together? Is Solondz trying to say something about how thin the line is between fact and fiction? I'm not sure. Overall, I liked this film even though there are significant aspects that remain unclear.
The thing about Todd Solondz's "Storytelling" is that you can't simply just watch it as another, random film, because it's not just 'another random film.' You will have needed to have seen Solondz's previous work ("Welcome to the Dollhouse," "Happiness") and grasp the controversy and criticism surrounding him, for "Storytelling" is a meditation on Solondz's sensibilities. Solondz turns his script and lens back on the audience as well as himself. He is questioning both his admirers and his detractors. He is also questioning himself- why he is drawn to this material, why explore such darkness? "Storytelling" is a sort of subtlety brilliant piece of metafiction but it's not all entirely satisfying. These stories are just a tad bit trite, yet they still come with a considerable amount of good- namely the casting (Blair, Goodman, Giamatti, Webber) and Solondz's sharp dialogue and observations. I can't recommend this film to anyone other than fans of Todd Solondz's fascinating and unforgivably complex body of work.
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