Word: solondz
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...latest effort Storytelling, the indie director is more concerned with responding to that reproach with his own lashes and cheeky irony, rather than building upon his incisive look at suburbia in Happiness. Instead of investing time and injecting complexity into his characters as in past works, Solondz privileges taking shots at his pundits and utilizing shock tactics to transparent ends. In his two previous films he had transcended the shocking nature of his subject matter by creating characters who confounded the audience, leaving moviegoers conflicted about our compartmentalized notions of good and evil. Yet in Storytelling he gets wrapped...
Storytelling is divided into two narratively separate, but thematically consistent sections: Fiction and Nonfiction. Fiction,set in New Jersey, focuses on a creative writing class taught by a mordant Pulitzer Prize winning African-American teacher, Dr. Scott (Robert Wisdom). Solondz dives right into controversy by beginning the section with a love scene between Vi (Selma Blair) and cerebal palsy-inflicted Marcus (Leo Fitzpatick). Post-coitus, Leo accuses Vi of having grown tired of the novelty of handicapped sex. In class Leo reads an autobiographical story of his affair with Vi, and concludes by saying: “CP didn?...
...NonFiction, the less mechanical and derivative section of Storytelling, Solondz digs into the familiar territory of surburban misery and dysfunction. The story centers on Toby Oxman, (Paul Giamatti), a dejected shoe salesman who plans to make a documentary film about the underbelly of suburban high school, and the Livingstons, a middle-class Jewish-American family. Oxman finds his ideal protagonist in Scooby Livingston, an apathetic, strung-out, futureless student who spends most of his time organzing his CD collection and dreaming of being Conan O’Brien’s sidekick. Oxman follows Scooby through his nonexistent college search...
Moms have a special name for lying: telling stories. We all engage in storytelling to get us out of tough situations. But only Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness) keeps making films about the lies at the heart of modern life. This time his expose sounds like a confession. Is he twisting his own "truths...
Directors exhaust superlatives extolling Hoffman's craft. "He's extraordinarily committed to infinitesimal detail," says Schumacher. "I don't think there's anything he can't do," raves Minghella. Adds Solondz: "Whatever genius is, he has it. He's fearless. I love...