STORYTELLING (2001)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
(Originally viewed in 2002)
Uneasiness is at the core of all Todd Solondz's work. "Welcome to the Dollhouse" was the uneasy tale of a young girl coming to terms with school, sex, and jealousy in her adolescent years. "Happiness" was the provocative, uneasy epic of sex and relationships in New Jersey, and the nature of pedophilia. "Happiness" remains the most provocative film of the nineties for touching on taboos that make people feel queasy and uncomfortable. "Storytelling" is the uneasy tale of sex, racism, and tabloid journalism crossed with media exploitation in New Jersey. Two of those themes are far more provocative than the last, a retread of ideas we have seen before and better.
The film is divided into two sections: "Fiction" and "Nonfiction." "Fiction" begins with college student, Vi (Selma Blair), who has a relationship with Marcus (Leo Fitzpatrick), who suffers from cerebral palsy. They are both working on stories for their writing class, but mostly they have sex rather than discuss writing. Marcus has changed the ending to his story but Vi doesn't want to hear it. He feels the relationship has passed their stormy affair phase into one where she is "kind" to him, no doubt due to his celebral palsy.
The day of the class comes where everyone has to read their stories. Marcus reads his (relating to his own relationship with Vi where he becomes a cerebral man), and is greeted with overwhelming praise by the students. The teacher, Mr. Scott (Robert Wisdom), a Pulitzer Prize winner, scoffs at Marcus's writing and calls it cliched and sentimental ("And that title, 'The Raw Truth'. Is that supposed to be some kind of joke"?). Marcus is upset but Vi tries to calm him down - she is attracted, however, by Scott's derisive put-downs and blunt criticism. One night, she inadvertently meets Scott at a bar. They talk. She goes to his apartment and they have anal sex. Solondz doesn't stop there - Scott has Vi say a racist phrase which will no doubt make him climax. The next day, Vi has written her own story about her ordeal with Scott. The class hates it and berates her for it, but Scott sees the seeds of a genuine talent. She defends her story to the students by saying it was an actual incident. Scott's own bluntness comes through perfectly in one great line: "The moment you write it down, it becomes fiction."
The next section called "Nonfiction" deals with an amateur documentary filmmaker, Toby Oxman (Paul Giammati), who wants to make a film about alienated youth at the local school. He finds a disillusioned slacker named Scooby (Mark Webber), who has no prospects or goals in life except to be on television. His family is one obscene lot. There is the father, Mark (John Goodman), who can't stand to talk about taboo subjects at the dinner table; his wife, Fern (Julie Hagerty), who merely tries to keep out of her husband's way; the jock brother, Brady (Noah Fleiss), who worries about his reputation, and the irritating Mikey (Jonathan Osser), the youngest brother who has one scene with the maid (Lupe Ontiveros) that will make you cringe with pure vitriol.
Toby has his own problems. He wavers from one job to the next, tries to hook up with a high-school classmate who has moved on to better things like marriage, and is trying to convince himself he can make a documentary that will be entertaining to everyone. The problem is that he is filming a reality that cannot be formatted for the masses in a digestible manner. He realizes this but insists on making it fun.
Scooby has his share of problems like any high-school kid. He refuses to take the SAT's, wants nothing to do with college, discovers he is gay, and realizes his life is being reduced to a film titled "American Scooby." And he has a remarkable scene at the dinner table where the conversation shifts to the Holocaust survivors. Scooby declares his mom as a survivor since they would never have existed if her parents did not escape from the concentration camps.
"Storytelling" is certainly uneasy and unnerving, and Solondz knows how to make his audience squirm in their seats. It is a good film, well-written but somehow unfocused. The first part of the film, "Fiction," is masterfully done, pure vintage Solondz. It is both serious and understated with maximum impact in witty dialogue (especially the classroom scenes which are undeniably honest). Vi and Mr. Scott are the most memorable characters in this section, and I would have liked to have seen more of them. The second half, titled "Nonfiction," seems like a cartoon minus the exaggeration. Scooby's family is underdeveloped, lacking the loopy, soulful qualities of the families in "Happiness." A lot of Scooby goes a long way, though the shot of his teary-eyed reaction to the documentary at a private screening is superb. But this section is almost futile compared to the first, seemingly truncated chapter (running a mere thirty minutes). "NonFiction" is Solondz's sardonic commentary on documentaries, the responsibility of the filmmaker to his subject, the media exploitation and, ironically, the film "American Beauty." It grows into a spoof and tries to place emphasis on how Scooby and his family are affected by this documentary, not to mention his father's rants about how Scooby should go to college. None of this feels remotely engaging or fulfilling, and a lot is recycled from other films with similar themes. One episode involving the poor maid feels out of line with the rest of the story, though it involves a denouement that is pure Solondz.
I admire "Storytelling" for its brave, honest emotions and some excellent performances. What I was left with were the indelible impressions of Mr. Scott and Vi and that was from the first, more powerful section that would have benefitted from more screen time. The rest of the film feels unfinished, underdeveloped, unfocused and wanting. I expected more, perhaps a better story.
Footnote: The theatrical version of the film features a red rectangle placed in front of a long shot which shows a sexual act between Vi and Mr. Scott. The MPAA rejected the scene and, of course, Solondz took advantage and made a mockery out of the ratings board. This review applies to the unrated version, which is more animalistic since you can see what is happening, and therefore angrier and more provocative. My guess is that the MPAA may have had some misgivings about Mr. Scott's race, not gender, since he is black and Vi is white. Of course, I could be wrong.
