Storytelling
Review by By Clint Morris
 A
couple of years back I discovered some alternative shock therapy.
Yep, it was at a movie theatre watching a Todd Solondz (Welcome
to The Dollhouse) film. Called Happiness, it was
an acrimoniously perverse but exceptionally hilarious look
at urban America.
And, if I didn't get enough in-your-face gags from that one
- and enough shocks to my system in the meantime - I'm back
for a second serving, hoping for something as tasty as the
first round.
Slightly more marketable - but only to the point of having
some of Solondz's usual racy jokes and nauseating elements
exercised out in favour of a star cast - Storytelling is
a two-part story, one a story of misshapen obsession (Fiction)
and the second, a look inside the life of a perplexed teenager
and his half-baked family (Non-fiction). A third part, featuring
James Van Der Beek, was left on the cutting room floor. Pity.
it might have made the movie more worth its ticket price.
Fiction follows a wannabe writer afflicted with cerebral
palsy (Leo Fitzpatrick) and his girlfriend (Selma Blair),
who has sex with her college professor. She then decides to
talk about it in her next class. Fade to black. The next part
of the film, Non-Fiction, then spotlights a documentary filmmaker
(Paul Giamatti) focused on an unhappy home. At first, the
film was going to be about the college admission process but
when the filmmaker meets young student, Scooby, he decides
to make him the central piece and his family the co-stars.
As well written as Storytelling is, and as engaging
as it might be, it hasn't got much of a point. The first part
of the film is so short in duration you'll forget it was even
tagged onto the print in the first place. The film's central
moment of intimacy between a black school teacher and young
horn-bag student is simply smut - and with no outcome for
any of it's central characters. It's as if Solondz forgot
what he was trying to say here.
The second part, although more comprehendible, still skids
around it's message, but is at least worthwhile thanks to
the significantly more compelling characters and better actors.
But, most of all, both stories are just strange for the case
of being strange.
On the plus side, John Goodman is at his customary adaptable
best as the insufferable father of three, Marty Livingston.
Paul Giamatti is great, and is as edgy and inflamed as the
shoe-salesman turned documentary filmmaker. Newcomer Mike
Schank is memorable as the youngest member of the Livingston
family - it's hard to believe a kid could be so sickly evil
at such an early age.
Maybe the third short, the one with Van Der Beek, might have
saved the film from being the average offering it is. Storytelling
isn't a diaster, but on all accounts a fair disappointment.
3 out of 5
Storytelling
Australian release: Thursday May 9th
Cast: Selma Blair, John Goodman, Paul Giamatti, Leo Fitzpatrick,
Julie Haggerty, Mark Webber.
Director: Todd Solondz.
Website: Click
here
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