A New Todd Solondz film! "Life During Wartime"

To note that summertime is a wasteland of stupidfilm is an understatement, but to read in the NY Times this morning that Todd Solondz has a new film coming out, well, that puts a smile on my face. Happiness (1998) is wickedly good, even better than Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), with its classic wiener dog character. Storytelling (2001) has the best writing workshop sequence I’ve ever seen, with a great scary writer dude glowering at his students. And Palindrome (2004) is almost a magic act, with eight different actors playing the same character.
Next comes Life During Wartime, which Talking Heads fans will recognize as an allusion to a song of theirs from the early Eighties. The article describes it as a kind of sequel to Happiness, and usually I flinch at sequels, but because this is Solondz, it’s cool with me. Here’s a url to the Times piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/movies/18solodnz.html?_r=1&hpw
I agree with the following quote from him: “But Mr. Solondz said he fears he’s on an endangered-species list. “If I were Turkish, I wouldn’t worry,” he said. In Europe, he explained, “there’s a system in place to support and value someone like me, but here it’s purely market forces.”
He’s right. It’s about making money, and you can be as daring as you want, as long as it makes money. If not, you’re a fat boy on thin ice.