Word: solondz
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...with happiness. In 1824, Beethoven completed the "Ode to Joy." In 1962, novelist Anthony Burgess used it in A Clockwork Orange as the favorite piece of his ultraviolent antihero. If someone titles an art movie Happiness, it is a good bet that it will be--as the 1998 Todd Solondz film was--about deeply unhappy people, including a telephone pervert and a pedophile...
...Still, Payne jumps to distinguish his work from that of Todd Solondz, whom he calls out by name as a “cruel” artist. “If there’s contempt,” he says of his own work, “not always but often it’s ameliorated by understanding...
...Moss hardly fits the mold of the pomo hipsters who currently dominate the independent film-making scene; with a modest collared shirt and a neatly trimmed beard creeping with gray, he comes off more Spielberg than Solondz...
Scenes such as these were at every turn in Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse, unabashedly funny yet critical of the inaneness of middle class life. But rather than push the story with scenes like the aforementioned, Solondz and his film falls into the trap of self-reflection. Oxman meets and reviews the documentary footage with his editor (Frankie Potente), and she accuses him of dislike and exploitation of his characters for the sake of entertaining his audience. Again, if this sounds like the aftermath of Happiness, it is. Solondz spent many interviews defending his attitude, claiming ambivalence and empathy...
...unfortunate result of Solondz’s self-indulgence and revenge tactics is that both sections of the film fall flat and stay on the surface of the issue that is at the heart of his filmmaking: exploitation. Storytelling is a misstep for Solondz, but even on his off days, he is still a more provocative and fascinating filmmaker than any of the hacks Hollywood has to offer. Hopefully his concern with the critical reception of his work rather than the work itself will be flushed out his system. But hope is something we shouldn’t anticipate...