Happiness 1998 R, 139 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Todd Solondz Cast: Jane Adams, Lara Flynn Boyle, Cynthia Stevenson, Dylan Baker, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ben Gazzara, Louise Lasser, Jared Harris, Jon Lovitz, Elizabeth Ashley
Middle-class New Jersey sisters–Joy (Jane Adams), Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle), and Trish (Cynthia Stevenson) live their individual lives, each filled with misery, in this story of inter-connected episodes focusing on self-absorption, aimlessness, pedophilia, and murder.
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Life During Wartime 2009 N/R, 98 min. Genre: Comedy / Drama
Director: Todd Solondz Cast: Shirley Henderson, Michael K, Williams, Roslyn Ruff, Allison Janney, Michael Lerner, Dylan Riley Snyder, Ciaran Hinds, Renee Taylor, Rebecca Chiles, Paul Reubens, Emma Hinz, Charlotte Rampling, Ally Sheedy, Rich Pecci, Chris Marquette
As members of a dysfunctional family, sisters Joy (Shirley Henderson), Trish (Allison Janney), and Helen (Ally Sheedy) have many emotional problems as they gather for a bar mitzvah. Joy and her husband Allen (Michael K. Williams) are having marital problems, and she is fleeing the ghost of her lover Andy (Paul Reubens) who has killed himself. Trish's husband Bill (Ciaran Hinds) has been in prison for committing sexual acts with their son Billy's (Chris Marquette) young friends and, amidst their son Timmy's (Dylan Riley Snyder) bar mitzvah plans, is trying to reconnect with Billy. Meanwhile, Trish is planning for Harvey (Michael Lerner) to move in with her and is concerned with how her sons will treat Harvey. The third sister, Helen, is a Hollywood screenwriter who has her own problems to deal with. With their pasts haunting them, where will the family go from here?
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Palindromes 2005 N/R, 100 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Todd Solondz Cast: Ellen Barkin, Richard Masur, Matthew Faber, Angela Pietropinto, Bill Buell, Valerie Shusterov, Hannah Freiman, Will Denton, Rachel Corr, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Debra Monk, Sharon Wilkins
Eight actresses take on the role of troubled 12-year-old Aviva in a mirage of scenarios that support the theory that people's true natures don't change even when they alter their outward appearances.
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Storytelling 2001 R, 87 min. Genre: Comedy / Drama
Director: Todd Solondz Cast: Selma Blair, Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, Julie Hagerty, Mike Schank, Mark Webber, Noah Fleiss, Lupe Ontiveros, Leo Fitzpatrick, Robert Wisdom, Aleksa Palladino, Maria Thayer, Angela Goethals, Devora Rose, Nancy Anne Ridder
Divided into two sections, Todd Solondz first presents "Fiction," the story about white college student (Selma Blair) who finds that when she writes about an actual sexual encounter with her black professor, her work must be called fiction. The second story, "Nonfiction," involves an aspiring filmmaker (Mike Schank) who follows a high-school senior (Mark Webber) around with a video camera, capturing moments within his dysfunctional family.
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| 1. Happiness (1998)
2. Life During Wartime (2009)
3. Palindromes (2005)
4. Storytelling (2001)
5. Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996)
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