Todd Solondz

The lives of many individuals connected by the desire for happiness, often from sources usually considered dark or evil.

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Todd Solondz’s “Happiness” is a film that perplexes its viewers, even those who admire it, because it challenges the ways we attempt to respond to it. Is it a portrait of desperate human sadness? Then why are we laughing? Is it an ironic comedy? Then why its tenderness with these lonely people? Is it about depravity? Yes, but why does it make us suspect, uneasily, that the depraved are only seeking what we all seek, but with a lack of ordinary moral vision? In a film that looks into the abyss of human despair, there is the horrifying suggestion that these characters may not be grotesque exceptions, but may in fact be part of the mainstream of humanity.Read More »

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A fable of innocence: thirteen-year-old Aviva Victor wants to be a ‘mom’. She does all she can to make this happen, and comes very close to succeeding, but in the end her plan is thwarted by her sensible parents. So she runs away, still determined to get pregnant one way or another, but instead finds herself lost in another world, a less sensible one, perhaps, but one pregnant itself with all sorts of strange possibility. She takes a road trip from the suburbs of New Jersey, through Ohio to the plains of Kansas and back. Like so many trips, this one is round-trip, and it’s hard to say in the end if she can ever be quite the same again, or if she can ever be anything but the same again.Read More »

All Movie Guide says:
This film focuses on the trials and tribulations of Ira (Todd Solondz), who is an unsuccessful playwright trying to find himself in New York City. — Iotis ErlewineRead More »

A student film with no synced sound, Babysitter is a humorous nine-minute short made as Todd Solondz’ graduate film for NYU film school in 1984. Eric Schwartzman narrates and plays the lead role of a young boy who tells his history with babysitters, and how his life was particularly touched by his last one, a teenager (Patti Seitz). Read More »

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If you’re in the business of selling dog food, you’ll know that dog owners are in the habit of projecting their own personality onto their precious pooches. What then, does a Wiener-Dog have to say about its owner? Hell, what does a dog resembling a frankfurter have to say about life, death, addiction and despair? These are the (not entirely serious) questions posed in Todd Solondz’s latest film. A short, bittersweet comedy which connects four separate stories of everyday weirdness through the welcome denominator of dogs short in limb and long in torso.Read More »

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Todd Solondz is back with Life During Wartime, his sixth feature and a sequel of sorts to his crowd-pleasing 1998 effort, Happiness. Solondz once again follows the joyless Jordan sisters (played by new actors this time around) as they attempt to navigate life and love in sunny Miami. Consisting of a series of loosely connected vignettes and brimming with Solondz’s signature deadpan humor, Life During Wartime skirts the uncomfortable line between pathos and tragedy, all the while maintaining a pitch-perfect tone that never alienates the audience (but still manages to keep them safely at arms length). Solondz is most definitely an acquired taste, but Life During Wartime may just be the film that introduces his work to a wider audience. More accessible than both Storytelling and and featuring stellar performances from Allison Janney (Juno), Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) and Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club), Solondz has crafted an ironic exploration into the dark heart of America at its most vulnerable: when it thinks nobody is watching.Read More »

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“Dark Horse” tells the story of Abe, a loser who leads a life of such agony that he might explode in misery if he weren’t protected by his cluelessness.

A tubby, balding, 35-year-old arrested adolescent, he lives at home with his parents, in a bedroom still containing his action-figures collection. He wears tight-fitting T-shirts printed with inane messages. He drives a bright yellow Hummer, which he carefully locks, as if anyone would want to steal it. The last man who looked cool driving a Hummer was Arnold Schwarzenegger.Read More »