Todd Solondz Overview

"Faggot-Retard" was Todd Solondz's initial title of choice for his second feature film. He opted instead for the less inflammatory "Welcome to the Dollhouse," which fortunately did nothing to dilute the tenderly misanthropic cult classic about a pubescent protagonist taunted by... [more]

"Faggot-Retard" was Todd Solondz's initial title of choice for his second feature film. He opted instead for the less inflammatory "Welcome to the Dollhouse," which fortunately did nothing to dilute the tenderly misanthropic cult classic about a pubescent protagonist taunted by the alternating appellations "Wiener Dog" and "Lesbo." "Dollhouse" went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1996, recharging a formerly derailed film career that had had the most auspicious of beginnings. Solondz was a star at NYU's famed film school, and after producing several acclaimed shorts during his tenure as a graduate student, he landed two three-picture deals with studio giants Fox and Columbia. His first feature, "Fear, Anxiety, and Depression," however, couldn't live up to the hoopla and flopped. Following his all-around failure (Solondz also acted in the film, portraying a playwright who pens fan letters to Samuel Beckett), Solondz wasted no time waiting either for Godot or a miracle -- instead, he bowed out of the business to teach English to Russian immigrants. He was wooed back to the director's chair when a family connection offered to provide funds for him to rework a script that had been shelved for several years, a script that was to evolve into "Dollhouse." Since then, Solondz has become the king of suburban perversions. "Dollhouse" was just a warm-up for the unnerving "Happiness" (1998), a movie in which the ethos of "you and me and baby makes three" is dismantled by the cynical representation of a character -- equal parts family man, therapist, and pedophile -- who participates in the most disturbing father-son dialogue on film. Solondz is not for the uninitiated or the newly married, but he is on his way to becoming a fixture in the growing world of Independent film. [show less]