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Todd Solondz' Next Is Now ‘Quasi-Sequel’ To HAPPINESS!!
I am – Hercules!!
Todd Solondz’ untitled and long-gestating follow-up to 2004's "Palindromes" is now being billed as a "quasi-sequel" to the writer-director's creepy 1998 drama “Happiness.”
Solondz had earlier described the project, once known as "Life During Wartime," as a "companion piece" to both "Happiness" and 1995's "Welcome to the Dollhouse."
Thursday morning's Variety describes the new film's premise:
Solondz wrote the screenplay, which revolves around a group of struggling individuals. struggling to find a place for themselves in an unpredictable and volatile world. The narrative is told through a series of intersecting love stories.; the past haunts the present and imperils the future: ghosts circle and loom, trouble and console.
Delayed from its May 15 start date, the project is now set to begin shooting in October.
Find all of Variety’s story on the matter here.
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quasi!
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is fucked up.
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SSIA
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Just sayin.
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dollhouse was ok, happiness was shit, as was storytelling. just not a good filmmaker. i'm sure palindromes was garbage. can solondz just go away?
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Aug 27, 2008 10:42:18 PM CDT
hope it's more Happiness and less Welcome to the Dollhouse
by heavenlykid
Happiness somehow made me feel genuine sympathy for some of the most pathetic, sad, and destroyed people I'd ever seen in a movie. Welcome to the Dollhouse just felt manipulative as it introduced a nice character and then had horrible shit happen to her. He's grown as a film maker since Dollhouse, hope he shows it.
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I can't think of a movie with creepier scenes than Happiness. So there's that. Should be interesting.
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Have you seen Palindromes? It's a really beautiful, strangely structured film. It shouldn't work, but Solondz pulls it off with bells on. Very worth netflixing or owning.
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never a dull moment in any of his films...one of the few directors to truly challenge an audience
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I love HAPPINESS. It's one of those movies that really shows you who someone is -- if a girl doesn't like that movie, she's not dateable. Luckily, my girlfriend loves the movie.
WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE was pretty good, but STORYTELLING was so bloody awful that I didn't even bother going to see PALINDROMES in the theater. I hope Jane Adams is back! -
I loved this movie
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I love this movie
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STORYTELLING was a dud, it sounds like a lot of folks skipped P-DROMES because of that - I know I waited till last summer. But...damn. PALINDROMES is true sick genius. Very irritating to watch Todd Haynes steal + cheapen PALINDROMES' devices in IM NOT THERE.
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double yuck fuck -
Hands down one of my favorite scenes in that movie. Watching John Lovitz tell the girl that is dumping her
You think I'm shit? Well, you're wrong, 'cause i'm champagne, and you're shit. Until the day you die, you, not me, will always be shit.
Fucking hilarious and brilliant. -
can't type
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Palindromes is my favorite of his. I remember watching the screening at a film fest and at the Q&A after people were asking him questions relating to the more controversial themes in the film, and he explained them in ways that made the PC types in the audience even more queasy. He's a fucking freak and I love him.
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I like or love every individual film but when taken as a body of work the recurrent theme of pedophilia and the sexual abuse of (and by) children makes me begin to wonder if he can make his points in any other way. The entire Weiner family is in some way the victim of childhood sexual abuse, the Maplewoods, Vi, Toby by seeing an act. He handles it all with admirable honesty and, indeed, heart. He truly seems to love the characters he creates, both "good" and "bad." I'll continue to watch his films and anticipate each one. I'll just be doing it individually.
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Nice, good to hear about some real directors here on AICN... getting bit tired of all the blockbuster junk... thanks for the update
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...I know why people hate it. The scene where Scooby walks in on the screening of the documentary about his family is the ultimate FUCK YOU to all the passive audience members who think they 'get it' and that solondz is 'one of them'. Trust me, you had to see it in a theater. All the boring-ass hipsters who were giggling at the misfortunes of the characters for the first 2/3rds of the film just all of a sudden SHUT THE FUCK UP when that scene happened. They realized that solondz was pointing at them, and they no longer felt safe. One of my all-time favorite moments in a movie theater.
