NightOfTheLivingDon The one word that pops into mind when thinking about Todd Solondz's "Storytelling" is "disappointing." Two words, "thoroughly disappointing." I am a fan of Solondz's earlier films "Happiness" and "Welcome to the Dollhouse," but "Storytelling" lacked that intangible something. However, what it did have was pretension. I guess one could have seen it coming with ol' Todd, and it showed in spades during this film. There was no point that I felt connected to ANY of the characters. Actually, I didn't like or passionately despised all of them. Was that the point? Was I supposed to waste an hour and a half of my life watching the lives of characters I didn't like? Not only did I feel nothing for the characters, but the "horrible" things that happen to them (typical in Solondz fare) brought forth nothing but apathy. The story was stale and went absolutely nowhere, which was a tremendous waste of a great cast. It's categorized as a comedy, but there were very few laughs. I did, however, find it funny when Marty (John Goodman) derides Tobe (Paul Giamatti) for lacking focus. Though, I doubt that was an intended chuckle. I don't know, some people might like this movie, Roger Ebert did. Then again, he did give "Godfather III" three and a half stars...Bottom line, the film showed nothing, achieved nothing, and was essentially about absolutely nothing. However, if you're into artsy films, even though they are crap, go ahead and waste your time.

zygirl513 It's not so much that this movie chose to depict a rather nefarious view of humanity; it's that this movie eliminated the possibility of anything but in the world of the characters. If someone made a movie, in this day and age, in which all the characters were happy, secure, whole and loved, a lot of people would be bored. And say that it's not very realistic. Well I was bored. A deep and subtle boredom, that (upon waking) causes one to question whether they're bored; cause that would mean feeling something...when it kind of just feels like nothing.This movie was boring. And it wasn't very realistic.

Ori Porat I saw this film today in high school, at cinema class. tough my class is usually in a very high level of film understanding, I was surprised to see how pepole "didn't like the ending" and "tought the film could have used situations to make scenes more emotional", missing all the point of this movie.from my point of view, this film is about emotional disawarness to other pepole's feelings. it is screamed in the relationships inside the family, between the director and Scooby, and in every scene in the script. I do not want to make spoilers for the movie, but I think it shows clear at the last line of the movie."storytelling" takes what so many other movies (like "crash") tried to do, but do it better, with more depth, more meaning, more gentle treatment to the characters, just better. who ever saw it and did not think of the point of characters that are emotionally closed, I think should watch the movie again, because he might miss a spectacular work of cinema.

fwomp It's probably fun to make a movie about yourself — or one that focuses closely on you — and that is what director Solondz has done with STORYTELLING. Not only is the film divided into two nearly unintelligible segments, it is further broken down during the final section by portraying a down-on-his luck director (Paul Giamatti, THE ILLUSIONIST) who is obviously a doppelganger of Solondz himself.Overflowing with apathy, Storytelling has two distinct parts: "fiction" and "nonfiction." In fiction, which launches the film, we're introduced to Vi (Selma Blair, HELLBOY), a young New Jersey college student involved in a writing/literature class that concentrates on critique. Her boyfriend Marcus (Leo Fitzpatrick, THE WIRE TV series) has cerebral palsy and it appears the only reason she's with him is because of her apathy toward college life and those that haunt its halls. The teacher of the class is a forbidding black man named Mr. Scott (Robert Wisdom, also from THE WIRE), a Pulitzer Prize winner who's flat affect and bored demeanor heaves a heavy shadow over the class. But apathy attracts apathy in Solondz story, so Vi and Mr. Scott have a sexual encounter, if for no other reason than to slip out of their routines and into one another. There's actually some interesting dark sexual comedy here, but it quickly dissolves.Perhaps "fiction" was part nonfiction, too, as one could easily see Solondz sitting in a class, reading stories that get sledgehammer critiques.The second and final portion of Storytelling is "nonfiction." Here we find Toby Oxman (Giamatti), a man who can't seem to finish anything. But when he discovers a young kid named Scooby (Mark Webber, THE MEMORY THIEF) who mirrors Toby's own apathy toward life, the wannabe film maker believes he's found a new calling: to make a documentary about society. John Goodman (O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?) stars as Scooby's father, a big man that pushes his kids and family too hard to become his ideal nuclear family. His wife Fern (July Hagerty, AIRPLANE) is just as disinterested in life as the rest of the cast, but hides it behind a facade of smiles. The only empathetic character in the Webber household is the maid Consuelo (Lupe Ontiveros, TORTILLA HEAVEN) who gets fired because she shows some interest in life. Toby Oxman films all of the Webber household people but keeps his focus on Scooby, whom he sees strictly as a character subject.That the film ends abruptly with the death of Scooby's family, and we still see no emotional response from him, only adds to the viewer's anger that there's no one in the film to care about. No protagonist that we can get behind. No angst from any of the characters. They are blobs of human flesh pooling around each other in uninteresting ways.Directing a movie about apathy has been done before; American BEAUTY is probably the most notable of these. But the characters were multifaceted and you cared about them. Here in Storytelling, the premise seems to be filming a flick about apathy just for the sake of showing apathy.