Storytelling Review
by Rose 'Bams' Cooper (bams AT 3blackchicks DOT com)February 20th, 2002
STORYTELLING (2001)
Rated R; running time 87 minutes
Studios: Fine Line Features
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Seen at: Lowes 19th Street East 6 (New York, New York)
Official site: http://www.storytellingmovie.com/
IMDB site: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0250081
Written by: Todd Solondz
Directed by: Todd Solondz
Cast: Selma Blair, Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, Julie Hagerty, Lupe Ontiveros, Leo Fitzpatrick, Noah Fleiss, Jonathan Osser, Aleksa Palladino, Mark Webber, Robert Wisdom
Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002
Review URL: http://www.3blackchicks.com/2002reviews/bamsstorytelling.html
This past weekend, I decided that since I was in New York City, I'd watch a film or two that I couldn't see at my home base in Podunkville. After all, I could be subjected to the torture that is CROSSROADS, anywhere; how often would I get the chance to watch Art Films in the Big Apple?
gak, I've been slimed again. Where's Britney Spears when you need her?
THE STORY (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**)
STORYTELLING is a story told in two separate, completely unequal parts:
"Fiction" revolves around a college writing class in which Vi (Selma Blair) experiments with her fellow classmates and teacher to draw out her non-existent talent for writing. Vi plays at sex with Marcus (Leo Fitzpatrick), an equally untalented writer with cerebral palsy. After they both are called out by fellow student Catherine (Aleksa Palladino) and their teacher, acclaimed writer Mr. Scott (Robert Wisdom), Vi for some bizarre reason goes after Scott, perhaps to write Yet Another bad story in the process.
"Non-Fiction" makes a bit more sense. Toby Oxman (Paul Giamatti), a failed...well, everything...decides to give documentary filmmaking a shot. He chooses as his subject one Scooby Livingston (Mark Webber), an aimless soul who wants to get over by exerting the least amount of energy possible, with "TV Talk Show Host" as his chosen goal in life. Scooby's family would certainly provide enough talk show fodder: his loudmouth father Marty (John Goodman) and oblivious mother Fern (Julie Hagerty) are weird enough, but they are completely eclipsed by bad seed fifth-grader Mikey (Jonathan Osser), a nuclear accident waiting to happen.
THE UPSHOT (WARNING: **brief cussing contained below**)
I don't give a flip about Todd Solondz's credentials. I'm not impressed that he's supposedly Brilliant for having put out WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE or HAPPINESS in the past. And I especially don't care that Solondz likely aimed STORYTELLING at the same pretentious pseudo-intellectuals who he took to task in the first part of this two-part train wreck, "Fiction". Pardon my french, but I hate pretentious pseudo-intellectuals who drop their pants, take a dump, and dares their audience to not call their excrement Fine Art. Me, I call it by its rightful name: shit on a stick.
Really, most of my major Issues with this pompous film, stem from its first part. Every painfully muttered syllable, every tortured frame of film, screamed "Look at me! I'm an Indie Artist! Watch me make absolutely no sense! I dare you to call me on it, nyah!". In frame after frame, Solondz proved to be so full of himself that he should never go hungry again. I won't even bother growling about his oh so affected feint at shock value-loaded phrases or the self-censoring red strip (used to Make A Point. I ain't impressed). All I can say is, if I ever knew anybody remotely like the creatures who inhabited Solondz's warped academic world, I'd seriously consider committing mercy killings.
The second half, "Non-Fiction", was marginally better, perhaps because it was marginally humorous. Too bad Solondz didn't make this his entire movie. Solondz wisely moves away from academia and jabs at copycat documentary stylings, poking fun at AMERICAN BEAUTY along the way. Like the completely dysfunctional Burnham family, the Livingstone clan in STORYTELLING make us laugh uncomfortably at their multitude of Issues - perhaps recognizing some of our own dysfunctions writ large.
More than anything, it's the actors in this half that are all that save STORYTELLING from my first tri-redlight rating since the despicable MONKEYBONE. Paul Giamatti and John Goodman are the journeyman actors of our times; they have both done much better work before, but Giamatti especially helped to guide STORYTELLING out from the mire in which its first half firmly placed the movie. Julie Hagerty as a mother who literally wears her Jewishness on her sleeve, Mark Webber as a living teenage wasteland, and Lupe Ontiveros as the put-upon housekeeper, do a good job of building this story. But it's Jonathan Osser as Mikey Livingston, monster-in-training, that really made "Non-Fiction" work. Fear little Mikey and watch him closely, for he will grow up to become the George Dubya of his day.
BAMMER'S BOTTOM LINE
ick. I hate the feeling of having been slimed in the name of High Art. Next time I go to New York City, I'm most def going lowbrow.
STORYTELLING rating: flashing redlight
Rose "Bams" Cooper
Webchick and Editor,
3BlackChicks Review
Entertainment Reviews With Flava!
Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002
EMAIL: [email protected]
http://www.3blackchicks.com/
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