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than Palyndromes and Storytelling. What letdowns after the greats Happiness and Dollhouse. Dollhouse just came out on DVD over here for the first time and of course its **/@'! expensive. No release of Happiness yet. The two shity ones are available for years...
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Really.
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Aug 28, 2008 1:41:45 AM CDT
this man gave me selma blair titties, and selma's pink hair.
by ironic_name
he is a mench.
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Aug 28, 2008 1:57:31 AM CDT
Todd Solondz is maybe the most interesting outsider artist
by s0nicdeathmonkey
working today. I adore his work. Even the unreleased "Fear, Anxiety and Depression" holds a special place in my heart.
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just a very, very, very dark one.
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a brilliant, self reflexive dissertation full of Brechtian juxtaposition and hilariously painful truth. How can you like Happiness and not Storytelling? How can you even understand the former without the latter? It's like a map with no key.
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christ...finally.
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On one hand, his films are great, really brilliant. On the other hand, he's got some freaking SICK shit in there. Palindromes made me want to barf when the old guy is boffing that little girl and she asks "Is it supposed to go in there?" Add to that the scene with Dad fantasizing about little Billy and you have some of the most awkward and uncomfortable scenes in modern cinema.
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One of the best audience reactions I ever saw is when Todd Solondz tookk Happiness to the 1999 Latin American film Festival in Havana Cuba.
The welfare of children is at the very heart of Cuban society. The idea of paedophlia is something that is never heard or talked about.
I knew the idea that a paedophile could be the most sympathetic character in a film was something that would have an extremely big reaction there.
Solondz intoduced his film with words something to the effect of "This film isn't for everyone. Some of you may find it hard to watch. I hope the rest find it funny as it was intended".
I'd say half way through the theatre was almost empty because of walkouts. The rest of us that stayed were blown away.
I think about 20 strangers from all over the world met at the bar next door that night to discuss this film and out feelings towards it.
I was hooked on his work from that monent onwards. -
He reminds me of a cross between Gary Glitter and John Waters......fuckin scary or what. Apart from courting contoversy this guys movies are fucking boring!
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Ever seen a Larry Clark movie?
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Storytelling had a very naked Selma Blair.
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Solondz might be an outsider by Hollywood standards, but 'outsider art' is not what he's making. He is an independent filmmaker who makes movies that are sometimes difficult to watch, not a mute janitor who wrote a 2000 page graphic novel about girl-aliens with both penises and vaginas that wasn't discovered until after his death.And you get the feeling that Solondz wants you to get something out of his movies. He is trying to provoke a reaction (which is cool)... and outsider art is pretty much all about the creator's inner world, with little regard to whether anybody's ever going to see it, much less care about it when they do.
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and the centerpiece of it is you, squirming in your seat, feeling awkward, embarrassed and uncomfortable. To people who say his work is 'sick', it's definitely not sick. It's life, and life is pretty fucking uncomfortable a lot of the time.
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This guys films are always interesting. From Happiness, Dollhouse, Storytelling, and Palindromes I wouldn't label any of them as a dud. All fascinating character studies in their own right. Can't wait to see his next. Just hope he's done with this whole fascinationg with pedophiles.Its creepy.
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A beautifully written reaction to people that think he's too hard on his characters. Their just make believe people....not real.
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Don't you see? That's why we can all relate to this crime.
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"So how does it feel to have sex with a boy, Dad"
"It feel's great."
Where else do you find that level of uncompromising honesty? -
Aug 28, 2008 11:12:28 AM CDT
"We're not laughing AT you, we're laughing WITH you...."
by the alienist
"...but I'm not laughing..."
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Definitely one of the best dramedies of the 90s. To me, it's the only one of his films where Solondz allows us to feel true sympathy through some wonderful character quirks and interaction, and is made more like an outsider's perspective with these characters than his other films, where he basically presses our noses to the glass.
