Review of Storytelling (2001) by James J — 14 Feb 2009

The first part is not perfect but I could forgive the more sophomoric elements because it was a brief segment and I mostly liked it. The rest of the film is horrible. Love, compassion, and joy don't exist here; only power, humiliation, and selfishness that border on the ludicrous.

What makes this film even worse is that Todd Solondz is essentially defending himself by saying that his films, which show suburbia as a vile place, are just reflections of reality. He populates both stories with characters who are in the know about how disgusting middle-class thought and values are, and while he gives these wisemen flaws, they are essentially superior.

Don't get me wrong, I think the suburbs breed the sort of thinking that has damaged this country, but Solondz strips the entire experience of emotion and love and leaves us with totally worthless pod-people.

He is as intellectually honest as Spike Lee, another man who cannot hide is hatred, but paints those who question him as racist. I can see Solondz brushing off criticism as middle-class reaction to the awful truth, rather than disgust at his unwillingness to give his characters more than one dimension or to suggest that people really are capable of love.

I like his overall message, and he makes some subtle jabs at himself within the film, but I think how the film is presented is terrible. In this sense it is just like Natural Born Killers, which also means there are an army of people out there who will proclaim this as genius.