If there’s anything one can say with certainty about Todd Solondz, it’s that his films definitely aren’t for everyone. However, through his genre-bending, deliciously dark brand of humor, and keen social commentary, the director has established himself as no less than a visionary over the years.
Solondz grew up in Newark, New Jersey, a setting which has deeply inspired many of his films. After dropping out of NYU’s Master’s of Fine Arts Program, Solondz first began to gain traction with his short films in the ‘80s. His 1985 short, Schatt’s Last Shot, follows a high schooler whose Stanford dreams are crushed when his gym teacher fails him for not being able to make a shot in basketball. Solondz made his first feature, Fear, Anxiety & Depression, in 1989, but was so unhappy with its outcome that he took a hiatus from filmmaking for five years. However, with convincing from a lawyer friend, he returned to film in 1996 with the glorious Welcome to the Dollhouse. The rest is history.
Solondz’s films are often hilarious, always brutal. They capture the underbelly of middle-class suburbia and ennui—all the feelings that we carry with us but are too afraid to express. Here is a list of his feature films, ranked.
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8 Fear, Anxiety & Depression (1989)
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Solondz was very unhappy with his first feature film, Fear, Anxiety & Depression, due to the lack of creative control he was given during production. However, the film still holds up as a scathing and funny critique of pretentious art types and their various (un)successes. Solondz himself stars in the film, as an East Village playwright working on something called Despair. Stanley Tucci, in one of his earliest performances, also stars as an old classmate who inadvertently becomes much more successful than Solondz’s character. Although Fear, Anxiety & Depression was received poorly by critics upon release, it showed great promise in developing Solondz’s newfound singular voice.
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7 Life During Wartime (2009)
Werc Werk Works
2009’s Life During Wartime was a loose sequel to Solondz’s 1998 masterwork, Happiness, with different actors playing the same characters. Just like Happiness, the film revolves around the Jordan sisters and their struggles to find meaning within their very different lives. Whereas some sequels can be dull, watered-down versions of their originals, Life During Wartime is no less uncompromising than Happiness, and it is unafraid to bring its characters to equally dark places. Even if, this time, they find themselves in sunny Florida (as opposed to New Jersey). The movie is also shot in extremely warm, vivid tones, which accentuates the film’s deadened humor while also making it wonderful to look at.
6 Dark Horse (2011)
Goldcrest Films
2011’s Dark Horse tells the story of two equally miserable people who meet at a wedding. Abe, played by Jordan Gelber, is the 35-year-old protagonist who lives with his parents. He is completely clueless with a very small filter, and ends up proposing to the somber Miranda (Selma Blair) within days of meeting her. Although Solondz’s films often feel distinctly anti-romance, Dark Horse does a wonderful job at capturing the real connection that exists between these two displaced people. With expert performances by supporting characters, such as Christopher Walken as Abe’s overly-critical father, we are helped to see just how much these two oddballs might learn from each other. If they are willing to try.
5 Palindromes (2004)
Celluloid Dreams
Solondz’s 2004 film Palindromes is perhaps his most bold and technically daring work to date. The film follows the life of awkward thirteen-year-old Aviva, who is played by eight different actors of various ages, races, and genders throughout the film. However, this isn’t even at all the most provocative feature of Palindromes. The film tackles the issue of teenage pregnancy through a very complicated moral lens, with each of its characters shifting under their own motives and imperatives. The film was nominated for the Golden Lion award at the 61st Venice International Film Festival and serves as an eye-opening counterpart to Solondz’s other film about adolescence, Welcome to the Dollhouse.
4 Wiener-Dog (2016)
Annapurna Pictures
Wiener-Dog sees the triumphant return of Dawn Wiener in this quirky tale of a dachshund puppy’s travels from one owner to the next. The film features Succession star Kieran Culkin, as well as Greta Gerwig, Julie Delpy, Danny DeVito, and various other A-listers. Like all of Solondz’s movies, Wiener-Dog is inevitably a dour black comedy (the dog is given names like “Doody” and “Cancer”), but there is a softness to the film that remains mostly unavailable in Solondz’s other works. In Wiener-Dog, Solondz crafts characters that are expectedly disillusioned, bitter, and odd, as is his trademark, but here, the adorable puppy acts a stand-in for all of their suppressed yearning. Still, don’t ever accuse Solondz of getting maudlin.
3 Storytelling (2001)
New Line Cinema
2001’s Storytelling is a unique narrative experiment surrounding the themes of angst, frustration, and inner-turmoil. The film is divided into two separate parts, or “stories,” one which follows a college student ready to find inspiration for her writing, and the other which revolves around a struggling would-be documentarian (played by the always-dependable Paul Giamatti). Upon its release, the film was mired in controversy over its censorship of a sex scene featuring a comical red rectangle. Whereas many of Solondz’s other films capture the dark underbelly of middle-class suburbia, Storytelling is a meditative and self-reflexive examination of what it’s like to be an artist.
2 Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996)
Sony Pictures Classics
Solondz’s second feature film, Welcome to the Dollhouse, propelled him into the public eye and still remains a cult-classic today. The film follows 12-year-old Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo), a very shy yet determined girl, as she navigates life through the hell of middle school. Dawn has since become something of an icon within the film community, through her one-of-a-kind brand of tenacity and naïveté. Ever since its release, the film has been widely critically acclaimed, taking home the Grand Jury Prize from Sundance and an Independent Spirit Award for Matarazzo’s legendary performance. The film perfectly blends dark, uncomfortable humor with a brutally soulful portrait of what it’s really like to be in middle school.
1 Happiness (1998)
Killer Films
As funny as it is depraved, Happiness is widely regarded as Solondz’s disturbing masterwork. It follows the disparate lives of the three Jordan sisters, one of whom is married in suburbia; another as a cold, esteemed poet, and the third something of a melancholic drifter. All three of the sisters, along with the various people in their lives (friends and family, but also neighbors and lame boyfriends), harbor secrets occasionally so dark it becomes difficult for viewers to sit through the entire film. However, that is part of what makes Happiness so great; instead of mindlessly scorning these characters, it calls us to empathize with them and their deep-seated loneliness and insecurities. Every character in the film is expertly crafted and memorable, even the pitiable Andy who is broken up with in the film’s first scene. The film features a marvelous ensemble cast including the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Jon Lovitz, Dylan Baker, Jane Adams, and Lara Flynn Boyle. Even if you, understandably, never wish to return to it, Happiness is by far a masterpiece worth the watch.
