Storytelling
Storytelling Image
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Metascore
50 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 31 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.1 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 19 Ratings

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0 out of 10
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  • Starring: Selma Blair
  • Summary: Storytelling is comprised of two separate stories set against the sadly comical terrain of college and high school, past and present. Following the paths of its young hopeful/troubled characters, it explores the issues of sex, race, celebrity and exploitation. (Fine Line Features)

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 31
  3. Negative: 3 out of 31
  1. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Chris Gore
    90
    A masterful comedy that will divide audiences, but it left me laughing hysterically. I hope that doesn’t make you think I’m a sick bastard, but if so, piss off.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    80
    None of this intellectualizing is necessary to the simple enjoyment of Storytelling -- provided the viewer has a taste for the pitch-black humor that emerges when Solondz's camera becomes a veritable blowtorch aimed at humanity's myriad failings.
  3. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    60
    The film is all a little Lit Crit 101, but it's extremely well played and often very funny. But beware: Solondz uses humor as a booby trap, so be careful what you laugh at.
  4. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    25
    Another mean-spirited black comedy from Todd Solondz, tries even harder than the director's two earlier films to shock and outrage -- but the overall effect of his sophomoric excess is tiresome and dull, like watching someone else's 2-year-old act out for the 50th time.

See all 31 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 13
  3. Negative: 2 out of 13
  1. Anti-hollywood5
    9
    Really intriguing, interesting, intense and original. This movie is obviously a reflection of Solondz childhood the young child being a younger version of himself. Very Moving and provocative film.… Expand
  2. SteveG.
    8
    I usually hate it when people say "If you didn't like it, it's because you didn't understand it." But I can't help but think that myself when I read many of the reviews of Storytelling (or any Solondz film, really). They cast it off as a mean-spirited 'black comedy', and that Solondz has contempt for the characters he's created. However I can't help but notice that the only people who are actually judging the characters in that light are these critics themselves. (He even has Giamatti say he "loves these people". Maybe it should have been Solondz himself on-screen.) Solondz, knowing this tendency of his critics, directly confronts them in the scene where "American Scooby" is being screened. They are laughing at the main character, completely rejecting his worth as a human being, and basking in their superiority. But even with this scene in the film, the critics still just don't 'get it'. It's as if they can only understand films where the narrative is completely spelled out for them, with low-dimensional characters, and ham-fisted sentimentality (ala American Beauty). In effect, Solondz gets the last laugh, with these critics doing nothing but proving his point.… Expand
  3. DavidC.
    7
    The relationship between the "fiction" and "nonfiction" ends up being far more interesting than the stories themselves, which are plagued by caricature and stagey directing. All of this belies the fact that this is an entertaining, provocative film. The second half of "nonfiction" is impressive in the way that it brings both the film and the audience into self-referential territory. Whether you found the humour amusing (as I did) or mean-spirited is a matter of taste.… Expand

See all 13 User Reviews

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