Yep, once again the ugly underbelly of American society is exposed in ways so honest and brutal that your only method of defense is to just laugh…that is when you’re not frozen with shock or squirming out of your seat. Yep, time has come for another Todd Solondz movie.
13-year-old Aviva (related to Dawn Wiener from “Welcome to the Dollhouse”) is obsessed with having a baby and she gets really close to making that happen, but thanks to her intrusive parents her dream is taken away from her. Still insistent on having a child, Aviva runs away from home on a kind of incredible baby making journey. On the road she runs into a commune of disabled kids and gets herself mixed up in a plot to kill an abortionist. Cut up into segments, a different actress plays Aviva in each of the segments. At one point, the 13-year-old white girl is played by a big, black woman. I think I want to give Todd Solondz a hug.
You love Solondz’s films, you’ll love “Palindromes.” That same twisted sense of humor is there and certain scenes go on for an uncomfortably long time, but you wind up savoring the discomfort. For those unfamiliar with the filmmaker’s work, prepare yourself for something that may depress, maybe even anger, you, but it’s also something completely different and for that you should rejoice.
