Screening Log

This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.

March 2006 activity

Total Log Entries: 87

Total Comments: 44

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Palindromes / USA / 2004

Todd Solondz’s pseudo-sequel to Welcome to the Dollhouse, Palindromes is a film about love and abortion. Aviva Victor, played by eight actors and actresses of all different sizes and shapes throughout the film, is thirteen and pregnant; her mother, Joyce, wants her to terminate the child, which she refers to as a “tumor.” Aviva, who wants children, soon relents, but during the procedure her uterus is scarred and she’s given a hysterectomy. Not long after, she runs away.

Palindromes is incredibly blunt and real, almost to the point of displeasure. Dialogue about abortion, pedophilia, and underage sex comes and goes like causal conversation. Anyone familiar with Solondz expects this rather open view of the world; those who aren’t will probably consider it a distracting waste of talent.

And there’s a lot of talent. Joyce, played by Ellen Barkin, and Mama Sunshine, portrayed by Debra Monk, are two well-acted contradictions. The first is compassionate and pro-choice but condescending—“You shouldn’t listen to everything Missy tells you just because she’s beautiful and popular,” she tells her daughter in the film’s beginning. Mama Sunshine, on the other hand, is a patriotic pro-life woman who doesn’t ever seem like the raving religious hypocrite she really is. A small appearance by character actor Richard Riehle as a disingenuous Christian doctor is similarly disturbing.

Palindromes is a great study in the limits of allowable filmmaking, as well as how much reality moviegoers will accept, but it’s not a curl-up-with-the-one-you-love kind of movie. Not by a mile.

by Adam Balz | Source: Wellspring DVD
11 Mar 2006 8:20 PM | Submit Comment

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