Review of Storytelling (2001) by Kenneth L — 28 Mar 2014

This is the third film I've seen by Todd Solondz, and in my opinion it's the weakest of the three by far. It continues his overarching project of dark suburban satire, but it doesn't really bring anything new to the table that the first two films didn't already bring. I'm all for bitter misanthropy in my movies, but it has to be interesting bitter misanthropy, and in this case it doesn't work.

The film has two parts, "Fiction" and "Non-fiction," which have nothing to do with each other beyond a very vague concern with, well, storytelling. The first, which only runs about half an hour, is about a college student (Selma Blair) who has difficulties with some of the people in her creative writing class, including her boyfriend with cerebral palsy and the humorless professor. The second, which runs for a full hour, follows the meeting of a novice documentary filmmaker (Paul Giamatti) and a sullen teenager (Mark Webber). There are a few loose satirical threads running through this part of the film - there are subplots following the teenager's sociopathic younger brother (Jonathan Osser), his housemaid (Lupe Ontiveros), and his angry father (John Goodman). Now, I've recently developed a theory that any movie in existence can be substantially improved by including at least five minutes' worth of John Goodman; and while this film does benefit a bit from his presence, even he can't save it.

Ultimately, this film just feels slight, pallid, and stale. It's the cold leftovers to Happiness's filling, psychotic meal. It has neither the sass and energy of Welcome to the Dollhouse nor the copious amounts of shock value and weirdly sympathetic characters of Happiness. The performances are fine, and of course Giamatti is very good as always, but none of it ever seems to cohere. It's like Solondz had to make another film just to round out a contract or something, and so made a film that continues his familiar themes without really innovating. It's even visually duller than Welcome to the Dollhouse, with its wonderfully pukey '90s colors. I would honestly recommend this one only to diehard Solondz fans; otherwise, watch one of his first two films.