In Defense of Todd Solondz
By Memo
Salazar
3/13/02
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In Defense of Todd Solondz By Memo
Salazar |
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Maybe Solondz is a bitter nerd,
painting his bleak life into his films, but so what? Woody Allen
is a neurotic intellectual doing the same thing with his neuroses,
and, come to think of it, so are most great artists the world
has been graced with. That's the whole point of the art game-
to distort reality in a unique, personal way, so that it communicates
the Truth (or "truth") as you see it. If you want to
criticize Solondz for being bitter, you might as well criticize
every great artist for being motivated by similarly "incorrect"
feelings; Fellini was constantly seeking adoration, but that doesn't
negate the several brilliant films he gave the world. "He's
just a big baby looking for attention" doesn't quite dismiss
La Dolce Vida.
Time will tell if Solondz is a great artist or not. It's easy
to see him running out of ways to abuse his characters over and
over again; God forbid he whittle his style down to a repetitive
"bitterness" formula. So far, though, he's managed to
cough up three variations on the same theme, all of them with
their own virtues, all of them worth seeing. Dollhouse focuses
on one young protagonist, Happiness graduates to adulthood
and expands to an ensemble cast, and Storytelling uses
such characters to explore the truth and ethics between fact and
fiction, exploration and exploitation. Perhaps they are all flawed
works -what isn't?- but the cracks are minor and certainly not
the ones most people point to. Storytelling was a little
too short for my taste, but that doesn't change the fact that
what we were given was quite good- his most interesting
work yet, in fact. He manages to satirize society, make insights
into the nature of his profession, and take a few well-deserved
pot shots at the ethics in question behind American Movie,
all the while maintaining the balance of humor that's so hard
to pull off.
What most people hate about Solondz is exactly what makes his
films unique and valuable, and his daringly dark humor is the
glue that holds the scenes together. He manages to push the boundaries
of abuse without making the situation so unbelievable it becomes
irrelevant to our own lives, and he does it in a style that's
all his own. Most people don't seem to realize that this guy actually
sees the world the way he portrays it; they think he's just getting
his rocks off when he's really just being honest in his point
of view, myopic as it may seem. Robert Crumb's been doing the
same thing for years in his own inimitable way, and, come to think
of it, people have been attacking him, too; there must be something
to this bitterness thing that rubs us the wrong way. We should
be grateful that Solondz is clever and funny enough to make good
movies out of his misery (think about what other people have done
with theirs) but, for those who remain unconvinced, consider watching
one of his films again with all this in mind, and let yourself
laugh at the slightly surreal madness present in his work.
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