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DVD Palindromes
Writer/director Todd Solondz has no patience for formulas or safe choices. Most filmmakers, after making a movie as commercially unsuccessful and critically slammed as the underrated Storytelling, would strive to broaden their appeal. Solondz, instead, made Palindromes, a movie about a troubled young girl named Aviva whose only goal in life is to have children--a goal that leads her through abortion, religious extremism, pedophilia, and more. But for many viewers, the plot isn't as off-putting as the casting: Over the course of the movie, Aviva is played by eight very different actresses (including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rush). Like Solondz's other movies (including Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness), Palindromes initially seems emotionally brutal and absurd, but gradually grows engaging and even moving, albeit in strange and unexpected ways. Palindromes is given an extra boost by a hypnotic, emotionally unleashed performance by Ellen Barkin (The Big Easy, Drop Dead Gorgeous) as Aviva's mother. --Bret Fetzer
"Palindromes" is writer/director Todd Solondz's latest audacious, satirical journey into bourgeois America. The narratives are becoming more far-fetched and contrived, but somehow without losing their black humor, recognizable characterizations, and watchability. "Palindromes" returns to familiar territory. It's main character, Aviva Victor, is the cousin of "Welcome to the Doll House"'s ultimate middle child Dawn Wiener. Actor Matthew Faber reprises his role as Dawn's brother Mark. Aviva is 13 years old and desperately wants to have a baby. But her blunt, tenacious mother (Ellen Barkin) stands in her way. So Aviva runs away from home where she hopes to get pregnant and have a child undeterred. Instead, she encounters a strange bunch of ideologues whom she could easily have reason to hate or to embrace, as they could her.
There are 2 major themes at work in "Palindromes". One is an exercise in manipulating audience sympathies. Aviva is played by 8 different actors, including a large black woman and a pubescent boy, in order to draw attention to the role that appearances (age, race, sex) play in audience reaction. Oddly, the changes in Aviva's appearance don't derail the narrative. I quickly got used to it and came to identify Aviva with her mousy, barely audible voice instead of with a particular appearance. The only Åviva incarnation that I didn't buy into is the 6-year-old girl, and that was because her manner of speaking was different. I'm not sure what this says about how an audience identifies with a character. Aviva's various appearances were not chosen randomly. They make a certain amount of sense. But it amazes me that Todd Solondz gets away with this kind of in-your-face manipulation without coming off as intolerably self-indulgent. Chalk it up to good writing, I guess.
Aviva's name is a palindrome, like the title says. I assume this alludes to the film's second theme, which is people's inability to change. People are what they are, no matter how you look at them. And they have a certain worldview, no matter how they look at it. "Palindromes" presents Aviva's mother Joyce in fairly harsh light, but Ellen Barkin's funny, earnest, domineering delivery is the film's stand-out performance. Joyce is caring and generous toward her child, but not as "liberal" as she would like to think. She probably does the right thing for the wrong reason. She's selfish. And her concept of family clashes with her daughter's equally selfish concept of family. Jennifer Jason Leigh embodies Aviva at one point, and her middle-aged face and girlish physique fit the bill perfectly.
Woody Allen tackled the question Is Life a Comedy or a Tragedy? in "Melinda and Melinda" earlier this year. It was an interesting question but a dull film. "Palindromes" is a better exploration of that idea. Some will find Aviva's experiences horrific; others will find the whole thing absurdly hilarious. It's probably good that it's never clear how seriously Todd Solondz wants us to take his films. But for Solondz fans, "Palindromes" is another provocative, darkly funny look at families though the experiences of a young protagonist. Just as a note: there is some confusion over Aviva's age. The film's web site says she is 12 years old, apparently in error. She is referred to as being 13 in the film, the press kit, and in statements by the director.
The DVD (Wellspring 2005): A theatrical trailer (2 minutes) is the only bonus feature. No subtitles.
Nature gave us no right to choose.
