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It's a film by Todd Solondz, who one suspects might be a little depressed given his previous film "happiness", which featured paedophilia, fetishism and a quite brilliant foreign cab driver. Despite being bleak and filled with dysfunctional people, it was simultaneously extremely funny in the darkest possible way. Sadly, Solondz is making his films at the wrong time, in almost any other year he would have received far greater recognition than he has currently received, with the main problem being that his cynical take on American values does not wash with the post September 11th mood of patriotism coursing through the hearts of every red-blooded American. So "Storytelling" finds itself in the position of being released on DVD in the UK before the US, probably for the reason mentioned. Given the heavy editing that US DVD releases receive, comparative to other countries, (as anyone who's heard about the blockbuster/swamp thing fiasco over there will know), the American audience will probably get a diluted hit of Solondz's vision of America today. Which is a shame, because while the mood may have shifted the problems Solondz targets are still the same old problems and you can't stay in denial forever.
If you've seen "Happiness" then "Storytelling" may disappoint you at first. Initially, it's not nearly as funny, exchanging humour for darkness. This mainly arises from the division of the film into two halves; fiction and non-fiction. Fiction is 20 minutes of the most bleak, uncompromising and horrible film-making I have seen. By horrible I mean that it's very difficult to watch because what you are seeing is not nice in any sense of that over-used word. It focuses on Selma Blair, a girl at college on what is presumably a creative writing course.
The film opens on her having sex with her disabled boyfriend, who then proceeds to ask her opinion on the story he has written for said class. She thinks it's fine, but when the class instructor, a black Pulitzer prize winning novelist, hears it he says that it is awful, which it is. He gets angry with her, she goes off and basically ends up having sex with the teacher. None of this is easy to watch. But that is probably Solondz's point. He subverts our opinions of what we are watching, even reversing ideas about which characters we are prejudiced towards and which we favourable towards so as not to be prejudiced. I won't give anymore away than I already have, but I have to say that I did not like it at all because it made me ask questions I didn't really want to. In some ways that makes it excellent, but no matter what you think of the opening segment, nor how much you want to stop watching it, keep on going, because the second part - non-fiction - is absolutely brilliant.
The reason Solondz includes the opening story is because it joins perfectly with the second story, and puts it in a different light. Imagine the difference between watching a film normally, or watching a film before which the director has told you a number to things to contemplate while you watch the film. It's like that in a way, because while "non-fiction" does work as a separate film, it is much more powerful in light of what has gone before it. At base level, "Non-fiction" is a riotous black-comedy. It features John Goodman, who Coens' fans will know is a comedy genius, as the father of a dysfunctional family. At one end of the family you have Scooby, a perma-stoned wannabe high-school drop out trying to come to terms with his sexuality by listening to Elton John records, in the middle there's Brady, an American football playing jock, and a the other end there's Mikey, a child genius who is inadvertently and highly amusingly uber-racist, but not because he would have to conscious of it to be so. Indeed, this is where much of the humour in non-fiction comes from; people say things they shouldn't but their innocence makes them sound funny.
Anyway, this family become the subject of a documentary by Toby Oxman, a one-time high-school sweetheart, whose life has disintegrated with his hairline. Having given up hopes of acting, he has set his heart on making a documentary on high school students. At around this point, you start asking some major questions, and "Storytelling" starts to take on new dimensions. First off the actor playing Toby Oxman is a doppelganger for the director Todd Solondz himself, linking the documentary maker with the director. Secondly in light of the first film you being to see the idea of exploitation differently. In fact, every theme you thought would have cropped up in "Fiction" crops up in "Non-fiction" and vice-versa. Even the titles could be changed, as the "fiction" written in that story is painfully autobiographical, yet treated as fiction, while the "non-fiction" documentary becomes fictional, as we begin to see how much of the lives of these real people are fantasy and lies.
I'm not going to write anymore, mainly because I'm pretty sure that this film won't appeal to anyone but a few of the people on the forums. Equally, I don't want to spoil it, and any further probing into "non-fiction" would give the plot away inexcusably. I'll conclude by saying that once you are past the first 20 minutes the film is a joy, with many extremely funny moments, especially the scenes with John Goodman in. And if you want to you can just watch the film as a black-comedy, in which case I'd recommend that you take the option provided by the DVD of just watching the "non-fiction" segment. Equally you can watch the whole film and start to ask questions. Because like Coens films, "Storytelling" is a film that will become more and more rewarding with each view. So far I've only seen it once, but it anyone else wants to share what they made of it, then feel free to.
If you haven't seen it, then it comes thoroughly recommended. Few other films would make me think enough to want to come and write stuff about them at 4am...
