Aviva...in all her permutations, may as well be a bug under the director's microscope.
Comment
09/08/05
Palindromes (2005)
43
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:110
Fresh:47
Rotten:63
Average Rating:5.3/10
Consensus: Unique but cold.
Theatrical Release:Apr 13, 2005 Limited
Box Office: $476,497
Synopsis: With PALINDROMES, fiercely independent writer-director Todd Solondz (HAPPINESS, STORYTELLING) places the topic of abortion under his scathing microscope. This time around, Solondz takes an even... [More]
Starring: Ellen Barkin, Debra Monk, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Director: Todd Solondz
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Reviews for Palindromes
The confusion mounts along with Solondz's bubbling satire of the dark corners of humanity.
05/05/05
It's a more challenging trek, but well worth it for some.
05/05/05
Top CriticUnlike anything you've seen at the movies. Plus, the picture is often redeemed by the director's daunting intelligence and pitch-black humor.
05/05/05
Top CriticBeating up the viewer with grotesquerie is a worthy goal only when there's a point to it, such as self-examination.
05/08/05
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09/26/05
For a filmmaker supposedly aligning himself with the freaks and geeks of this world, Solondz appears dead set on making bullies of us all.
05/03/05
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07/14/07
[If Solondz isn't] having fun relating Aviva's determinedly depressive misadventures then what has he invited us into the theater for?
05/28/05
If you don't want your deepest convictions about adolescence, motherhood, and the abortion wars raked over the coals, you should probably stay home.
04/29/05
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04/30/05
Solondz may want to universalize Aviva, but too much of this film seems to come only from the Solondz universe, in which he looks down on all of us as gullible cretins.
05/12/05
Palindromes reeks of Solondz's trademark nastiness, reveling in a childish ability to shock the viewer. It all adds up to a painfully dull, slipshod and pointless portrait of America.
02/06/05
No comic filmmaker in America today works so hard to stay on the knife's edge between humor and pathos or is so eager to challenge his viewers emotionally.
04/29/05
You do not emerge untouched from a Solondz film. You may hate it, but you have seen it, and in a strange way it has seen you.
04/28/05
Top CriticI still don't like it much, but I respect it --because it's the kind of film most American filmmakers won't make, bristling with the kind of issues and questions they hesitate to face.
04/28/05
Top CriticThere may not be a more troubled filmmaker in the world today who isn’t taping beheadings for Islamic Jihad.
04/15/05
"Palindromes" is a sloppy and muddy film that uses the shock value of seeing adult men humping numerous underage girls as its recurring visual device inscrutably linked to an unclear abortion issue theme.
06/20/09
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05/26/06
Solondz's satiric targets are obvious but his intentions are mysterious -- possibly even to the filmmaker himself.
05/13/05
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