Why I can't watch Todd Solondz films.

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Four words: Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy. The settings are miserable, and eliminate any probability of redemption or hope for his characters, who are either thoroughly repulsive or so dysfunctional that they might as well be repulsive. Nothing is at stake. The very thought of his films makes me want to throw up from the sheer, unadulterated nihilism and misanthropy. Yuck.

Really? I've only seen Welcome to the Dollhouse, but its a favorite of mine. You've reminded me that I need to go see that film again, I haven't seen it in a decade!

I just thought the movie was funny though.

I've seen Palidrome, which I didn't like, I thought it was weird and couldn't relate to the characters and the plot.

However,"Welcome to the Dollhouse" is one of my favorite films as well. I like the protagonist, Dawn Wiener, and I don't see anything repulsive or dysfunctional about her. On the contrary, in my opinion she is a brave, sensitive and loveable person. It's true that there is not much hope for her eventually, and it's made clear that life will always be much harder for her than for her cute little sister, but I prefer this realistic approach to a fairy tale ending.

His movies are often too dark for my taste.

I enjoyed "Welcome to the Dollhouse" and "Happiness" but I found "Storytelling" so repellent, I avoided watching anything else he did for some time. I recently saw "Life During Wartime" (a sequel to "Happiness" but with different actors) that I though was neither disturbing nor interesting. "Life During Wartime" just seemed to fall flat whenever it got a chance.

Solondz is a lot like Lars Von Tier; they are both very intelligent film makers, but they too often rely on shocking the audience and forget that they actually need to tell an interesting story. Both film makers have made some very good films, but they often let their desire to be an enfant terrible cloud their ability to make a good film.