Fear Anxiety and Depression

It’s ultimately not difficult to see why Todd Solondz has disowned his first film, Fear Anxiety and Depression, as the project (and that’s just what it feels like: a school project) comes off as a directionless and mostly incompetent attempt to ape the feel of a Woody Allen picture – with, naturally, the end result an often interminable effort that boasts few, if any, positive attributes. The movie casts Solondz as Ira Ellis, a neurotic New Yorker as he endeavors to launch his fledgling career as a playwright – with the movie, for the most part, detailing Ira’s encounters with a whole host of often unreasonably offbeat figures (including Stanley Tucci’s Donny and Jane Hamper’s Junk). Solondz’s episodic modus operandi essentially ensures that Fear Anxiety and Depression is lacking in anything resembling forward momentum, with the writer/director’s inability to offer up even a single compelling character certainly exacerbating the stagnant atmosphere. This is especially true of Solondz’s flat-out disastrous turn as the wholly unlikable protagonist, as the filmmaker, who smartly hasn’t acted since, delivers a smug, grating performance that grows more and more problematic as time progresses (ie the viewer is simply unable to work up an ounce of interest in or sympathy for Ira’s antics). And although the movie does benefit from its admittedly strong visuals and use of New York City locations, Fear Anxiety and Depression is predominantly an endless slog that’s remarkable only in that it didn’t spell the end of Solondz’s nascent career.

* out of ****