If you've seen "Happiness" then "Storytelling" may disappoint you at first. Initially, it's not nearly as funny, exchanging humour for darkness. This mainly arises from the division of the film into two halves; fiction and non-fiction. Fiction is 20 minutes of the most bleak, uncompromising and horrible film-making I have seen. By horrible I mean that it's very difficult to watch because what you are seeing is not nice in any sense of that over-used word. It focuses on Selma Blair, a girl at college on what is presumably a creative writing course.
The film opens on her having sex with her disabled boyfriend, who then proceeds to ask her opinion on the story he has written for said class. She thinks it's fine, but when the class instructor, a black Pulitzer prize winning novelist, hears it he says that it is awful, which it is. He gets angry with her, she goes off and basically ends up having sex with the teacher. None of this is easy to watch. But that is probably Solondz's point. He subverts our opinions of what we are watching, even reversing ideas about which characters we are prejudiced towards and which we favourable towards so as not to be prejudiced. I won't give anymore away than I already have, but I have to say that I did not like it at all because it made me ask questions I didn't really want to. In some ways that makes it excellent, but no matter what you think of the opening segment, nor how much you want to stop watching it, keep on going, because the second part - non-fiction - is absolutely brilliant.
The reason Solondz includes the opening story is because it joins perfectly with the second story, and puts it in a different light. Imagine the difference between watching a film normally, or watching a film before which the director has told you a number to things to contemplate while you watch the film. It's like that in a way, because while "non-fiction" does work as a separate film, it is much more powerful in light of what has gone before it. At base level, "Non-fiction" is a riotous black-comedy. It features John Goodman, who Coens' fans will know is a comedy genius, as the father of a dysfunctional family. At one end of the family you have Scooby, a perma-stoned wannabe high-school drop out trying to come to terms with his sexuality by listening to Elton John records, in the middle there's Brady, an American football playing jock, and a the other end there's Mikey, a child genius who is inadvertently and highly amusingly uber-racist, but not because he would have to conscious of it to be so. Indeed, this is where much of the humour in non-fiction comes from; people say things they shouldn't but their innocence makes them sound funny.
Anyway, this family become the subject of a documentary by Toby Oxman, a one-time high-school sweetheart, whose life has disintegrated with his hairline. Having given up hopes of acting, he has set his heart on making a documentary on high school students. At around this point, you start asking some major questions, and "Storytelling" starts to take on new dimensions. First off the actor playing Toby Oxman is a doppelganger for the director Todd Solondz himself, linking the documentary maker with the director. Secondly in light of the first film you being to see the idea of exploitation differently. In fact, every theme you thought would have cropped up in "Fiction" crops up in "Non-fiction" and vice-versa. Even the titles could be changed, as the "fiction" written in that story is painfully autobiographical, yet treated as fiction, while the "non-fiction" documentary becomes fictional, as we begin to see how much of the lives of these real people are fantasy and lies.
I'm not going to write anymore, mainly because I'm pretty sure that this film won't appeal to anyone but a few of the people on the forums. Equally, I don't want to spoil it, and any further probing into "non-fiction" would give the plot away inexcusably. I'll conclude by saying that once you are past the first 20 minutes the film is a joy, with many extremely funny moments, especially the scenes with John Goodman in. And if you want to you can just watch the film as a black-comedy, in which case I'd recommend that you take the option provided by the DVD of just watching the "non-fiction" segment. Equally you can watch the whole film and start to ask questions. Because like Coens films, "Storytelling" is a film that will become more and more rewarding with each view. So far I've only seen it once, but it anyone else wants to share what they made of it, then feel free to.
If you haven't seen it, then it comes thoroughly recommended. Few other films would make me think enough to want to come and write stuff about them at 4am...
I put Cronenberg & Solenz in the same category.
Not genre directors but with the ability to just reach under your trouser leg and touch you, to make you feel dirty and uncomfortable.
Unsettled is the word I think.
Happiness was screwed. But in a "good" way, if that's the right word. It had a similar effect as when I watched Requiem for a Dream.
Just...bothered me.
I still think the opening scene with John Lovitz in the restaurant ranks as one of the honest and viscious things I've seen.
I'll have a look for this one, cheers Happy.
And I recommend a movie called Lawndogs.
If you can find it, it's well worth watching.
Not genre directors but with the ability to just reach under your trouser leg and touch you, to make you feel dirty and uncomfortable.
Unsettled is the word I think.
Happiness was screwed. But in a "good" way, if that's the right word. It had a similar effect as when I watched Requiem for a Dream.
Just...bothered me.
I still think the opening scene with John Lovitz in the restaurant ranks as one of the honest and viscious things I've seen.
I'll have a look for this one, cheers Happy.
And I recommend a movie called Lawndogs.
If you can find it, it's well worth watching.
I accidently watched Happiness with a parent.
