Palindromes (2005)

The Worst Film Ever

just watch it!

A different way of telling a story

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

First and foremost, do not watch this movie, it's terrible.With that said, there are actually a few positives and I cannot say Todd Solondz is a completely worthless filmmaker. His films are always interesting. So, here's why Palindromes gets 1 star as opposed to 0: 1. An interesting and thought-provoking examination of abortion. I like the way Solondz examines this issue from several different perspectives and leaves us with no simple answer.2. Some funny moments. I laughed about 2 or 3 times.3. Bold. This is the best thing this film has to offer. But, when a movie is boring and the story is stupid and the character development is weak, then boldness is basically worthless.So, to go into a little more detail as to why this movie sucked: There are three qualities that must be present in a movie in order for me to find it good. They are, entertainment value, an engaging story and characters that I feel emotionally attached to. Palindromes fails on every level. The two or three times that I laughed in this film are not enough for me to call it entertaining. This movie was extremely boring, I was just waiting for it to end (although I do understand that this is just an opinion.) I felt no emotional attachment to any character in this film. I own Happiness and found it to be a phenomenal and very entertaining film with interesting characters that I felt attached to. But the character development in Palindromes just didn't draw me in. I understand what Solondz was trying to demonstrate with Aviva being played by several different actresses. I assume he's trying to demonstrate how the issue of abortion affects several different types of people regardless of their race, age, gender (one of them was a boy) or size. I also assume that each actress or actor playing Aviva is a symbolic representation of Aviva's self image at the time. Plus, it reinforces the Palindromes concept that no matter how much you seemingly change you will always come back to your true self. But, after a while this tactic took away from me becoming emotionally attached to Aviva. It was just distracting. This is the type of intellectual approach that sounds good on paper but takes away from the viewer becoming emotionally involved. And finally, story. There was nothing engaging to me in this story except for maybe a thought provoking examination of abortion. Not good enough. With the distracting actress-changing, the lack of character development and the boring tone, I gave up on this stupid story pretty early on anyway.So, I haven't even started on how vile, deplorable and sickening this movie was. I'm just wondering how Todd Solondz convinced so many underage actresses and their parents to allow him to place them in so many sexually perverse scenes. I'm not saying this is child pornography because it isn't. But, between a child sex-scene pretty early on, scenes of pedophilia and child anal rape and a final child sex scene that is just shocking, it's pretty damn close. I completely support freedom of speech, thought, religion etc... and I am in no way disputing Todd Solondz's right to express himself. What I really want to address is the soul of our cinema and what we as free individuals allow into our lives. If we allow this sort of disgraceful material into our lives then we are allowing sick thoughts into our minds. I don't even want to think about what sort of sick thoughts are inside the mind of the individual that came up with this film and directed these scenes. And now I am exercising my freedom to say, I think whoever came up with this movie must be disturbed in their own mind. I actually kind of pity a person that is this disturbed. And the rest of you that think this movie is "Amazing" and "Fascinating" and "Beautiful" should take a second to think about what sort of sick thoughts are swirling around your own head.Here is a list of 10 extremely disturbing films that are actually watchable. Some of these films examine the horror of pedophilia in an interesting and non-exploitative manner. All of these films have characters and story lines that you actually care about and they all deal with very heavy subject matter while remaining intelligent, entertaining and objective. L.I.E. The Woodsman Gummo Irréversible Leaving Las Vegas Bad LieutenantA Clockwork Orange Blue Velvet Funny Games Henry: Portrait of a Serial KillerThese ten films have something very crucial that Palindromes completely lacks... a soul.

Where to begin.... I feel as though my soul has evaporated from watching this movie. My friend and I were planning on watching a feel-good movie -- it was between step brothers, august rush, and this one. We thought, "any movie with cartoon back fat on the cover can't be that bad." Oh, how wrong we were. Now I am an empty shell and will not be able to sleep for a very long time. In fact, even our friendship is in question due to this movie, and we're not even sure why. There's just this air of...emptiness. I don't even know what to say. There's nothing left but silence. Thank you Todd Solondz for bringing meaning (or lackthereof) to my life. I can never look at a coathanger again. Amen.

The latest film from oddball director Todd Solondz may battle his last film Storytelling for being the least accessible. Reportedly Solondz financed the film himself when he could not find studio backing. The film follows the exploits of young Aviva, the thirteen year old cousin of the Dawn Weiner character from Solondz' first film Welcome To The Dollhouse. Dawn commits suicide off screen and the young Aviva wonders if she is destined for the same fate. Her mother, played by the talented Ellen Barkin, assures her that she's loved and such a fate will not visit her. Aviva spends the rest of the film looking for love and/or trying to get pregnant in order to have a baby to love and return love.What follows is that Aviva is abused, exploited, and mistreated at every turn. She grows more disillusioned throughout the film, discovering the difficulty of her boundless optimism co-existing with the hypocrisy of human beings around her. Solondz attempts to underline the focus of the film fable by removing our identification with a main actress playing Aviva. Instead, several different characters of different ages, genders, races, and sizes play Aviva keeping our attention on the kind of interaction that unfolds throughout the film rather than how or if it affects Aviva. Mark Weiner becomes the spokesperson for Solondz at the end of the film, indicating that people do not really change much. We're raised a certain way, harbor a few desires and wants, and set out to satisfy them, regardless of the world and people around us. This train of thought is also what leads to some funny and ridiculous occurrences in the film. **1/2 of 4 stars.

