Review of Storytelling (2001) by Alex H — 06 Jan 2010

I remember last Valentines Day, sat at home with nothing (or no-one) to do, flicking through the movie channels on sky and saw that Sky Indie was having a series of films dedicated to "twisted romance". One of those films was called "Happiness", directed by Todd Solondz, a guy who I had not heard of at the time, and due to my impulsive and lazy nature I thought that I'd give it a shot as my fingers grew tired of pressing the channel up button. When I finished watching it I couldn't move from my chair due to shock. My eyes started to look around the room suspiciously half expecting the whole film was a practical joke at my expense and people were about to burst in at any moment with TV cameras laughing and shouting "gotcha!" at me. It was one of the most intense, engrossing and completely fucking mental films I had, and still have ever seen.

Happiness has since grown to be one of my favourite films and when I saw Storytelling for £3 in HMV I thought that it was an offer that I couldn't really turn down. In retrospect, I'd have payed 5 times as much. Todd Solondz really is a great film-maker, and I will be actively seeking out his other films at the nearest oppertunity. Todd Solondz has a great talent in taking some of the most controversial subject matter and somehow using it to make you laugh and gasp at the same time. When Todd Solondz sees a box of taboos saying "this way up - handle with care" he not only turns it upside down, but then proceeds to dropkick it into some mystical realm where the broken pieces inside morph into something tragic, compelling and hilarious.

The film has an interesting and fairly original structure, seperated into two sections, fiction and non-fiction, both linked by the common theme of the title, "Storytelling". Fiction is about a girl enrolled in a creative writing class at university who gets dumped by her boyfriend who has cerebral palsy and then ends up sleeping with her university lecturer in a rather acrimonious set of circumstances. This section is perfectly punctuated by two seminars where cluelss students comment on two stories, one written by the girl and one by her boyfriend.

The fiction section is almost like a disclaimer for the second and longer non-fiction section of the story. It brings up complaints and criticisms that are going to be levelled at the second partand says that it isn't appologising for anything. It also really helps establish the themes so when the title "non-ficiton" pops up you are primed and ready for what is about to slap you in the face.

Non-fiction looks at a desperate bloke who deciedes to become a documentary film maker, possibly going through some kind of midlife crisis, making a film that is meant to examine how life has changed in schools since he went there. He heads to a school to explain his project to the headteacher and presumably asks permission to film and then by chance runs into a stoner called Scooby in the tiolets and then after being pressured by the boys family decides to make Scooby the focus of the documentary.

There is an interesting swipe at films like American Beauty for trying to be different and controversial but not really pushing it to the extreme. For me this is a matter of taste, I really like American Beauty and it is a much cleaner and neater film than Storytelling, but the loose nature of Storytelling is what makes it so riveting, as you really don't know where it is going to go or what is going to happen, and if you think you do you are completelty mistaken.

I highly, highly recommend this film, but I do recommend you see "Happiness" beforehand so you are prepared for Solondz's style and also because knowledge of his previous work helps understand some of the points that he tries to make. You will not regret it.