50
Metascore
31 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertI saw it a third time. By then I had moved beyond the immediate shock of the material and was able to focus on what a well-made film it was; how concisely Solondz gets the effects he's after.
- 75Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittSolondz is a courageous social commentator and a canny provocateur at the same time. He'll never get to Hollywood if he stays on this track, but cinema will be a lot duller if he ever mends his incendiary ways.
- 60TimeRichard CorlissTimeRichard CorlissDoes Solondz feel remorse for libeling his own kind? He might need to if his portraits didn't have the gift of dark wit, the ring of social truth. One makes allowances for a master storyteller.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleBob GrahamSan Francisco ChronicleBob GrahamSolondz should have called this one "So-So Storytelling."
- 50L.A. WeeklyElla TaylorL.A. WeeklyElla TaylorStorytelling is no more likely than "Happiness" or "Welcome to the Dollhouse" to resolve the question of whether director Todd Solondz is a serious artist or a nasty little man with a perversely glum view of the universe.
- 50Washington PostWashington PostSatisfying to the degree that you agree, with Solondz and Thomas Hobbes, that life is on the whole nasty, brutish and short.
- 40Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternA provocative but eventually dislikable two-part film that dares us to dislike it.
- 25Baltimore SunMichael SragowBaltimore SunMichael SragowSolondz is still stuck in an adenoidal whine.
- 16Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula NechakSeattle Post-IntelligencerPaula NechakWhile there are maybe two moments of genuinely clever humor, Storytelling is the work of a previously promising filmmaker who, having no new ideas, has morphed into a sniggering schoolboy intent upon being mean.