College student Vi (Selma Blair) is in a writing class with black teacher Mr. Scott. They have a disturbing one night stand. Failed actor Toby Oxman (Paul Giamatti) is trying to make a documentary about teenagers. He recruits apathetic student Scooby Livingston and his parents (John Goodman, Julie Hagerty).
The first story is terrific and it has a great ending. At that point, I assumed that there are two more similar stories and somehow they may or may not be connected. Paul Giamatti starts the second one very well. Then the movie follows Scooby and his family. It's not as tight and it goes on too long. The smaller kid is a brat. He's meant to be funny but I would rather slap him around. I try to imagine the Livingstons as their own movie and I'm on the fence with them. The laughter with the documentary seems forced. The footage is not actually funny. There is apparently a third story but my version of the movie does not have that. This Todd Solondz film has his sense of pessimistic suburban existence but maybe he should split it into different movies.
The first story is terrific and it has a great ending. At that point, I assumed that there are two more similar stories and somehow they may or may not be connected. Paul Giamatti starts the second one very well. Then the movie follows Scooby and his family. It's not as tight and it goes on too long. The smaller kid is a brat. He's meant to be funny but I would rather slap him around. I try to imagine the Livingstons as their own movie and I'm on the fence with them. The laughter with the documentary seems forced. The footage is not actually funny. There is apparently a third story but my version of the movie does not have that. This Todd Solondz film has his sense of pessimistic suburban existence but maybe he should split it into different movies.