part 1 a young aspire writer with a cerebral palsied writer boyfriend both attend write class taught by a seething and viciously critical novelist . part 2 a schlubby wannabe documentary filmmaker find his perfect subject represent an abjectly apathetic teenager living in privilege with his volcanic father and dither mother and jock brother and supremely smug and tactless baby brother . there nothing in movie more frustrating to me than when a director or writer find fertile soil and only dig two inch deep . theyre precocious enough to stumble upon a great subject but theyre content ( or sham or frighten into ) go on autopilot from there and lazily apply whatever moldy stylistic preconception they make their name with and their auteristic trademark and if you will ( in director todd solondz case and it awkwardness and embarrassment and and pain heap upon pain ) . i do not have a problem with solondz unpleasant modus operandi so the self conscious apologia and justification find here be superfluous for me what i want out of the film be a deep examination of the theme of race and fetishistic exploitation and and lack of compassion solondz be so quick to point out but not address to my satisfaction . his indictment of other film ( american beauty and american movie and whose resident burnout mike schenk get a cameo here ) be impassioned but unconvincing . on the whole though and i think i mainly have a problem with what not here . truth be and there be great act all around and and it be suitably provocative .