I'm still cringing now :-)
I'm still cringing now :-)
Happiness and Welcome to the Doll House are both very good films, but they left me feeling extremely depressed. Every so often a group of friends and I used to get together round someone's house and rent a new video to watch, and I unfortunately chose Happiness. Not a film to watch with a group of friends and the popcorn.
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.. "Fiction" will make you feel worse than anything in Happiness did, but "non-fiction" is mostly extremely funny and better than happiness. And when put together, Non fiction becomes a little bit bleaker.
Fiction makes you feel dirty though. And I'd recommend that you turn the sound down at one point as one character has a crescendo of an extremely rude phrase, which se ultimately screams, much to the shock of mis padres :-)
Fiction makes you feel dirty though. And I'd recommend that you turn the sound down at one point as one character has a crescendo of an extremely rude phrase, which se ultimately screams, much to the shock of mis padres :-)
Will give it a watch.
I bought Happiness on your recomendation (I think), and it was astoundingly screwed up. The whole thing felt very dirty - made me feel guilty for watching it. Still good though.
I bought Happiness on your recomendation (I think), and it was astoundingly screwed up. The whole thing felt very dirty - made me feel guilty for watching it. Still good though.
It's a film by Todd Solondz, who one suspects might be a little depressed given his previous film "happiness", which featured paedophilia, fetishism and a quite brilliant foreign cab driver. Despite being bleak and filled with dysfunctional people, it was simultaneously extremely funny in the darkest possible way. Sadly, Solondz is making his films at the wrong time, in almost any other year he would have received far greater recognition than he has currently received, with the main problem being that his cynical take on American values does not wash with the post September 11th mood of patriotism coursing through the hearts of every red-blooded American. So "Storytelling" finds itself in the position of being released on DVD in the UK before the US, probably for the reason mentioned. Given the heavy editing that US DVD releases receive, comparative to other countries, (as anyone who's heard about the blockbuster/swamp thing fiasco over there will know), the American audience will probably get a diluted hit of Solondz's vision of America today. Which is a shame, because while the mood may have shifted the problems Solondz targets are still the same old problems and you can't stay in denial forever.
If you've seen "Happiness" then "Storytelling" may disappoint you at first. Initially, it's not nearly as funny, exchanging humour for darkness. This mainly arises from the division of the film into two halves; fiction and non-fiction. Fiction is 20 minutes of the most bleak, uncompromising and horrible film-making I have seen. By horrible I mean that it's very difficult to watch because what you are seeing is not nice in any sense of that over-used word. It focuses on Selma Blair, a girl at college on what is presumably a creative writing course.
The film opens on her having sex with her disabled boyfriend, who then proceeds to ask her opinion on the story he has written for said class. She thinks it's fine, but when the class instructor, a black Pulitzer prize winning novelist, hears it he says that it is awful, which it is. He gets angry with her, she goes off and basically ends up having sex with the teacher. None of this is easy to watch. But that is probably Solondz's point. He subverts our opinions of what we are watching, even reversing ideas about which characters we are prejudiced towards and which we favourable towards so as not to be prejudiced. I won't give anymore away than I already have, but I have to say that I did not like it at all because it made me ask questions I didn't really want to. In some ways that makes it excellent, but no matter what you think of the opening segment, nor how much you want to stop watching it, keep on going, because the second part - non-fiction - is absolutely brilliant.
The reason Solondz includes the opening story is because it joins perfectly with the second story, and puts it in a different light. Imagine the difference between watching a film normally, or watching a film before which the director has told you a number to things to contemplate while you watch the film. It's like that in a way, because while "non-fiction" does work as a separate film, it is much more powerful in light of what has gone before it. At base level, "Non-fiction" is a riotous black-comedy. It features John Goodman, who Coens' fans will know is a comedy genius, as the father of a dysfunctional family. At one end of the family you have Scooby, a perma-stoned wannabe high-school drop out trying to come to terms with his sexuality by listening to Elton John records, in the middle there's Brady, an American football playing jock, and a the other end there's Mikey, a child genius who is inadvertently and highly amusingly uber-racist, but not because he would have to conscious of it to be so. Indeed, this is where much of the humour in non-fiction comes from; people say things they shouldn't but their innocence makes them sound funny.
Anyway, this family become the subject of a documentary by Toby Oxman, a one-time high-school sweetheart, whose life has disintegrated with his hairline. Having given up hopes of acting, he has set his heart on making a documentary on high school students. At around this point, you start asking some major questions, and "Storytelling" starts to take on new dimensions. First off the actor playing Toby Oxman is a doppelganger for the director Todd Solondz himself, linking the documentary maker with the director. Secondly in light of the first film you being to see the idea of exploitation differently. In fact, every theme you thought would have cropped up in "Fiction" crops up in "Non-fiction" and vice-versa. Even the titles could be changed, as the "fiction" written in that story is painfully autobiographical, yet treated as fiction, while the "non-fiction" documentary becomes fictional, as we begin to see how much of the lives of these real people are fantasy and lies.