A girl named Aviva (that's apalindrome, hence the title) who is a 13-year-old that really wants toget pregnant, because then she'd never have to be lonely. (Aviva is played by several different actresses, many of which are not 13, which makes things a tad bit confusing.) She gets what she wants, only to have her mom tell her there's no way she can keep her child. The mother forces her to get an abortion, which ends up being botched. While Aviva is half-sedated, she hears that she can never get pregnant again. After the abortion she runs away.She ends up in the truck of a dude who turns out to be a pedophile. They have sex at a hotel. Dude ditches her the next day. She wanders around in a forest and falls asleep, only to be awoken by a little boy. He takes her back to Mama Sunshine's house, where she stays for a few days. Mama Sunshine is a Christian who raises all sorts of kids with problems that no one else seems to want. These kids make money by selling CDs and videos of themselves singing and dancing to songs about Jesus.Guess who lives in a trailer next door? The pedophile. Apparently Papa Sunshine is contracting him to kill an abortion doctor–the same one who did Aviva's abortion! Aviva runs away from the Sunshine's and sleeps on the steps of the trailer until the pedophile agrees to bring her with. He kills the doctor, and the doctor's young daughter accidentally. He ends up being killed by the police in a hotel. Aviva goes home and her parents throw a party.The writer is probably struggling with his own views on abortion. The strong pro-lifers are portrayed as crazy and weird. At the same time, they're loving and accepting of all sorts of children–even children that the pro-choicers might think should've been aborted. Aviva's mother talks about how, if she hadn't had an abortion herself, they wouldn't be able to afford NSync tickets, or cartons of Ben and Jerry's. She also tells Aviva that a deformed child will ruin the rest of her life and rob her of experiences. It seems that Solondz shows the flaws of both sides of the abortion issue. The pedophile theme, however, reduced any value I saw in the movie. What the point was, I'm not sure. That pedophiles are good people? That they can't always be blamed for what they do? The pedophile in this movie doesn't seek out a child to prey on. Aviva just shows up in his truck. He doesn't even try to lure her into agreeing to sex, she wants sex, because she wants pregnancy. At the end, one character says that he's not a pedophile, and Aviva says "Yes, because they love children." Hm. What? So pedophiles just love children so much that they want to have sex with them? Are we supposed to be happy that they love children so much? Sorry that they carry this burden of having to hide and repress that love? Maybe he's trying to show that the girl's liberal parents and the conservative family that takes her in are just as exploitative as the pedophile who has anal sex with her. Forcing a girl to have an abortion is bad. Forcing a girl to repress her sexuality and only showing her love if she adheres to your ultra-conservatives standards is bad too. But I don't think either come anywhere close to anally raping a girl (and in this country, regardless of consent, if the girl is 13 it is rape). I try to view it in different ways, but this movie really seems to stand as an argument for pedophilia. Not that it is a good thing, but perhaps that it isn't any worse than all the other things people to do children. All pro-life folks and probably a good chunk of the pro-choice folks who see this would think it was wrong for Aviva's mother to not allow her to have her child. I guess from there, the argument is, if she can choose whether or not have a child, should she not be able to choose who she has sex with? Even if the person she wants to have sex with his older? At the end of the movie one character talks about how people do not change. If you're depressed when you're ten, you're going to be depressed your whole life. I don't agree with that, but I have heard it said for pedophiles. You like what you like. You don't stop being attracted to children, you just learn not to act on it. Is that what the point of that little "no one changes" rant was? I don't know.Overall I was not a huge fan of this movie. Parts of it were funny. Parts of it were thought-provoking. The palindrome-theme was kind of neat (In order, Aviva is living with her parents and sleeping with a guy her age, running away and being with a pedophile, staying with the Sunshines, running away and being with a pedophile, and living with her parents and sleeping with a guy her age.) I'll admit that. But it's hard to like something that appears to defend pedophiles. And if that wasn't his aim, then I have to think his aim was to be shocking, to get attention, to get people to say "I can't believe he did that." And being shocking for the sake of being shocking isn't something I admire either. It's really just a shortcut to getting attention, a replacement for doing something meaningful.If you've seen Solondz's other movies and liked them, then you might want to see this. If you haven't seen them, I recommend checking them out first before diving into this one. Also, this one is a loose continuation of Welcome to the Dollhouse, so maybe watch them both back-to-back.