The bigger the glasses, the better the movie

From the moment I saw Happiness, I was hooked. For me, this pitch black (dare I say) comedy is the highpoint of the indie genre and has everything a truly great movie should have: excellent performances, compelling characters, quirky story, wry humor, controversy and above all humanity. The movie presents us with a dozen characters who have interlocked lives ranging from utterly shocking to incredibly endearing and it is also constantly walking the fine line between satire and brutal honesty. Happiness isn't afraid to delve into our collective subconsciousness and portray not only the disturbing but delightful traits that make us human and it does so without shame or sugarcoating. This masterpiece was created by a highly underappreciated genius, namely Todd Solondz.

Solondz's movies are all very cynical and despite the depressing stories they sometimes (actually always) tell, he is in fact a self-confessed optimist who is just trying to show that we're a flawed, lonely and dysfunctional race and there is nothing to be ashamed of 'cause we're not alone.

His first feature film was 1995's Welcome to the Dollhouse which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It tells the tale of Dawn, a bespectacled 13-year-old girl who is not only being bullied by her peers but also neglected by her parents. You're probably thinking garden variety adolescent abuse issues but where Dollhouse excelled was in making the characters so humane and easy to relate to that you even started to feel compassion for the nastiest of them because at some level their actions simply made sense. Solondz has a way of making us confront not only ourselves but our demons, for better or worse.

In 1998 Happiness followed and is still one of the most honest, touching and thought-provoking satires of middle class suburbia out there. This movie turned Solondz into a respected filmmaker, aided by the International Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2001 Storytelling premiered at Cannes. This movie has an ingenious plot stucture: Fiction / Non-Fiction and develops the same story in various ways. Storytelling had its fair share of controversy as the film includes a rather graphic and if you're a catholic sinful sex scene between a white woman and a black man, a scene Solondz refused to cut. Being a firm believer that all censorship is bad, Solondz was able to include the scene. Still, a bright red box was placed over the actors, you can't have it all once you enter Hollywood apparently.

His last film was 2004's Palindromes which was entirely self-financed as he wasn't able to find backers for his oddly moving tale of statutory rape, abortion and child molestation.

As we speak, Solondz is in the middle of the production of Life During Wartime which is supposed to be "A dark comedy of sexual obsession" starring Emma Thompson and Demi Moore. Knowing Solondz, it'll definitely be dark.