Director Todd Solondz (WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE, HAPPINESS) presents this characteristically bleak and darkly comic drama in two distinct parts. The first story, "Fiction" stars Selma Blair as Vi, a confused university student who engages in an impulsive tryst with her Pulitzer Prize-winning professor (Robert Wisdom) after arguing with her cerebral palsy-afflicted boyfriend (Leo Fitzpatrick). The second (and longer) tale, "Non-Fiction," stars Paul Giamatti as Toby, a down-on-his-luck documentary filmmaker who turns his camera on Scooby (Mark Webber), an unmotivated teenager, and his suburban New Jersey family. At times even more controversial and confrontational than Solondz's previous films, STORYTELLING bluntly addresses issues such as race, sex, physical impairment, education, censorship, and exploitation, while not-so-subtly referencing and parodying both AMERICAN BEAUTY and AMERICAN MOVIE (whose own Mike Schank appears in the film). Cannily aware of both his admirers and detractors, Solondz has taken the intriguing step of criticizing his own work within the creative confines of the two stories. As with HAPPINESS, the director has assembled an impressive ensemble cast that also includes John Goodman, Julie Hagerty, Franka Potente, and Lupe Ontiveros. As a counterpoint to the often-glum proceedings, a bright, airy soundtrack is provided Scottish popsters Belle & Sebastian and songwriter Nathan Larson.
Todd Solondz's follow-up to the magnificent dysfunctional tapestry of Happiness is short but far from sweet. Like its predecessor, the film candidly explores taboo areas — a brutally graphic sex scene between a black lecturer and a white student is the film's chief talking point — although Solondz's focus seems less on a coherent story than on satirising the art of storytelling itself. He employs a two-part structure — “Fiction” and “Non-fiction” — to mock both the art of the written word (involving student Selma Blair's creative writing course) and documentary-making (Paul Giamatti examines disaffected teenage life), as well as the dark side of “ordinary” suburban folk. But, in spite of a great cast of both familiar and unfamiliar faces, the thinly developed characters fail to rouse much interest or empathy, and some witty notions about fiction versus reality are lost among the director's apparent desire to be disturbing, offensive and cruel.
Radio Times
