NP: From the Lynch to the Solondz

[Steven Koteff]

Your outdoor friends had more liberal tastes than mine, who didn't get too
far afield from *The Boondock Saints*.

On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 6:34 PM, Perry Noid <coolwithdoc at gmail.com> wrote:

> "Weiner, *you* better get ready, 'cause at three o'clock today, I'm gonna *RAPE
> you*!"
>
> It was one of those high school movies that my friends and I would rent
> and watch if we could find nothing else at the video stop to agree on, or
> the kind of movie to watch with friends who aren't exactly interested in
> "arty" or "intellectual" movies because it has something for both types of
> stoopid high schoolers, the indoor and outdoor kids (I'll let you all guess
> which one of the two I was). Other movies like that for me were Dazed and
> Confused, Harold and Maude, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Swingers,
> Trainspotting...the list goes on.
>
> I don't think I have seen any other Solondz flicks. Happiness has been on
> my watchlist for quite a while. I worked at a teeny movie theater (before I
> worked at the University film center, I worked in more than one theater
> growing up) and missed it when we showed it way back when and just haven't
> gotten around to seeing it yet. Lemme know what you think of Happiness
> whenever you get to it.
>
> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 3:45 PM, Steven Koteff <steviekoteff at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Just finishing David Lynch in our movie project (whom I have become sort
>> of obsessed with; I can't overhype the esteem I hold him in now; he's on my
>> internal Olympus of artmakers) and moving into Todd Solondz.
>>
>> We watched TS's *Welcome to the Dollhouse *last night, and I really
>> recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. It's kind of a remarkable movie.
>> It's really just the story of a very socially-unfortunate suburban
>> 11-yr-old named Dawn. The persistent agony of her life as she comes of age.
>> It manages to be remarkably sad and moving about straightforwardly
>> emotional material without ever (in my opinion) becoming sentimental. It's
>> interesting to watch it on the heels of Lynch's stuff, as they both include
>> a lot of material that is overtly high-drama yet earn it in totally
>> different ways, despite both embracing the drama head-on. Solondz is much
>> dryer, though not at all disaffected. Very dark, very funny. Also maybe the
>> best and truest treatment of young characters (and use of young actors) I
>> can remember seeing in a movie. Maybe it helps that I was a child in
>> roughly the same era of the movie. But I think it's really well-done. There
>> are a few minor story elements I might quibble with, but not enough to
>> really diminish the effect of the movie much.
>>
>> Anybody seen this thing? Is Solondz generally on your radar?
>>
>> Apparently his new movie stars Greta Gerwig as the girl from *Dollhouse *all
>> grown up.
>>
>>
>>
>
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