Ready to be punished with the brutal black and unforgiving humor of a Todd Solondz picture?
His new one, a “a quasi-sequel variation” to 1999’s “Happiness” stars many of the same characters in that film (plus a few from ’95’s “Welcome To The Dollhouse” too), only new actors are starring in the roles. Example: Michael Kenneth Williams (Omar from “The Wire”) is playing the skeevy, perverted character that Philip Seymour Hoffman played in the original (we’ve mapped out all the new actors playing old characters here).
So it’s brutal, right? Solondz describes it to the AP in Venice, where the film is having its world premiere as, “”something of a post-traumatic-stress-disorder kind of movie.”
But maybe not, the picture was actually at one time called, “Forgiveness,” and chronicles that very idea. “I put it out there not to dictate a response obviously,” Solondz said. “We all have different philosophical and religious convictions. I just ask the audience to open itself up to the experience.”
Why revisit these characters and been-there-done-that territory? Even Solondz didn’t think that was going to be the plan. “I didn’t ever think I would go back to these characters. They certainly haven’t haunted me,” Solondz told the reporters yesterday explaining his tactics. “Once I started to write, I wanted to feel free to play with the characters anyway I wanted. … If I wanted to make a white character black. Some characters age 20 years, some five.
“Life During Wartime” is among more than 20 films competing for the Golden Lion in the Venice film festival which runs Sept. 2-12. A friend of ours just saw it and will hopefully send a report later.
