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Starring: Selma Blair, Leo Fitzpatrick, Robert Wisdom, Paul Giamatti, Mark Webber, John Goodman, Julie Hagerty, Franka Potente, James Van Der Beek

Directed By: Todd Solondz

After watching Happiness last night the next Todd film is Storytelling. For those of you think that he makes movies just for shock value I think you are thoroughly mistaken. Storytelling is divided into two parts Fiction and Non Fiction for obvious reasons. The first film is a powerful film on a writing class where a black teacher sleeps around with his students. The film takes the point of a woman played by Selma Blair who sleeps around with a cerebral palsy boyfriend. They are both part of the same writing course taken by the Pulitzer Prize winning black writer.

The film gets into a very provocative study unlike any of Todd’s early work. He almost lets loose a wave of anger and racism that is still prevalent in many parts of America. There is also a lot of anger exhibited by the character played by Selma. She provides the necessary impetus and impact to create a revolutionary idea for the first part of the film called Fiction. She is put through a lot before she can actually come to terms with herself and to the potentiality of writing itself. It ends with a clever line “a beginning, middle and an ending”

The next part is called Non Fiction and derives from much of the exploitation that goes into this genre of cinema. The film is a more of a commentary on what happens when is cinema is put in the wrong hands. If cinema is made people who themselves have felt the restrains of the society there can be a lot of mockery which is not the order of the day. It talks about a documentary film maker who never wanted his film to be exploitation but it turns into something else. He goes to Fairview high school and shoots a documentary on a family who are the typical dysfunctional type. The new American cliché soon to die soon guess. There have been so many movies on this so director goes about in a more direct way. He uses more of a documentary approach to bring about aspects of the family that are very natural and sadly funny. But after you begin to question why the hell are you laughing at something so real and affecting. By the end of the movie I m pretty sure might think twice before seeing some of those quirky TV shows having several dysfunctional families. But storytelling has still very beautiful and compelling stories to tell. Stories that sure to make you think but might turn out to be a fun affair for some.