Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a pair of reviews of Todd Solondz's PALINDROMES... The first... well... let's just say he didn't care much for it, while the second review disagrees. I saw PALINDROMES at the American Film Market last November and while it is offensive I don't hold it as negatively as Broodwich below does. I liked every one of Solondz's flicks better, but on the whole none of work is my cup of tea... or at least they're not the kind of flick I would buy and rewatch on DVD. Here's the angry man of the hour, Broodwich to tell you his opinion! Beware his wrath!
Last night I was dragged along to the MOMA here in New York because my girlfriend just HAD to see Todd Solondz’s new film, Palindromes. The film follows the misadventures of Aviva, a 13-year-old girl who always wants to have someone to love. Her solution? Have lots and lots of babies.
I’d like to interrupt this review to just get something off my chest.
Fuck you, Todd Solondz.
Whooo. I feel better. So my experiences with Solondz are as follows: Welcome to the Dollhouse was an honest portrayal of how cruel kids can be. It was almost too much for me to take as it made me look back at my own childhood… Happiness—Dylan Baker is awesome…sympathetic views of pedophilia is not. Finally, if you take away Paul Giamatti and the great soundtrack from Storytelling, what do you have left? Nothing I want to watch. That’s three strikes, but yet here I am, being emotionally molested by Solondz once again. Those three films disturbed me greatly. But I found that I was not disturbed once during Palindromes. The shock has worn off. It seems as if this one-trick pony’s game is up. No…the only thing I felt as I was watching this film is an immense sadness and frustration.
There is a frustration because Solondz has a gift. I never knew how funny he actually was. The first fifteen minutes or so had me cracking up, along with a few other good jokes spread out throughout the film. What saddens me is the direction in which Solondz uses his humor. Yes, I like dark comedies, and yes, I like satire. But satire is not a word that can just be placed on anything to prevent criticism. Doing so can upset a lot of people. If you make a film like this, you have to understand that there can be ugly consequences, and Solondz does understand. I believe he has actually stopped releasing photographs of himself to avoid death threats. As much as I don’t like Solondz, I hope no one ever lays even one finger on him. The last thing I need is Solondz evolving into a martyr for controversial cinema.
Anywaaaays…Solondz decides to focus his humor once again on the ugly part of life, including, but not limited to: murder, child whores, abortion, disabled kids (retarded, limbless, blind, albino, etc.) and the list goes on. His vision is so centered towards negativity, without a flicker of hope in sight. Now, I’m the kind of guy that can’t even watch the evening news anymore because I am scared and protective of any innocence left in me, curling up in some hidden cavity near my heart, along with the sanity I struggle to keep while living in NYC. Solondz tries to show the lighter side of all these issues, but crashes and burns. Sorry, Todd, some things just don’t have a lighter side.
I actually saw the film with Solondz in attendance, along with Ellen Barkin, Stephen Adly-Guirgis, Matthew Faber, Debra Monk, and Jennifer Jason Leigh (who respectfully declined to star in my student film). Some of the audience members brought up the idea that Solondz doesn’t judge any of the characters in his films or their actions. Yeah, well…that’s bullshit. He does. He films many of his scenes as comedies. He wants you to laugh at these poor souls, not with them, and it’s sickening. For example, Mama Sunshine, the character that takes care of all the disabled children, has formed a Christian Dance/Pop group with the children that tours the Bible Belt. But I could not bring myself to laugh at these kids. There is a way to do this tastefully—just look at last year’s Saved!
Wow, this review is too long. Let’s wrap this up…I had seen all of Solondz’s films alone in my room. This is the first time I’ve seen a film of his with an audience. Perhaps this is why it has affected me so strongly. Hearing the audience laughing it up made me slide down in me seat. Thirty minutes into the film, I wept. Towards the end, I was having a full-on panic attack. Is this where our culture has arrived? Everyone in New York is sooo hip, sooo cool. We like everything that pushes the envelope. After all, this is the birthplace of performance art. I mean, really, how fucking cynical have we become? I honestly don’t think this film would have received such a unanimous positive reaction if it had screened anywhere else.
Closing remarks…I have never been so ashamed to live in this city.
Oh, and Todd? I don’t know what type of reaction you were going for with this film, but you sure got one, fucker.
-Broodwich
Yeeeouch! Harsh! Now for the other side of the coin!
AcesOfSamSpade here with a little info for all you Solondz fans. On this beautiful Boston I had the opportunity to attend PALINDROMES at the Museum of Fine Arts. After an hour wasted staring at Monet paintings and blocks of Chinese tablets I sank into my seat inside the MFA's theater. From my seat I watched a peculiar figure reminiscent of internet sensation Salad Fingers privately talk to some kid on stage (Salad Fingers was Todd Solondz, the kid, I later found out, was one of the child actors in Happiness....all grown up).
Solondz, in his soft spoken yet eerily eccentric voice, introduced his newest tome. Curtain up, 5,4,3,2,1....
Open on Dawn Wieners funeral. A bitter end it seems, as Solondz later explained his futile attempt to have that actress (who played Dawn Wiener) to be both in this film as well has his last, Storytelling. From there, the protagonist, as you all probably already know if you are reading this, goes through a seamless physical transformation in her escape from her wretched home on a jounry to have a baby. She yearns for the unconditional love supplied by a baby which she is deprived of in her own young life (she is about twelve years old throughout, however, is played by actresses varying in race and age).
The odyssey, although in typical Solondz tone, is far more dreamy that his last endeavors. We meet, for example, Mama Sunshine, who is a Jesus loving harborer of the unwanted, (supplying a scene that looks like FREAKS mixed with HEAVENS GATE CULT with a tinge of NSYNC) a surrogate mother who, if Dawn were alive, would have taken her in. She can supply love, "Jesus Tears" cookies, bunk beds, and both the psychological and physical medicine needed for the broken.
All the while there is an abortion, a plot to kill the doctor, a pedophile truck driver, and our old friend Mark (Wiener) who is now in mourning.
What struck me as most shocking was Solondz himself. His extreme sensitivity and "love" for his characters was surprising. It seems all the things we are laughing AT, he is not. Surely his aim is for comedy, but not exploitation. It's a delicate balance, which prompted him to repeat a statement he said at an earlier date "My films are not for everybody. Especially those who like them."
All in all I liked Palindromes. It's and inspiring and refreshing tangent from the usual Hollywood schlock. That being said, I enjoyed Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse far more. This film I feel is less accessible, and perhaps more experimental. Definently worth a gander...
AcesOfSamSpade
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