I just saw this film and I'm really trying to make sense of it. How does the 'Fiction' story relate in any way to the 'Nonfiction' story? And what is the idea of this film in the end anyway? I loved the film, it was hilarious, but I fail to see the point. I love Todd's other films, but this one has me totally stumped.

Think of what the professor character says at the end of the 'Fiction' section. Then think of what the character Paul Giamatti portrays does with the 'real' family in the second part. Also, notice how stereotypes are dealt with.

Maybe there is no 'point.'

Don't forget the title, Storytelling.

Its about the ethics of storytelling. The second part is more easily understood if you've seen American Movie. If we are laughing at a documentary of a real person are we hurting that person?

You could argue that the movie makes a serious 'point,' but possibly at the expense of entertainment.

I enjoyed it a great deal.

To resurrect this thread...

Happened to rent Storytelling last night and it seems like a lot of what I heard back when it came out missed what I took from it. To me, it was pointing out that stereotypes and cliches exist in real life and people all the time, but that if we focus solely on these aspects, we miss something bigger.

The two stories in the 'fiction' segment of the film are derided as being cliched and trite, yet they were both truthful accounts of events (within the movie of course). In the 'non-fiction' segment, the documentarian focuses on the stereotypical aspects of the family and misses larger aspects of what's going on. There were certainly other things going on in the film, but I thought it was primarily about reconsidering some of our notions regarding the relationship between fiction and real life.