the films of Todd Solondz

[deleted account]

my fave director post-Golden Age of Hollywood.  he's like a semi-psycho Woody Allen for the MTV generation, east coast and writes everything he directs.  Welcome To The Dollhouse, Happiness, and Storytelling are absolute masterpieces.  just saw Dark Horse and Palindromes, which are tougher to wrap your head around but great as well.  anyone here see Fear, Anxiety and Depression and/ or Life During Wartime?  the latter has Omar from The Wire in it.  there's also a couple shorts, one of which I have on order as part of a comp DVD

[The Shocker]

Loved Welcome and Happiness, liked Storytelling, did not get Palindromes at all.  Haven't seen the rest.

[deleted account]

Palindromes makes a little more sense after reading Ebert's review, mostly how it's more about ethics than actual story.  still don't know what the "Huckleberry" sequence alludes to.

one of the Dark Horse reviewers mentions that Life During Wartime is a sequel of sorts to Happiness, not surprising since Dollhouse is connected to Palindromes and Storytelling is connected to Dark Horse

[agent of change]

Loved Happiness, though overall I think Welcome to the Dollhouse is the most coherent. Palindromes and Storytelling were interesting. Dark Horse and Life After Wartime I didn't finish. It felt like he was just doing his thing, didn't have enough money to make it look right, and it just didn't inspire me in that dark way that the others did.

[Lumpy]

Haven't seen the most recent ones, but Happiness and Dollhouse are great. Happiness is a favorite, even (although I only saw it once). Palindromes and Storytelling didn't really connect in the same way, although it's been a while and I can't remember much. The other ones I haven't seen yet. He kinda fell off a bit. Did he do the movie about Bob Dylan too?

[deleted account]

no

[JkFlesh]

Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, Velvet Goldmine, Safe) directed the Dylan movie, I'm Not There.

I think Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse are powerful films, but Solondz is such a misanthrope that his films are hard to stomach.

[deleted account]

that's why his work is so refreshing.  they can't ALL have flowery, happy Disney endings like Juno, Josh.

just picked up Life During Wartime, will stomach tonite

[JkFlesh]

that's why his work is so refreshing.  they can't ALL have flowery, happy Disney endings like Juno, Josh.

just picked up Life During Wartime, will stomach tonite

There's nothing refreshing about making my skin crawl. 

Enjoy your misanthropy.

[Lumpy]

Josh 24/7 wants to relax after listening to all that nerve-jangling music.

[JkFlesh]

And I'm going soft in my old age.

[deleted account]

and crotchety(er)!

so you're good with watching fictitious horror movies that make your skin crawl but not fictitious ethically-challenged movies that make your skin crawl?

[JkFlesh]

and crotchety(er)!

so you're good with watching fictitious horror movies that make your skin crawl but not fictitious ethically-challenged movies that make your skin crawl?

I'm less inclined towards extreme horror these days, but overall, yes, I'd rather see a nasty horror movie than a Solondz film.  Just a matter of taste.

[deleted account]

Life During Wartime is really good.  it's pretty much a full-on sequel to Happiness with an all-new cast.  nowhere near as funny, much more skin-crawley.  and he connects it to Dollhouse and Palindromes.  VERY refreshing.

I got the Criterion copy and it's got a feature called "Ask Todd", where you hear (but not see) him read and answer about 35 questions that people emailed to Criterion about this movie and his filmmaking in general.  you can tell he's smart as hell but Jesus Christ is his voice creepy.  he should totally be in horror movies