Once again Tod Solondz brings us a film that shakes us out of our liberal moral complacencies, providing an experience that is disturbing and yet touching, and in this case deeply philosophical. On the surface an examination of the abortion debate, in fact Solondz uses the fanatically held yet muddled convictions of propononents on both sides as a means to explore deeper questions of who we are and how we can find meaning in life.
Both liberal pro-choicers and christian pro-lifers share the conviction that human individuals have the power to choose who to be and how to act.
For the christian, individuals have the power to choose between good and evil. God has granted us the power to define our very souls and to be granted everlasting heaven or hell. Homosexuals can be 'saved'. Even paedophiles like the character Earl can be born again.
For the liberal on the other hand, the only thing constraining choice is that of unfavourable power relationships. Society may determine the choices that women want to make ie.wishing to have children, or deny them the choice at all.
Solondz presents the journey of Aviva as a darkly grim fairytale that reveals a dfferent kind of truth about human nature. People don't change. They might get a facelift, lose weight, spend dollars on breast enlargement, in other words change their appearance and gain acceptance in society, but they always stay the same. The need to believe in free will, the ability to change and to control your destiny is fundamental to almost all creeds and dogmas and indeed across the american political spectrum. It is essential to our notions of morality, to praise and blame, reward and punishment, to who we are and to what we may become.
But there is no free will. In the end we finish up the same people we were at the beginning. Despite her many weird experiences, at the end of her journey Aviva is a lot older and wiser, but still the same child she was at the beginning, still needing love and acceptance and still needing to fulfill those needs through having children.
In the end we are the same collection of cells, the same genetic blueprint for life and potential that we were as a fetus, a fetus that Avivas mother describes as 'just a tumor'. The same human fetus that is somehow imagined by christians to be a unique human soul (even those that 'lack fingers and toes, brains and hearts') and yet has its uniqueness defined by a power of choice it does not yet have, if it ever will.
The acting is superb throughout, with all the actresses playing Aviva performing admirably and a couple excelling.
The DVD lacks extras, but is certainly worth purchasing as it is a film that deserves many viewings and that repays careful study. It does come with a detailed and informative interview with Director/Writer Tod Solondz.
'Can you get pregnant when it goes in there?'
While not exactly a 'part 2' kind of sequel to Welcome to the Dollhouse, Palindromes is more than a film just set in the same universe. Several characters from Dollhouse are featured and many references are made to events in said previous movie. It's best to be familiar with Dollhouse first before watching Palindromes.
Dawn Weiner, our lovely protagonist from Dollhouse, is dead. She committed suicide after getting pregnant from a date-rape. And even in death people cannot hold back on talking trash about her. Her 12-year-old cousin Aviva (she IS 12, a lot of people are mentioning various ages, she only turns 13 at the end) is so affecting by her tragic life that she vows to never turn out like her.
Her mum (Ellen Barkin who appears to have had some dodgy face-lift) promises that will never happen as she loves Aviva more than Dawn's family loved her. Which could not be further than the truth. As soon as she becomes pregnant to some horny boy Aviva's mum shows her true colors. She is selfish, ignorant and downright cruel. Her dad also. They may well be angry but that's no excuse for the pressure they put her under.
Aviva is forced into having an abortion. But it goes wrong and she ends up having an emergency hysterectomy. Thinking only of the effect it has upon herself, Aviva's mum keeps this part secret from her. Obviously devastated at the lost of her unborn child, Aviva takes off on a journey to find a new lover and make a new baby, unaware that she never will.
Upon this journey Aviva is played by many different actresses, all of whom portray her with the same facial expressions and mannerisms. She meets a variety of characters, including her cousin Mark (Dawn's older brother), a trucker who isn't a pedo but loves her anyway and family of disabled Jesus loving Christians who secretly fund abortionist assassinations.
It's bizarre and sometimes outrageous journey full of some typical Todd Solondz moments; scenes where the far-fetched becomes very believable because human-nature often stretches beyond normality when no one is looking. It was sad to see that Mark Weiner's life ruined in the way that it is. But he came through as a more mature and sympathetic character than the bully older brother he was before. And he did have some good scenes.
