The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Storytelling
Comedy · Drama · 2001
College and high school serve as the backdrop for two stories about dysfunction and personal turmoil.
Movie details
Storytelling
“Sex, race, celebrity, exploitation.”
2001 Comedy · Drama 1h 27m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
6.8 / 10
18.7K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
54 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
50 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
6.6 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
College and high school serve as the backdrop for two stories about dysfunction and personal turmoil.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Storytelling?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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May December
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Happiness
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The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.
Dirty Girl
Drama · 2010
Accompanied by her closeted gay buddy, a promiscuous teenager sets out to find her long-absent father.
Where it lives
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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.
Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Todd Solondz
Written by
Todd Solondz
Selma Blair
Vi
Leo Fitzpatrick
Marcus
Robert Wisdom
Mr. Scott
Aleksa Palladino
Catherine
Mark Webber
Scooby Livingston
Paul Giamatti
Toby Oxman
John Goodman
Marty Livingston
Court is in session
Put Storytelling on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.