Moods of movies no maker's mirror

Greta Gerwig and the titular star of Todd Solondz’s Wiener-Dog, which was released on DVD this week
Greta Gerwig and the titular star of Todd Solondz’s Wiener-Dog, which was released on DVD this week

As you might imagine after scanning his filmography, chock-full of feel-bad, jet black dramedies that includes Happiness, Storytelling, and Life During Wartime, writer/director Todd Solondz isn't terribly concerned about being seen as a buzzkill. His work, at times arch, but absolutely pitiless toward his mooning, miserable characters, captures a kind of globally depressing vibe that tends to leave you a good deal less happy to be alive than when you walked into the theater. At the same time, his ear for dialogue and willingness to roam in territory most of the rest of us would just as soon pretend doesn't exist, give his best work a feverish immediacy that can't easily be discounted.

Fortunately, the man himself is considerably more affable than his films might imply. It helps that he's actually pretty loquacious in person, and prone to a wry smile when the mood strikes. He spoke with us about his newest film, Weiner-Dog -- released on Amazon Prime earlier this month and now available on DVD -- a selection of vaguely connected stories centered on the star pooch, a meandering dachshund with a long-suffering expression.

Q. First off, it seems worth asking: Why a dachshund exactly?

A. It's just one of the ultimate, cute animals that you can find, so it seemed to suit my purposes. What interests me, first of all, is not dogs per se, even though it's a dog movie. This is a comedy of despair about mortality. This is what hovers over each of these stories, what shadows them. The dog is a conduit that provides a structure. It's the characters, and the way they contend with mortality, that's where really my heart is.

Q. Are you a dog lover yourself?

A. I don't have a dog, but that's because I don't want the responsibility. I grew up with many. We went through a lot as a family, none of them lasted very long. Dogs embody a kind of ultimate innocence that humans can't rival. In part, I think it's very much a projection that we impose on the dog, because while it is innocent of some things, it is a dog with its own dogness, and its own yearnings and needs. It's hard to understand what a dog is, but we're not dogs. People study, and try to understand, but it's another species. The dogness of a dog is as alien as the humanness is to the dog. It doesn't mean we can't have profound attachments at all. It's not to reduce us to narcissistic and myopic beings, but we are all frail. We all have our needs. That's what defines us.

Q. For a director known for his merciless approach to his characters, the film's second segment, with Greta Gerwig and Kieran Culkin, actually seems to have a little bit of a happy ending, no?

A. I would say it's more than a little. It's probably the most romantic, hopeful ending I've ever had. There is, and it's all in a paradoxical way, philosophically, a kind of sense of hopefulness that the child has as well, given his own personal history with mortality. For me there is a balance, but you bring what you bring to the experience. Some may see only, 'oh my God this is so dark,' and others may bring a more playful attitude.

Q. The third segment, with Danny DeVito playing an over-the-hill screenwriting professor whose students mock him behind his back, and whose career is barely registering a pulse, seemed a bit self-referential. I know you went to New York University, and you teach there now. Was this in any way reflective of your film-school experience?

A. Nobody that is a student of mine, or is a colleague, would confuse me with this character. Nevertheless, I can empathize with him. Certainly, I can feel like a dinosaur, as he is perceived to be. Being a teacher at film school, it opens up a new world. It's hard not to be philosophical, not to be satirical, given the realities. NYU, it's an evil empire. It's managed with such remarkable incompetence and corruption, it's hard not to let some of that seep in. If I wanted to do a movie just about film school, there would be a different movie. I limited the view of film school, mainly just to serve as the place where a man [can adopt] a quest for meaning and redemption. Not that any of this cues to anything literal. It's just good material. I have that experience.

Q. Then, of course, your last segment is the most brutal of the four, particularly in the sequence where Nana, an elderly woman played by Ellen Burstyn, has to confront all the versions of her childhood self reproaching her for the poor choices she made. Is that the way you see this thing going at the end of our lives? Because that would be pretty unbearable.

A. On the contrary, it crystallizes something, it dramatizes an idea that I've put into motion for a while now: We all have one life, but in making movies, we can create other lives. What I've been able to do is have the other lives have other lives. I can bring back the character of Dawn Wiener [who first appeared in Welcome to the Dollhouse], and she can die in one movie as one possible trajectory, and she can end up in a more romantic place in another trajectory. I can have her played by the same actor, or a different actor. The freedom, the possibilities, of all the kinds of different lives I can articulate, that's a pleasure for me. Obviously, Nana's character is a very embittered woman, and very much defeated by her bitterness. Not everybody is.

Q. Lastly, I've got to ask you about the scene where the film students are ripping on their professor and one of them says with wanton derision, "He probably has the Curb Your Enthusiasm boxed set." I hadn't considered that owning that show would be seen as such a negative commentary on someone's life. Can you explain?

A. When you're young, it's important to knock over the idols of the previous generation. To stake out your own claim, your own territory, and I think that's healthy. They have plenty of time to grow up and be mature, but I do relish the irrelevance of youth. Because once these things become reverential, they lose in fact their value and meaning, it's diminished. I hope Larry David (Curb's creator) gets to see it. I'm hopeful that he might enjoy this.

MovieStyle on 09/23/2016

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