It's pretty rare when I am at a loss for words, particularly when I am weighing an opinion on a film. Even more rare is when I'm speechless about a film by a favorite filmmaker. And to further the irony, the film is titled "Storytelling". Written and directed by Todd Solondz ("Welcome to the Dollhouse", "Happiness"), "Storytelling" is actually two short stories within the same film.
Being a fan of Solondz's work, I can't possibly pretend to be surprised that "Storytelling" is depressing. Anyone who has seen his other work knows what he or she is in for going in. One thing that I felt about "Storytelling" more than any of the other two Solondz films I've seen is that it seemed a lot more personal. The character of Toby is clearly a representation of Solondz, and a depiction and answer to and of his critics who say that he is a horrible person for "mocking" his characters, etc. In the film, when a fellow filmmaker criticizes Toby, telling him it is "glib and facile to make fun of those people", Toby denies this, simply saying "I love them." Looking back on his past work, and looking back on reviews I have written of those films, there is a definite pattern with the characterizations and the situations that Solondz writes them into. The situations are painful and the characters are sympathetic (or pathetic, depending on how you look at them), but the pain comes from Solondz not turning the camera away from the subject when they are at their most vulnerable. Most filmmakers, in order to make a more commercially acceptable film do not inject the kind of honesty that Solondz does, which naturally ends up creating criticism for him because it is "different".
Also notable is his defiant decision to, rather than cut his film according to MPAA standards to give it an R rating instead of NC-17, create a ridiculously large red box to mask the sex scene in "Fiction". Apparently he was told that the scene either needed to be cut or he would get a higher rating, (an absolutely ridiculous notion because the action itself was not overly graphic, it was the details of the scene that were disturbing) so in his refusal to cut it, he decided to throw it back in the MPAA's face and call it what it was: Censorship.
Out of many "disturbing" scenes, there was one scene that I found so profound that it has not left my mind since I watched this film last night. Scooby decides that he wants to see the footage that Toby has shot thus far, so he travels into New York City to see him. Mike, who tells him that Toby is actually screening the footage elsewhere as they speak, greets him at the door. When Scooby gets to the screening, where various intelligista are gathered, he sees himself on the screen, giving his inner thoughts, while the audience is laughing. Other than to turn to the footage on the screen, the camera does not leave Scooby's face, which has been transformed from a look of hopefulness to a mask of grief. Later, when he returns home to an unexpected tragedy at home, among the various policemen, etc., Toby runs up to Scooby with Mike, camera in tow, saying, "Oh my god, Scooby. I'm so, so sorry." To which Scooby, providing the last line of the film says, looking right into the camera, "Don't be. Your movie's a hit." That scene, those words, and the rest of the film made "Storytelling" shockingly and almost unbearably good. Solondz, who has made a career out of turning his eye to the fraying suburban ideal, is at his bleakest with this film. I've read criticism that he is "too" dark, which make his films somewhat unwatchable; a notion I find absolutely ridiculous. True, his films are like repeatedly ripping scabs off of a wound, never allowing it to heal, but their profundity is almost tangible. "Storytelling" was so thought provoking and effective that I found myself too numb to fully react until I actually began to put my thoughts into words, at which point I felt like I wanted to cry my eyes out. In a society where films like "Guess Who" and "Miss Congeniality" rule the box office, I find this to be a really difficult film to universally recommend, but there are definitely those out there who will appreciate this film. An extremely strong 8/10.
--Shelly
Being a fan of Solondz's work, I can't possibly pretend to be surprised that "Storytelling" is depressing. Anyone who has seen his other work knows what he or she is in for going in. One thing that I felt about "Storytelling" more than any of the other two Solondz films I've seen is that it seemed a lot more personal. The character of Toby is clearly a representation of Solondz, and a depiction and answer to and of his critics who say that he is a horrible person for "mocking" his characters, etc. In the film, when a fellow filmmaker criticizes Toby, telling him it is "glib and facile to make fun of those people", Toby denies this, simply saying "I love them." Looking back on his past work, and looking back on reviews I have written of those films, there is a definite pattern with the characterizations and the situations that Solondz writes them into. The situations are painful and the characters are sympathetic (or pathetic, depending on how you look at them), but the pain comes from Solondz not turning the camera away from the subject when they are at their most vulnerable. Most filmmakers, in order to make a more commercially acceptable film do not inject the kind of honesty that Solondz does, which naturally ends up creating criticism for him because it is "different".
Also notable is his defiant decision to, rather than cut his film according to MPAA standards to give it an R rating instead of NC-17, create a ridiculously large red box to mask the sex scene in "Fiction". Apparently he was told that the scene either needed to be cut or he would get a higher rating, (an absolutely ridiculous notion because the action itself was not overly graphic, it was the details of the scene that were disturbing) so in his refusal to cut it, he decided to throw it back in the MPAA's face and call it what it was: Censorship.
Out of many "disturbing" scenes, there was one scene that I found so profound that it has not left my mind since I watched this film last night. Scooby decides that he wants to see the footage that Toby has shot thus far, so he travels into New York City to see him. Mike, who tells him that Toby is actually screening the footage elsewhere as they speak, greets him at the door. When Scooby gets to the screening, where various intelligista are gathered, he sees himself on the screen, giving his inner thoughts, while the audience is laughing. Other than to turn to the footage on the screen, the camera does not leave Scooby's face, which has been transformed from a look of hopefulness to a mask of grief. Later, when he returns home to an unexpected tragedy at home, among the various policemen, etc., Toby runs up to Scooby with Mike, camera in tow, saying, "Oh my god, Scooby. I'm so, so sorry." To which Scooby, providing the last line of the film says, looking right into the camera, "Don't be. Your movie's a hit." That scene, those words, and the rest of the film made "Storytelling" shockingly and almost unbearably good. Solondz, who has made a career out of turning his eye to the fraying suburban ideal, is at his bleakest with this film. I've read criticism that he is "too" dark, which make his films somewhat unwatchable; a notion I find absolutely ridiculous. True, his films are like repeatedly ripping scabs off of a wound, never allowing it to heal, but their profundity is almost tangible. "Storytelling" was so thought provoking and effective that I found myself too numb to fully react until I actually began to put my thoughts into words, at which point I felt like I wanted to cry my eyes out. In a society where films like "Guess Who" and "Miss Congeniality" rule the box office, I find this to be a really difficult film to universally recommend, but there are definitely those out there who will appreciate this film. An extremely strong 8/10.
--Shelly