Storytelling is a 2001 film by Todd Solondz. The film consists of two, unrelated stories, Fiction and Non-Fiction. (A third segment, Autobiography, was cut from the final film) Fiction concerns a young woman in a creative writing class, and Non-Fiction is about a struggling would-be filmmaker's attempt to make his first documentary, using a teenager in a dysfunctional family as his subject.
This film provides examples of:
- As Himself: Conan O'Brien appears in Scooby's dream sequence to interview him.
- Asshole Victim: Let's be honest; nobody cares that Mikey died due to his constant obnoxious behavior of Consuelo.
- Blatant Lies: Toby tells Scooby that he can't view the finished documentary until he can book a screening, without telling him that one is already in the works — because Scooby will discover the negative slant to the film.
- Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: Marcus dumps Vi because he believes she lied to him about his story being good, causing him embarrassment when he reads it aloud in front of the class. Vi sleeps with Mr. Scott out of spite, but later makes up with Marcus after her encounter goes poorly.
- Brutal Honesty:
- Mr. Scott towards his creative writing class. He isn't at all afraid to eviscerate Marcus's amateurish, but well-meaning piece about his cerebral palsy for being terrible, and he tells Vi to her face that he doesn't think she'll make a good writer.
- Catherine, though she does give intelligent critiques of her classmates' pieces.
- Censor Box: In order to keep the rating from being NC-17, Mr. Scott and Vi's anal sex scene is covered up with a giant, outrageously conspicuous red box. The DVD includes an option to watch the film without it.
- Convenient Coma: Averted. Brady suffers a serious accident during football practice, and Marty laments that there's only a one-in-a-million chance that he will recover. When Mikey encourages his father to believe that Brady will be that one-in-a-million, Marty merely informs him to not be stupid.
- Crapsack World: Is there a Todd Solondz movie that can't qualify for this trope? In both segments, the protagonists find their truths completely misunderstood, abused, and ridiculed by their intended audiences.
- The Dog Bites Back: After being overworked, underpaid, abused, and unfairly fired by the Livingstons, Consuelo sneaks back into the house and murders everyone but Scooby with carbon monoxide.
- Downer Ending: In both segments.
- Fiction: Vi's fictionalized account of her borderline-rape encounter with Mr. Scott is torn apart by her class for being too unpalatable or fetishistic, and when she insists that it's a true story, Mr. Scott humiliates her by telling her that stories we write about our personal accounts always become fiction, and that it's the only good piece she's ever written... because it ends.
- Non-Fiction: Scooby realizes that Toby's portrayal of him is harsh and cruel, and that he's the laughingstock of the unsympathetic audience. He returns home to find his family dead. When Toby rushes up to offer his condolences — with a camera crew, of course — Scooby simply tells him that Toby shouldn't be sorry, because he already got what he wanted in exploiting him.
- Dysfunction Junction: Toby's documentary reveals that the Livingstons are sheltered, unsympathetic, and stupid upper-middle-class people who can barely understand each other. Marty is a typical boomer father, railing against Scooby's laziness and lack of ambition or desire to attend college, while Scooby, for his part, is totally lethargic and aimless despite having plenty of opportunities if he were to put any effort in. And that's not even counting the sociopathic youngest son...
- Heroic BSoD: By the end of the film, Scooby has a Thousand-Yard Stare as he coldly tells off Toby.
- Hypno Fool: Mikey hypnotizes his father to fire Consuelo, not care if Brady dies, and make himself the new favorite son. Surprisingly, it works... and firing Consuelo leads to enormous consequences.
- Innocently Insensitive: Mikey starts off this way, badgering Consuelo in ways that make it obvious that he's privileged and sheltered, such as not understanding that her having to babysit him constantly is work. By the end, he's flat-out tormenting her.
- It's All About Me: Mikey's greatest concern with his brother in a coma is how to use it to his advantage in order to become the new favorite son. He's also unable to empathize with Consuelo and can't stop ordering her around even after she reveals her beloved grandson is being executed.
- Karma Houdini: Consuelo apparently gets away with murdering almost an entire family.
- Mistaken for Racist: When Vi tries to write about her uncomfortable sexual encounter with Mr. Scott, Catherine, not knowing it's a fictionalized version of a true account, writes it off as a privileged white woman fetishizing another race in a trite encounter. This isn't entirely unbelievable, as Vi herself has to remind herself to not be racist when seeing naked photos of Catherine in Mr. Scott's residence.
- N-Word Privileges: Deliberately played up to be cringeworthy. Mr. Scott exhorts Vi to call him the n-word during sex; she resists at first, but eventually complies, which seems to push her over the edge into considering the encounter to be rape.
- Pet the Dog: After most of his scenes revolving bugging his family about the possibility of Scooby being gay, Brady assures his brother that he sincerely doesn't care about whether or not the rumors are true.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Scooby dreams of fame, without having any real means to achieve it. He becomes the subject of a documentary, but it only ends up to him being mocked and ridiculed for being a short-sighted dimwit, and in the end, his entire family is dead. The only silver lining is that he technically has an admission to Princeton, though it's doubtful he'll actually accomplish much there...
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Scooby gets accepted to Princeton despite intentionally failing his exams, and he eagerly wonders to the film crews if they were just impressed by his audacity. Cut to his father, who flatly states that they had a rich relative make a donation in order to bribe Scooby's way in.
- Teacher's Pet: Catherine, who always sits nearest Mr. Scott and agrees with all of his opinions.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Mr. Scott frequently sleeps with his students, as evidenced by his casual seduction of Vi and the nude photos of Catherine he keeps around.
- Where da White Women At?: Marcus harangues Vi for being like all the other "white whores" on campus, lusting after Mr. Scott. Vi hadn't shown any real prior interest in Mr. Scott, but pursues him after she and Marcus break up out of spite.
- Would Hurt a Child: Consuelo turns on the gas in the Livingston household despite there being a teenager (who's in a coma, no less) and a child present, and the victims would have included Scooby had he not snuck out. Of course, the child is one of the reasons she's doing it.
- Unrequited Love: Scooby's male friend has a crush on him that the entire school knows about, and though Scooby doesn't reciprocate, he nevertheless allows him to perform oral sex on him out of boredom.
