Storytelling Review
by Robin Clifford (robin AT reelingreviews DOT com)February 19th, 2002
"Storytelling"
Director/writer Todd Solodnz made a name for himself with the subversive coming-of-age film "Welcome to the Doll House." Then, he put a sympathetic face on parental pedophilia in "Happiness." Now, he analyzes the gray area that lives between fiction and non-fiction in "Storytelling."
I was blown away when I saw Solondz's debut film, "Welcome to the Doll House," with its introduction of one of the most misunderstood adolescents in the history of coming-of-age flicks - the Weiner Dog (Heather Matarazzo). The work is amusing, enlightening and opens the old wounds of being an outsider when you're a kid.
"Happiness" is a more ambitious, though uneven, film that deals with perversions and twisted lives. Outstanding, in the film, is the story of Bill (Dylan Baker), a psychiatrist with his own set of problems - especially his unhealthy sexual attraction to his 11-year old son's friend and classmate. Solondz did the remarkable and put a human face on a man who, under virtually any circumstances, would be considered a monster. While the rest of the film doesn't achieve the impact of Baker's sequence, his is worth the price of admission.
Solodnz once again gets on his soapbox and pontificates, this time with "Storytelling," as he examines the gray area between fiction and non-fiction. In fact, he names his two-part opus as just that - "Fiction" and "Non-fiction."
Part one is set in a small college circa 1985. Vi (Selma Blare) is having a sexual affair with fellow student Marcus (Leo Fitzgerald), a young guy suffering from cerebral palsy. The affair has become one of pity, by Vi, and Marcus uses the waning relationship to concoct a story for their writing class. Marcus is devastated when their black professor, Mr. Scott (Robert Wisdom), tears the boys work apart, humiliating him in front of the whole class. Vi is attracted to the Pulitzer Prize-winning teacher and approaches him in a bar. She agrees to go home with him, only to be humiliated sexually (in a bit of self-aggrandizing censorship that makes Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" seem uninhibited). Her classmates deride her "fictional" account of the harrowing evening as unrealistic and pretentious.
Part two follows Toby Oxman (Paul Giamatti), a documentary filmmaking wannabe who has had trouble finding his niche. He is an unsuccessful actor and novelist working in a shoe store when he has the idea to make a film about teen life following events such as the Columbine tragedy. He picks as his subject one Scooby Livingstone (Mark Webber), a none too bright student who aspires to be a TV talk show host. Toby invades the dysfunctional abode of the Livingstone family with its blustering, belligerent father, Marty (John Goodman), eager to please mom, Fern (Julie Hagerty), #2 jock son Brady (Noah Fleiss) and brainy, analytic youngster Mikey (Jonathan Osser). There is also the family's under-paid, over-worked housekeeper, Consuelo (Lupe Ontiveros).
I have problems with "Storytelling." There is the feeling, as I watched the film, of something missing in the finished product. Part of the problem is the off-balanced two-part theme that deals with fiction versus non-fiction. Neither title fits the subject, but I figure that's Solodnz being intellectual.
Todd Solondz is a talented moviemaker and he has some interesting things to say about people and perceptions. But, with "Storytelling," he fails to draw me in to his characters that are nothing more than two-dimensional symbols and not all that likable. The most complex and sometimes scary character is young Jonathan Osser as Mikey Livingstone. Beneath the surface of his inquisitive nature beats a heart of a shark used to manipulate the adults around him to do his bidding. Mikey is as much a monster as psychiatrist Bill in "Happiness."
The stories told in "Storytelling," written by the director, fail to capture my heart and mind. The tales are told but there is nothing (except Osser's character/performance) that draws me to recommend it. Solondz may be convinced that he has something significant to say, but he isn't talking a talk that appeals to me. I give it a D+.
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