May 19, 2005

{ Palindromes }

Palindromes is Todd Solondz's (Storytelling, Happiness, Welcome to the Dollhouse) brilliant non-sequel follow up to Welcome to the Dollhouse. In it we get another Solondz-esque (entering the American vernacular right behind "Lynchian") look into the dregs of suburbia. Aviva Victor is a thirteen-year-old on a quest to have babies. Solondz has said he was inspired by the double Darrin Stephens switch on Bewitched so he cast eight different actresses to play Aviva. The movie plays out like Pee-wee's Big Adventure with all the fun characters replaced by molesters, pro-lifers, and a disabled Christian dance troupe. Solondz expands on his earlier work by exposing motives and raking muck on the squeaky clean side of American life. In his films he examines abhorrent people and horrendous situations that we all know exist but would rather ignore. Any Larry Clark film tells us that doesn't necessarily make for a good cinema, but there's something about Solondz's non-sarcastic approach that allows him to make some truly agonizing situations entertaining and really funny. I feel it's safe to say that this will be funniest film this year about abortion, disabilities, molestation, and love. As with any Solondz's film you may feel a bit squirmy, but sitting back and savoring the unpleasantness is part of experience.

» The Palindromes website.
» An essay by Solondz about the casting.

By Lindsey in Film & TV | Comments:

Comments

I've been seeing this poster on the Apple trailers site forever and I always wondered what was up with it but forgot to bother clicking the link to find out. Oops.

Posted by: benjamin at May 20, 2005 3:36 AM

I have heard many good things about this program and recently noticed that it's also available as a Tiger Dashboard widget.

Apple Detail Page

Not sure on the differences of the full fledged program and the widget version but it might be worth investigating.

Posted by: Michael at May 23, 2005 11:55 PM