Oh man, I was so ready to write this long diatribe about the misanthropic and pessimistic Todd Solondz, but he beat me to the punch. His latest film, \Storytelling,"" plays like a Socratic dialectic, answering its critics before they have a chance to speak. The movie reaches a point of being so self-serving that it's at once a welcome relief from his previous work and an insult to its audience.
""Storytelling"" tells two stories. The first, called ""Fiction,"" has Selma Blair, a creative writing student, and her disturbing one night stand with a black professor. When she writes up the experience, though, her classmates call it unbelievable and racist. The last two-thirds of the film, titled ""Nonfiction,"" follows Paul Giamatti as a documentary filmmaker.
He tapes Scooby, an aimless high school senior with a rich suburban family. ""Nonfiction"" plays much better than I had expected. At points, it's an interesting comment on two recent films. Solondz takes on the vapid sentimentality of ""American Beauty"" one minute and the feigned innocence of the mocking ""American Movie"" the next. It's nice to see directors challenge and question each other. However, most of the challenging Solondz does is of his critics and himself.
In ""Fiction"" Blair defends her story against its critics. They say she hates her characters and sets up situations to express forced misery. She trumps them by saying it's all true. In ""Nonfiction,"" Giamatti can't help but show the Livingstons as absurd, despite claiming to love them.
""Storytelling"" is very layered and interesting to pull apart, but when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter if Solondz loves or hates his characters or if the audience is misreading his vision. What he puts on the screen is a series of pathetic, little people. And he defends himself saying something like, ""Hey, I'm just documenting people how they really are. I know what you are going to say about it, but, oh well.""
Well, then what's the point, Todd? No matter how far back you try to step, no matter how much you admit your role as storyteller, you can never give up your position of power over your characters. To go one further, that control over the characters is just control over the audience. Fundamentally, storytelling is about empathy with characters'we see in them our own foibles and strengths. I don't know why anyone would pay $7.50 to be judged as pathetic and little.
The people around me in the theater seemed to enjoy it. Those few hipsters yearning for the dark humor of ""Welcome to the Dollhouse"" and ""Happiness"" could hardly control their nervous laughter, joke or no joke. The jerks up front, who had made crude and easy jokes at the expense of the concessionaires, even quieted their discussion of PT's Q&A on IFC to bathe in misanthropy. Gee, Todd, you even got me caught up in hating your audience. Congratulations on small victories.
Ah, recommendations. Movies that hate their subjects are all around, people. If you like ""Storytelling,"" try ""Welcome to the Dollhouse"" or ""In the Company of Men."" Those are always good for a sneering laugh and a boost to one's sense of superiority. Just remember to ignore the fact that the jokes are about you.
