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April 14, 2005
FILM REVIEW: Palindromes
Review by: Andrew A. Anissi
In his first three features, Happiness, Storytelling, and Welcome to the Dollhouse, director Todd Solondz has taught us to love rape, child rape, masturbating telephone stalkers, and other wacky and fun activities. Solondz's fourth feature film, Palindromes, is just as hilariously disturbing as a Solondz fan could hope for.
The characters of Palindromes are not as deeply investigated or defined as in prior films, but the focus on interactions between characters may make you lose all respect for yourself if you relate to it, or for the rest of humanity if you don't. Of course I don't want to like Palindromes, and I don't want to relate to anything Solondz wants the audience to relate to, but his message is that of a very genuine and very talented voice coming from a truly deranged individual. What is most disturbing of all is that many people can relate to Solondz, because all of the institutional replacements for true spirituality in our society has bred generations of nihilists with nothing but greed and disgust at the core, when all the self-righteousness is removed. To summarize, Palindromes is a truly great film for a failed civilization. I suppose what is best about the work of an artist like Solondz is that it will, in fact, remove the self-righteousness from people and show them what they have become, perhaps offering them a chance to change for the better. Of course I am speaking in generalities.
Posted by andrewanissi at April 14, 2005 12:01 PM