Palindromes (2004) - Solondz stabs here, there and everywhere in strange passion project

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+ Best Poster of the Year

The mysterious, beautifully drawn and colorized poster for Todd Solondz's Palindromes

Palindromes concerns young teenage girl Aviva, who wants to become a mother. She attempts to get there with a boy from the neighborhood, and her parents followup with an abortion. After this she runs away from home.

Palindromes is written and directed by Todd Solondz (Fear, Anxiety & Depression (1989)). A palindrome is a word that is spelled the same from each end, which occurs a few times in the film's characters' names.The especially unusual thing about the film is that Aviva through the film is played by eight different actors of different age, sex, race and body types, which is interesting. 
But Solondz's point or points with Palindromes are very intangible, and the fact that the film's mission seems almost undecipherable makes it failed. The filmmaker's common artistic perspective; that man is an odd, misplaced and alienated life form on earth, who is desperately seeking solace in religion, is also present here, but the view seems more spiteful and didactic than in his other films in Palindromes.
Without spoiling the film it can be mentioned that it has some absolutely sick scenes, and that Solondz's preoccupation with child sexuality and violations again give disturbing results. The title melody sets a particular, dissolute tone, but the film points in many directions, often making the viewer uncomfortable, featuring potentially moving characters and scenarios that Solondz nevertheless seems to despise.

Related posts:

Todd Solondz: Wiener-Dog (2016) - Solondz's incisive and funny dog saga dramedy
Life During Wartime (2009) - Too little is really going on in Solondz's guilt-themed Happiness sequel 

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a trailer for the film with Italian subtitles here

Cost: Reportedly 0.5 mil. $
Box office: 707k $
= Big flop (returned 1.41 times its cost)
[Palindromes premiered 3 September (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 100 minutes. Solondz could not get anyone to finance the film and reportedly invested all of his own life savings to make it. Heather Matarazzo turned down reprising the Dawn Wiener role from Solondz's great Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) in the film, and Solondz instead made her character die from suicide in the script as a reaction. Shooting took place in Indianapolis, Indiana and in New York. The film opened #46 to a 57k $ first weekend in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #36 and in 46 theaters, grossing 553k $ (78.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 91k $ (12.9 %) and the UK with 51k $ (7.2 %). Solondz returned with Life During Wartime (2009). Matthew Faber (The Pallbearer (1996)) returned in 2 shorts and a TV-series before his theatrical return in Still Life (2006); Ellen Barkin (Hands of Stone (2016)) returned in Trust the Man (2005); Jennifer Jason Leigh (Annihilation (2018)) in Childstar (2004). Palindromes is rotten at 43 % with a 5.31/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Palindromes?