Watch Palindromes For Free

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Aviva is a young girl whose long-time dream is to have a baby and she soon gets pregnant to a family friend Judah (Robert Agri). Her parents (Ellen Barkin and Richard Masur) love her but don't approve of her becoming a mother at such young age and pressure her to have an abortion. Afterwards she runs away from home and goes through various experiences, including meeting a pedophilic trucker (Stephen Adly Guirgis) and an overwhelmingly Christian family for disabled children led by Mama Sunshine (Debra Monk) whose husband has his own darker agenda. Throughout the story Aviva's dream of having a baby is what keeps her going, but can it really happen or is her journey just empty wading in seas of filth?The special thing about Palindromes is that the actress of Aviva keeps changing throughout the film: there are ten very different actors portraying her in different phases of the story. The unconventional approach to her character may be explained by a speech delivered by an accused child molester (Matthew Faber) near the end of the film: we will always stay the same no matter how our appearance changes during our life. Of the many actresses portraying Aviva the most memorable is surely Sharon Wilkins, an obese black woman who may initially strike the audience as a grotesque caricature of what Aviva has become, but soon wins the affections to her side with her fearful and insecure but low-key performance. Debra Monk and Matthew Faber also deserve praise for capturing the essence of their respective characters.As expected from a Solondz project, the film deals with heavy and depressing themes like murder, pedophilia and hypocrisy. Even so, I think Palindromes is less forlorn than, say, Storytelling (Solondz's previous movie from 2001). Although we know more than Aviva from early on, at least we don't have to witness her having her dreams thoroughly crushed, which softens the effect a bit. Palindromes may not be as wholesome an experience as Happiness (1998), but for those who enjoy Solondz's bleak, even disgusting style, it will deliver an enjoyable if pessimistic look into people's desire to have someone to love unconditionally.

http://eattheblinds.blogspot.comIf a director's films are a window into their soul, then Todd Solondz would have to be described as one miserable son-of-a-bitch. In 2004, the king of all things ugly dropped Palindromes like a fetid coil onto masochistic audiences hungry for more of Solondz's patented abuse. This attempt to make people squirm in their seats and twitch with uncomfortable laughter topples the crowd pleasing topic of abortion and seasons it with one of Solondz favorite topics - pedophilia. Solondz mined pedophilia for controversy in 1998's Happiness, and in Palindromes he revisits the taboo topic crafting a handful of truly offensive, but darkly humorous scenes. Solondz has been justly criticized for exploiting controversy in attempt to provoke audiences and while the reaction to his films has always been divided, love him or hate him, he has to be respected for being so utterly disrespectful. The humor might be tasteless and suffocatingly dark, but in addition to being funny it is, at times, poignant as well. After murdering an abortion doctor, one of Palindromes' characters bangs his head against a motel room wall and asks aloud: "how many times can I be born again?" The absurdity and silliness of Christian hypocrisy is a subject that flies under the radar far too often and if it takes a sorry S.O.B. like Solondz to make a joke of it, then so be it.

Dreadful and smart-alecky piece of closed-minded, nihilistic trash from hack-director Todd Solondz of Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse fame. Palindromes marks a noticeable departure in Solondz's vitriolic hate as he begins to enter the realm of the political, taking on the issue of abortion. He devotes approximately 1/3 of the film to discrediting extreme and irresponsible pro-choice people, which he demonstrates by including a monologue from a suburban mother who explains to her daughter the value of aborting a child when it has become an inconvenience. Another third is devoted to demonstrating the absurdity of the extreme Christian pro-life individuals (whom Solondz clearly despises even more), as he reveals a house run by Christian fanatics as they take in abandoned children and feed them with violent anti-abortion polemics. Clearly Solondz has many problems with organized religion, and many problems with suburban American life; however, he also seems to have a problem with humanity. He is unable to see anything redeeming in the human race, and all his characters exhibit weakness, evil, disability, stupidity, and deep-seeded depravity. This is a cruel and narrow vision of humanity and Solondz knows it, his films are simply a gathering of scenarios which are intended to shock and horrify, nothing more. Palindromes is also distinguished by a pretentious application of multiple actresses for the same empty character. Wow. What profundity.

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.