Reel Critics -- Rob Orozco

“Storytelling” is the much anticipated follow-up to writer/director

Todd Solondz’s “Welcome to the Dollhouse” and “Happiness.” As with his

previous endeavors, Solondz mines the depths of human depravity and

provides biting social commentaries that are, unfortunately, missing from

today’s paint-by-numbers films.

As the title suggests, “Storytelling” is a narrative film in which the

main theme is narrative itself: a movie about how people turn life

experience into stories and how those stories can betray or exploit the

reality they depict. Sullen, brooding and full of the acid humor that has

marked Solondz’s films to date, the film has ambitions that aren’t quite

realized -- perhaps because part of the movie looks like a solid first

draft. Solondz planned “Storytelling” as a three-part anthology, but

before its release he cut out the third section, starring the star of

‘Dollhouse,’ Heather Mazzola.

The first portion, the better of the remaining pieces, is titled

“Fiction” and is set in the mid-1980s at some anonymous college campus.

The story is about a college creative writing student Vi (Selma Blair)

whose boyfriend Marcus (Leo Fitzpatrick) has cerebral palsy. The duo are

students of a Pulitzer Prize-winning African American professor Gary

Scott (Robert Wisdom). Marcus writes a lame uplifting story about his

cerebral palsy and is lauded by his classmates, who appear uncomfortable

criticizing a disabled person. The aspiring teacher’s pet calls Marcus to

task, which eventually leads to the breakup of Vi and Marcus.

Vi later moves on to a one-night stand with her writing professor, an

imposing figure whose tastes run toward kinky “Mandingo” fantasies. (We

hear but don’t quite see their sexual encounter. To both avoid and

ridicule the MPPAA’s threat of an NC-17 rating, Solondz covers the tryst

with a tacky-looking red rectangle. Because the action is covered, the

ratings organization gave “Storytelling” an R rating.) And when Vi turns

the experience into a story for her class, she finds herself savaged by

the class as being deliberately “mean,” “derogatory” and “creating

uplifting characters/situations” in her story. However, Vi is praised by

her teacher, who nonetheless reminds her with the scathing remark that

“All truth, once written, becomes fiction.”

Unfortunately, part two, “Nonfiction,” is not as potent as part one.

Instead it resembles a rough draft in emulating Albert Brooks’ masterful

1979 mockumentary “Real Life.” Here, a hapless failed actor named Toby

Oxman (Paul Giamatti) tries to improve his luck by becoming an

independent documentary filmmaker -- recording, cinema verite-style, the

lives of the Livingston family, focusing on slacker teen Scooby’s (Mark

Webber) attempt to get into college. The family is replete with

dysfunctional characters: dad Marty (John Goodman) complains about

everything, wife Fern (Julie Hagerty) vainly aspires to be a socialite,

middle son Brady (Noah Fleiss) is a bland jock, youngest son Mikey

(Jonathan Osser) is a sadist in training, and their Salvadoran maid

Consuelo (Lupe Ontiveros) is the victim of all.

While Solondz has a keen ear for dialogue, “Nonfiction” suffers from

Solondz’s apparent desire to jab at recent movies that purport to examine

the darker side of American culture. Solondz’s venom appears to have been

concentrated on “American Beauty,” which is mercilessly scathed as

“American Scooby.” There are priceless moments in the extended roasting

of “American Beauty,” however the overall film suffers from the

digression. The shift in focus from another biting commentary to a blase

conclusion makes the first half of “Storytelling” even stronger. Of

course, by Solondz’s standards, a weak section of a film is still of

greater significance and more challenging than most of the rubbish

filling the multiplexes.

While Solondz can easily be dismissed as a misanthrope, that narrow

view ignores his genuine affection for his characters. Furthermore,

Solondz’s characters explore the depths of human emotions, from the

junior high school setting in “Welcome to the Dollhouse” used to explore

the themes of basic human decency to the various stages of eros and agape

in “Happiness,” Solondz explores the methods and madness of his

characters and comes clean; joyous epiphanies and happy endings be

damned. Solondz is a better filmmaker because of it, and we should

encourage the few remaining writer/directors who are worthy of the

oft-thrown term “artist” by avoiding the weekly dribble foisted on us.

“Storytelling” is rated R for strong sexual content, language and some

drug use.

* ROB OROZCO is an attorney with Morris, Polich & Purdy. He lives in

Costa Mesa with his wife and two cats.