the films of Todd Solondz

Started by deleted account, August 25, 2013, 05:00:32 PM

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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.
We didn't come here for economic politics or religious bickering, we came to rock.

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?
Rock & Roll is background music for teenagers to fuck to.

deleted account


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

Quote from: priest on August 26, 2013, 07:20:36 PM
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.
Rock & Roll is background music for teenagers to fuck to.

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

Quote from: priest on August 27, 2013, 04:35:31 PM
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