Storytelling

HAPPINESS director Solondz is a US filmmaker who’s defiantly maintained his independence with each successive film. STORYTELLING continues this tradition with its scathing satire on the (suburban) American dream and its nightmare results. This is a film of two halves. ‘Fiction’ explores political correctness, racism and the sex-fuelled power politics of a university creative writing class, where the black Pulitizer Prize winning professor has a powerful influence over his students, especially the women. . ‘Non-fiction’ follows a hapless documentary maker in his attempt to chronicle the dreams and ambitions of a ‘typical’ suburban New Jersey teen. Trouble is, the subject has none. Solondz aims his barbs equally at the bourgeois subjects and bumbling filmmaker. With dashes of S&M, gay teen sex, and violence for extra effect, Solondz delivers another scathing satire on the American dream and its nightmare results. ‘Often hateful, on occasion hilarious, alternately defensive and combative, it’s Solondz’s most fascinating film yet.’ The Village Voice, New York