Now, about the whole pre-teen sexuality thing. I do not have a problem with this but I know a lot of people do. I don't find anything offensive about it but this is the third time Solondz has tackled the subject. Is he into it? Is he against it? Does he find it humorous? Or does he just use it as an easy way to rile us up and make us react? While it's integral to the story, it's not anything a fan of Solondz hasn't seen before.
Palindromes more than about a girl who's name is the spelled forwards as backwards. It's a film about how life goes around in circles and no one really ever changes or goes anywhere. It sounds like a pointless journey when I put it that way. But it's worth it.
One of the most critically acclaimed films of 2005, Me and You and Everyone We Know is also one of the most original feature debuts you're ever likely to see. Winner of the Camera d'or Award for best first film at the Cannes Film Festival, it's an altogether charming display of talent for writer, director, and costar Miranda July, a performance artist making a promising transition to film. Her loose-knit tale of love and longing encompasses a large cast of quirky and memorable characters, foremost among them being Christine (July), a forlorn dreamer who falls in love with Richard (John Hawkes, from HBO's Deadwood), who's going through a traumatic divorce. Richard is desperate to be a good father to his seven- and 14-year-old sons, both of whom have experiences that push... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Miranda July DVD Release Date: Released the 11 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Writer/director Pedro Almodóvar's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic Ángel (Gael García Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice actor, Ángel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in which he's determined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruelly intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefully unfurls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gael García Bernal - Fele Martínez - Javier Cámara Director(s): Pedro Almodóvar DVD Release Date: Released the 12 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Movie studios, by and large, avoid controversial subjects like race the way you might avoid a hive of angry bees. So it's remarkable that Crash even got made; that it's a rich, intelligent, and moving exploration of the interlocking lives of a dozen Los Angeles residents--black, white, latino, Asian, and Persian--is downright amazing. A politically nervous district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his high-strung wife (Sandra Bullock, biting into a welcome change of pace from Miss Congeniality) get car-jacked by an oddly sociological pair of young black men (Larenz Tate and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges); a rich black T.V. director (Terrence Howard) and his wife (Thandie Newton) get pulled over by a white racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his reluctant partner (Ryan Phillipe); a... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Paul Haggis DVD Release Date: Released the 06 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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In The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, director Wes Anderson takes his familiar stable of actors on a field trip to a fantasy aquarium, complete with stop-motion, candy-striped crabs and rainbow seahorses. And though Anderson does expand his horizons in terms of retro-special effects and a whimsical use of color, fans will otherwise find themselves in well-charted waters. As The Life Aquatic opens, Zissou (Bill Murray), a self-involved, Jacques Cousteau-like filmmaker, has just released a documentary depicting the death of his best friend Esteban, who was eaten by some sort of sea creature--possibly a jaguar shark. Zissou’s troubles also include his waning popularity with the public, and a nemesis (Jeff Goldblum) who hogs up all the grant money. Hope arrives in the... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Wes Anderson DVD Release Date: Released the 10 May 2005 Usually ships in 6 to 11 days
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After its scandalous screening at the 2004 Cannes film festival, Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny was cut from 118 to 92 minutes, and that made all the difference. The film that critic and long-time Cannes attendee Roger Ebert originally called "the worst film in the history of the festival" was transformed, by Gallo's judicious editing, into a perfectly acceptable if not universally respected art-house curio, widely criticized yet ripe for cult status, able to stand beside Gallo's Buffalo 66 as the work of a genuine artist with a singular vision. Yes, that vision is self-indulgent, narcissistic, and likely to turn off a majority of viewers with its glacial pace and endless shots of Gallo driving, driving, and driving some more. But in portraying a melancholy motorcycle racer... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vincent Gallo - Chloë Sevigny - Cheryl Tiegs Director(s): Vincent Gallo DVD Release Date: Released the 16 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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