Füge eine Handlung in deiner Sprache hinzuCollege and high school serve as the backdrop for two stories about dysfunction and personal turmoil.College and high school serve as the backdrop for two stories about dysfunction and personal turmoil.College and high school serve as the backdrop for two stories about dysfunction and personal turmoil.
- Auszeichnungen
- 1 Nominierung insgesamt
- Ethan (segment "Fiction")
- (as Steven Rosen)
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The first part, called "Fiction", is significantly shorter than part two, "Non-fiction". This is as it should be, but the best would be to exclude it completely. The story about emotional tension between a college girl with ambition to become a writer, her frustrated CP boyfriend and their impressive/monstrous teacher, the successful writer, is just as conventional as the stories the students write in the film. This may be intentional, to cause multiple layers of meta-effects, but it doesn't save this part of the movie from being pretty predictable and boring.
And the story ends before it should. A sort of coitus interruptus (if the term is allowed), which demands some kind of return or closing-up later on in the movie - but there is none. I got the strong impression that this part was only included to make the movie full-time.
The second story, "Non-fiction", is clearly stronger, and told with much more passion from the writer/director. Here, many facets are explored, the characters are complex, the drama intricate - and the tension builds, right below the drab suburban surface. It is impressive how elements common in just about any family life, here add to the suspense and the sense of doom. The thrill of trivial life, but not at all trivially portrayed.
This might be the reason for the title "Non-fiction", since the lives and fates shown in the story feel so real - contrary to what happens in "Fiction".
Still, this story, too, has been told insufficiently, as if abbreviated, or halted at points where it was about to erupt into infernal drama. Pity. Did Solondz retreat from his own vision? Did he censor himself to get more of a general audience?
I hope that it's not the case. His portrayal of human life, although unpleasant indeed, is fascinating and uniquely his. So he must be true to it.
This is a rare film, because it's a film maker addressing his critiques, himself, and his audience all at once. And it has plenty of Solondz trade mark cringe scenes, that veer drastically from comic to dramatic in a matter of breaths. The results are absorbing but like all Solondz it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and makes you honestly question your own moral compass. They say satire is dead if the audience cannot be shocked, but it's also dead if the audience cannot be shamed, in the days where South Park and Family Guy, are on non cable TV any afternoon (l love both shows), shock and shame are concepts so familiar they've lost some of their power. Thankfully just when we've seen it all and were sure that nothing matters and nothing can surprise, startle, or offend us, Todd Solondz will be there to show things can always get worse.
Sadly though, I find it hard to convince certain TYPES of people as to why Solondz's work is so good. I try to tell them the writing is award-winning and beyond most failed attempts at culture critique. I try and tell them how good the performances are. I even try and point out some fantastic themes out of the multitude available in his work. But these certain types, they just can't seem to get it.
But on the bright side, the one thing that does give me a boast about Storytelling is Conan O'Brien. Now, it's not the fact that he's here, but how he fits in, it's like there are people out there that do NOT understand Conan or his humor at all, they just don't get HIM altogether. Then there are those, such as myself, that completely understand Conan and all his self-deprecation. How can you not love a character like Scooby that wants to be Conan's sidekick??? Is this NOT the dream of every self-deprecating teenager and college student?!? Being able to simple make that point in a film, as Solondz does so perfectly during that scene with Scooby and Conan, right after the proverbial gay pseudo blow-job, is something most auteur's can't ever GET AT. This is why it's depressing watching the film, you see how brilliant this man is and how clearly he can speak his mind and say to you: "I hear YOU, I feel this way, and I know you do too, and this is here for US to enjoy, not just something for everyone." Some people say Art is something everyone can universally appreciate. Others say it is completely subjective. I think it can in fact be both ways. You can look at Storytelling or actually Happiness is better for this as formulaic, or formal art, the technical way the film is put together is brilliant, that's its universal art. The thematics, the way the auteur says what's directly on his mind in a way that a certain kind of person is immediately able to grasp a hold of firmly, that's the other kind, the subjective kind. This man understands communication, let alone life, like very very VERY few writers and directors ever have and ever will.
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- WissenswertesThere was a third story, with James Van Der Beek as a college student realizing his sexuality, which was subsequently cut out of the film.
- PatzerThe positions of Scooby's hands when he is holding the gun change between shots.
- Zitate
Catherine: It was confessional, yet dishonest. Jane pretends to be horrified by the sexuality that she in fact fetishizes. She subsumes herself to the myth of black male potency, but then doesn't follow through. She thinks she 'respects Afro-Americans,' she thinks they're 'cool,' 'exotic,' what a notch he 'd make in her belt, but, of course, it all comes down to mandingo cliché, and he calls her on it. In classic racist tradition she demonizes, then runs for cover. But then, how could she behave otherwise? She's just a spoiled suburban white girl with a Benneton rainbow complex. It's just my opinion, and what do I know... but I think it's a callow piece of writing.
- Alternative VersionenThe original version of the film featured a third story entitled "Autobiography", concerning, among other things, a closeted football player (James van der Beek). The main character has an explicit gay sex scene with a male partner (Steven Rosen); the entire story was cut from the final version.
- VerbindungenFeatured in This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)
- SoundtracksFiction
Performed by Nathan Larson and Nina Persson
Written by Nathan Larson and Nina Persson
Published by The Music Of NATO and Stockholm Songs
Nathan Larson appears courtesy of Artemis Records
Nina Persson appears courtesy of Stockholm Records
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Details
- Erscheinungsdatum
- Herkunftsland
- Offizieller Standort
- Sprachen
- Auch bekannt als
- Storytelling: Historias de ironía y perversión
- Drehorte
- Produktionsfirmen
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Box Office
- Bruttoertrag in den USA und Kanada
- 921.445 $
- Eröffnungswochenende in den USA und in Kanada
- 73.688 $
- 27. Jan. 2002
- Weltweiter Bruttoertrag
- 1.318.945 $
- Laufzeit1 Stunde 27 Minuten
- Farbe
- Sound-Mix