for more reviews and movie trivia , visit <a href= " http : //www . joblo . com " >http : //www . joblo . com</a>writer-director todd solondz' third full-length feature made plenty of " best of 1998 " lists , but made only one list of mine this year , and that's the one at the unfortunate end of the cinematic totem pole . his second film was the critically acclaimed sundance sensation welcome to the dollhouse , but i believe that it is the title to his first movie , that essentially describes this year's film , fear , anxiety and depression . plot : vignettes of several dysfunctional people all linked together through the lives of three diametric sisters . one sister is a very successful novelist . the other is a housewife , whose husband hides an extremely dark secret about himself , and the third is a 30-something loser , who still has no clue as to what she wants to do with her life . their parents are also part of the package , as the film serpentines its way through the troubles , perversions and sexual dichotomy of many of its happily-challenged subjects . critique : this is a bad movie . crap served surreptitiously on an independent tray of arty pretension and highbrow entertainment . some of its problems : it's too long and runs at a snails pace . it's uninteresting and unentertaining . it's not funny and contains very little human drama . but even worse than that , it pretends to be something terribly insightful and revealing , when really it's just boring and obviously shocking . it's pretentious and might actually by enjoyed by those who like figuring out the " true meaning " of a film or its characters' intentions , but for all the rest of us , who like to go to a movie theatre , order some nachos , and enjoy ourselves , this one is a lost cause . i'm trying to think of one redeemable quality in this film , but i just can't figure one out . there's a regular husband-guy ( " mr . rogers on acid " as per the arrow's comments ) who lives a double as a pedophile . hmmmm . . . . yes , yes , how utterly insightful and shocking . * yawn * ironic as it all may be , i didn't care for the characters , their lives , or this film . so is this film a satire or a true reflection of the lives of many of our contemporaries living amongst us today ? the truth is that i just don't know . the film was very uneven in that sense , and had plenty of scenes featuring real-life dramatic situations , while others , clearly indicated its " tongue and cheekness " . the point is that i couldn't figure it out , cared even less , and i just didn't appreciate any of the tragic characters or anything that the film had to say . am i too much of a simpleton , and am i missing the " bigger picture " of what mr . solondz is attempting to tell us in his oh-so subtle and annoying depression-fest ? perhaps . the bottom line is that as a great movie lover , i generally tend to find something nice to say about most films . in that sense , this movie did offer some true and realistic performances by its cast , especially dylan baker , who was excellent as the husband with the secret , and jane adams as the pathetic loser sister . but other than that , please don't see this movie unless you also enjoyed other self-indulgent indie pieces such as the doom generation ( 3/10 ) and friends and neighbors ( 5 . 5/10 ) . and another thing , a few scenes of masturbation in a film , mixed with plenty of shots of cum flying around do not an insightful , real and good indie movie make . we must always remember that a film must be interesting or insightful , or at the very least , entertaining . this movie struck out on all three counts . where are the tarantinos and kevin smiths when you need 'em ? little known facts about this film and its stars : director todd solondz had a small cameo in as good as it gets ( 7 . 5/10 ) as a passenger on a bus . solondz was born in newark , nj , and grew up in the suburbs . at new york university film school , he made three award-winning short films . this film was dumped by universal's october films , and picked up by the production company good machine . camryn manheim ( the overweight woman in this film ) received a master's degree in drama in 1987 from new york university . the mother in this film , actress louise lasser , was married to writer/director woody allen from 1966-69 , and starred in four of his films , including the amazing bananas ( 8/10 ) . actor philip seymour hoffman has been in 20 films since 1991 . he graduated from nyu's tisch school of the arts . you might remember actress cynthia stevenson as the relentless character of doris , norm's secretary , on the popular tv sitcom " cheers " . two members from tv's " saturday night live " cast list make cameos in this picture . jon lovitz from snl past , and molly shannon from snl present . 
