Movies I Watched - Solondz September 2026

03 Oct, 2026

Back to August.

All of these were part of the Super Saturday Movie Club, whose monthly theme this time was "Todd Solondz Movies", comprising movies #38 to #41.

Sep 5 - Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)

I will say it only once because otherwise I'd have to say it for every movie on this list, and that is that they look very conventional and television-like. There are flares of good shots here and there but I remain unconvinced that he has the eye of a genius and just happens to enjoy making the movies like this. Each of the movies has a different cinematographer and they all look roughly similar, so while I believe his style is intentional, I also believe it is deeply uninteresting to look at and unmotivated.

I don't think most of his fans would disagree either, as after I mentioned I was watching those movies, none of the people who knew them talked about how stunning they look. That's fine, they're comedy movies which focus on the comedy. That also didn't help much with this picture however, as I was mildly amused throughout but had perhaps two big laughs.

Another thing happened in this movie which is people telling me about how relatable or unrelatable they found Dawn Wiener, how deeply they thought about the characters and things of that sort, and I can't say I felt any of that. The Wieners are comedy characters, and while I am not above feeling happy for those (The Apartment comes to mind, I was invested in that romance), the Wieners felt more like silly caricatures not to be taken very seriously. There is a 1990's sensibility to the humour here, where it feels like the punchline is just the fact the characters said a no-no word like "faggot" and "retard", and I can't say I found it hysterical. Nevertheless, as I said, I liked the movie, I think it is a fun comedy, but I see no reason why anyone would rank it among the best of 1995. 7/10.

Sep 12 - Happiness (1998)

Talking to Solondz fans about these movies sometimes makes me feel like I'm talking to a diet version of Gamers and other edgelords. They're not as aggressive as those of course, and every single one I've talked to (which includes close friends like WW) are good people. But I can't help but feel like there is a slight presumption that takes hold whenever Solondz enters the conversation, and I think Happiness is the foremost example of it.

I cannot, for instance, just say I didn't find Happiness funny at all. I have to preface that by saying I was not offended by it, that I'm not a soy-eating latte-drinking pearl-clutcher whose eyes and ears were assaulted by such vile, twisted things the likes of which made me blush and want to turn my gaze away, otherwise people will assume that as the only reason I can have to not have bust out laughing at such incredible punchlines as "I'll fuck you so good you'll have cum coming out of your ears" or "Paedophiliac father tells his son he wouldn't have sex with him".

Happiness is a confrontational, sweaty movie that drags itself for an unmerciful 2 hours and 20 minutes, and it's one of those movies that makes me feel like an alien while watching it. I assume this is a gross-out type comedy to make you feel uncomfortable and vile but also laugh out loud, and there's the issue: I was not uncomfortable. Why would I? In a world of Family Guy and Dane Cook, is all of this here still that shocking? The humour here is oftentimes comparable to the kind of edgy jokes I grew up laughing at, and without that shock and discomfort factor, all that is left is an extremely busy picture with several storylines clashing.

Some say Solondz deeply loves his characters and that's what sets him apart, that he has genuine empathy for all, including the paedo dad, and that's what makes the whole thing uncomfortable and funny. Now, whether or not he is or isn't a Dark Empath is between him and God, but I don't care for these characters. Vlad, the bad Russian-accented cabby and thief played by Jared Harris, isn't funny. He sets up jokes for Joy later, sure, but "guy making a bad Russian accent and saying 'i'm a thief!' and misunderstanding our silly American rules" isn't compelling or funny, and his main function seems to be setting up punchlines for Joy later, which are similarly just simple cringe humour.¹

I believe that is my main issue with this movie. It is clearly angry at the American middle class, and Solondz is too much of a nerd to not let his contempt for an imaginary viewer get the better of him. This movie feels like it's made by the type of guy to go on an interview and say "Well the funny thing is that it wasn't supposed to be offensive, yet people found it so..." which I just find cowardly.

Still, I'm being overly harsh as a correction because, again, I felt like I was going insane after hearing endlessly how incredible this movie is, how twisted and edgy and how it loves its characters and how everyone rolled on the floor laughing at "I came". It's a mildly ok movie, one that needed about a third of it chopped off and better jokes. The acting is really great though, the actors definitely elevated material which could have been so much worse - Philip Seymour Hoffman in particular has incredible delivery, the Allen storyline was the closest that got me to laughing. 5/10.

Sep 19 - Storytelling (2001)

I liked this one - not much, but I did like it. This one oddly spiteful, like it is clearly joking at the expense of the character but also expecting you to care about them... for some reason. And I just don't, not because they're bad people (none of them really are, they're just regular assholes, John Goodman's character is even loveable) but because everything goes by so fast and with so much silly irreverence that it would feel like asking me to care about the characters in Airplane or Creepshow. Therefore at the end, when everyone dies and right before that when the camera lingers on Scooby's face, I could feel that this moment was made with the idea to be the concretisation of a character arc. Scooby, y'know? The stoner flunkie we've been following for the whole movie? He's seeing people laugh at him now, doesn't that hit deeply? And I can't say it does. Once more, it doesn't work for me as comedy because it's not funny enough, and it doesn't work as drama because I don't feel like I've been given any reason to care about the characters beyond the fact that they're characters in a movie and that one must be emotionally charitable while watching those.

As to the first part, Fiction, I can't help but feel like it's Solondz telling a little comeuppance story, really showing those racist white American middle class university students a thing or two. Or maybe it's a complex morality tale? Hey have you ever heard that people can be bad... but also good? Thank you Great Solondz for enlightening us.

I'm being needlessly aggressive, I didn't dislike it bad enough to warrant so much irony, but that's how condescending this and the previous movie feel. A condescension papering over what could be a Simpsons storyline, except it would probably be funnier there. 6/10.

Sep 26 - Palindromes (2004)

Forget everything I've ever said about Solondz, the man is a genius.

Nah, but I really did like this one a lot more than the rest. It not as funny but it also doesn't feel like it's trying to make you bust your gut laughing, and ironically enough it doesn't feel as mired in a hundred layers of irony as Happiness. In a way, it feels like Solondz perfecting what he had made in Storytelling into a sharp point.

This is the closest he gets to a straight up drama, it is still shot in a very functional way but it can be surprisingly touching. This one actually makes me believe people when they say "he doesn't hate his characters", and the gimmick of changing the actresses for each chapter of the movie has fascinating results. Sharon Wilkins, for instance, is one of the most talented actors I've seen in these past four movies, and the way she genuinely made me believe at times that she was a small Jewish girl just through body language deserves an award.

I am told this is one of his most polemic and controversial movies to this day, which galvanises my belief that I really don't want to hear whatever people who watch Solondz's movies say or think. Be so for real. It's a story involving paedophilia and abortion in such a more caring and empathetic way than Happiness; where there it was thrown almost as a gag, like someone going "gay paedophiles run America" and giggling while sweating, this one seems to care for the experience of the victims, and to respect it enough to portray it in a complex and, yes, sometimes funny and unusual way, which heightens how touching it can be. 8/10.

#havoc yapping #movie reviews