I do think Dollhouse and Storytelling are good movies, but I fucking despised Palindromes. I think the message is completely muddled in a storytelling concept that seems good in theory but extremely lame in execution. -
I wouldn't argue with anyone who said Happiness is maybe the greatest and ballsiest American movie ever made. I think it's a masterpiece, very nice to see the man's films discussed her on A.I.C.N. among the super-hero movie crap-talk. In fact, that movie is about real-life characters, it's about REAL people.
And boy is it funny. An amazing film, essential viewing for all people with an interest in movies, if you think it's sucks you couldn't possibly be a bud of mine.
Still haven't seen Palindromes yet, but am gonna catch up with it soon.
And that new film sounds like a must-see. -
...pure hilarity! Guy drugs a kid and then fucks said kid in the ass, how can you NOT find this to be comedy gold!
That being said, haven't actually watched the movie...just read certain things...but I will check it out since it seems to be so polarizing. -
Without a doubt, the best scene in the movie. Dylan Baker deserves a huge portion of the credit for making that film work. It's not that fucking kids in the ass is pure comedy gold. It's that he fucks a kid in the ass and the audience doesn't hate him (at least I didn't), and that's a tough thing to pull off. Making a movie about characters that aren't likable is never easy, but I'd say that Solondz is a master at doing it and putting the right people in the roles. On another note, I really hope that The Lizard finally gets his day in Spidey 4. Who's with me?
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Aug 28, 2008 1:39:47 PM CDT
Maybe the Lizard could fuck Spiderman in the ass...
by banzai rootskibango
...in Spidey 4? Who's with me? Spidey 3 fucked me in the ass...so, let's change it up yeah?
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but i loved it.
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Was great. Storytelling, meh...
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And when he's caught fucking his son's schoolchum...he's honest about about that too. It one of the most heart wrenching scenes ever and you can believe you're watching it. Plus, it has Jane Adams in the nude and I'm into "waif's."
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I really liked Palindromes. I thought the multiple-actresses / one-role thing was a bit showy (and the film would have worked fine without it) but it didn't ruin the film for me. I have enjoyed all this guy's movies. I thought he basically put up the cash for the last film himself and had no idea how "well" it had done. (I'd guess not that well. ha.) I am very happy that he has been able to make another and can't wait to see it.
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I don't think I'd ever watch it again, but I'm glad I saw it.
For anyone bitching about Hollywood recycling movies rather than creating new ones, I'd recommend seeing it. -
TS is the artist of his time. But people are so dumb they don't know it. Joke em if they cant take a fuck.
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is definitely gratuitous in IM NOT THERE - especially since that film deals with a REAL LIFE PERSON.
But it makes sense in PALINDROMES - the actresses change subtly or enormously depending on the young girl's mood - or more specifically - how she sees herself. In PALINDROMES - the actor switches are a storytelling device to help explain a girl who can't explain nor understand herself.
In IM NOT THERE - the technique was pretentious as hell - a bunch of Hollywood stars trying to out-Dylan each other - a personality that has already been mimicked to death. Richard Gear + the young black train-hopping kid were especially pathetic - I can't imagine how embarrassed Dylan must have felt watching IM NOT THERE. Can you picture some director pulling that shit with your LIFE STORY?
Time will not be kind to IM NOT THERE.
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...seriously fucking over rated. Congrats Cate you played a dude. Come on not everything she does is gold. Critics need to calm down.
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Aug 29, 2008 8:46:51 AM CDT
Which Is The One Where The White Girl Gets Doggied By Some Big B
by pr1c3y
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Just picked up the Palindromes dvd from a shop. If it's 1/10th as great as Happiness, I'm gonna be a very happy movie-viewer.
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Solondz could probably get him easily. He's been seen working as a waiter in a cafe in Edgewater, NJ. Not kidding. He brought me a quesadilla a couple months ago.
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I only mentioned it because I have heard a few people complain that they found it distracting but you're right; the switch in actors does illustrate the changing self-image of the character. And I lol'd at Carlito's line delivery.
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