I'm not going to write anymore, mainly because I'm pretty sure that this film won't appeal to anyone but a few of the people on the forums. Equally, I don't want to spoil it, and any further probing into "non-fiction" would give the plot away inexcusably. I'll conclude by saying that once you are past the first 20 minutes the film is a joy, with many extremely funny moments, especially the scenes with John Goodman in. And if you want to you can just watch the film as a black-comedy, in which case I'd recommend that you take the option provided by the DVD of just watching the "non-fiction" segment. Equally you can watch the whole film and start to ask questions. Because like Coens films, "Storytelling" is a film that will become more and more rewarding with each view. So far I've only seen it once, but it anyone else wants to share what they made of it, then feel free to.
If you haven't seen it, then it comes thoroughly recommended. Few other films would make me think enough to want to come and write stuff about them at 4am...
If you've seen "Happiness" then "Storytelling" may disappoint you at first. Initially, it's not nearly as funny, exchanging humour for darkness. This mainly arises from the division of the film into two halves; fiction and non-fiction. Fiction is 20 minutes of the most bleak, uncompromising and horrible film-making I have seen. By horrible I mean that it's very difficult to watch because what you are seeing is not nice in any sense of that over-used word. It focuses on Selma Blair, a girl at college on what is presumably a creative writing course.
The film opens on her having sex with her disabled boyfriend, who then proceeds to ask her opinion on the story he has written for said class. She thinks it's fine, but when the class instructor, a black Pulitzer prize winning novelist, hears it he says that it is awful, which it is. He gets angry with her, she goes off and basically ends up having sex with the teacher. None of this is easy to watch. But that is probably Solondz's point. He subverts our opinions of what we are watching, even reversing ideas about which characters we are prejudiced towards and which we favourable towards so as not to be prejudiced. I won't give anymore away than I already have, but I have to say that I did not like it at all because it made me ask questions I didn't really want to. In some ways that makes it excellent, but no matter what you think of the opening segment, nor how much you want to stop watching it, keep on going, because the second part - non-fiction - is absolutely brilliant.
The reason Solondz includes the opening story is because it joins perfectly with the second story, and puts it in a different light. Imagine the difference between watching a film normally, or watching a film before which the director has told you a number to things to contemplate while you watch the film. It's like that in a way, because while "non-fiction" does work as a separate film, it is much more powerful in light of what has gone before it. At base level, "Non-fiction" is a riotous black-comedy. It features John Goodman, who Coens' fans will know is a comedy genius, as the father of a dysfunctional family. At one end of the family you have Scooby, a perma-stoned wannabe high-school drop out trying to come to terms with his sexuality by listening to Elton John records, in the middle there's Brady, an American football playing jock, and a the other end there's Mikey, a child genius who is inadvertently and highly amusingly uber-racist, but not because he would have to conscious of it to be so. Indeed, this is where much of the humour in non-fiction comes from; people say things they shouldn't but their innocence makes them sound funny.
Anyway, this family become the subject of a documentary by Toby Oxman, a one-time high-school sweetheart, whose life has disintegrated with his hairline. Having given up hopes of acting, he has set his heart on making a documentary on high school students. At around this point, you start asking some major questions, and "Storytelling" starts to take on new dimensions. First off the actor playing Toby Oxman is a doppelganger for the director Todd Solondz himself, linking the documentary maker with the director. Secondly in light of the first film you being to see the idea of exploitation differently. In fact, every theme you thought would have cropped up in "Fiction" crops up in "Non-fiction" and vice-versa. Even the titles could be changed, as the "fiction" written in that story is painfully autobiographical, yet treated as fiction, while the "non-fiction" documentary becomes fictional, as we begin to see how much of the lives of these real people are fantasy and lies.
I'm not going to write anymore, mainly because I'm pretty sure that this film won't appeal to anyone but a few of the people on the forums. Equally, I don't want to spoil it, and any further probing into "non-fiction" would give the plot away inexcusably. I'll conclude by saying that once you are past the first 20 minutes the film is a joy, with many extremely funny moments, especially the scenes with John Goodman in. And if you want to you can just watch the film as a black-comedy, in which case I'd recommend that you take the option provided by the DVD of just watching the "non-fiction" segment. Equally you can watch the whole film and start to ask questions. Because like Coens films, "Storytelling" is a film that will become more and more rewarding with each view. So far I've only seen it once, but it anyone else wants to share what they made of it, then feel free to.
If you haven't seen it, then it comes thoroughly recommended. Few other films would make me think enough to want to come and write stuff about them at 4am...