Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews 13-year-old Aviva is awkward and sensitive. And she wants a baby. She meets(and yes, has intercourse with) a couple of potential fathers, runs away from home and is at one point with a family of fanatical Christians where most of the members are children who were abandoned because of a disability they have... and this portion is the creepiest and most disturbing thing I've ever seen(and you feel trapped there). Solondz divides audiences yet again. This has been called provocative, smart, artsy, disgusting and honest, and I think it is all of the above. No, the man is not "well", mentally. The line between genius and madman is thin, if there is one. While this doesn't mean that we should accept everything that is offensive, I do think that this one offers enough insight and poses important questions. Sometimes you have to break the rules, go against taboo, to point something out. If there isn't a message, or it is a purely destructive one, we can discard the work as "wrong". This confronts abortion from several angles, with the usual black, frank approach and existentialism of the writer/director. The story's structure is a palindrome, and several of the names are... because we never really change. We are what we are, and the fundamentals of that remain the same. There are a handful of different people portraying our lead, including a boy(not unlike I'm Not There). This is to show her emotional state at the time, and all we ever see of others are projections, anyway, we never truly see the entire person. Every single role in this is perfectly cast, and the acting is utterly amazing by them all. This arguably makes the point that women want kids, and men want sex. Every character is well-developed, credible and a real human being. We may like them or hate them; we can't help but respond to them. This has few cuts and many long takes. The camera moves if it should, and otherwise not. This is funny at times. The theme song is haunting. There is a lot of pedophilia, a little strong language and brief, bloodless violence in this. The DVD comes with a trailer for this. I recommend this to anyone with a sufficiently open mind to appreciate this. Not for everyone, and not meant to be. 7/10

Robert Bloom 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.

bob the moo Thirteen year old Aviva has a simple, naive dream of having lots of babies so that she always has someone to love and to be loved by. However when this ambition is realised in her first sexual encounter with a neighbour's son, her parents convince her to have an abortion. As a result Aviva runs away to find a better world and become happy there. What she finds though is a country that doesn't correspond with her good-natured and cheerful view of how life should be.I'll be honest and say that Palindromes sat on my HDR for ages waiting for me to be in the mood for Todd Solondz's view of the world. Ironically here he takes his subject as an naive (rather than "innocent") teenage girl, who is trusting and accepting of what she finds – these are the eyes that we see the world through, I imagine with the aim of letting what/who she sees hanging themselves by their words and actions. In this way he delivers a film that in theory should be a searing judgement on Middle America's religious ideals, ideas of "happiness" and so on, but in reality he doesn't manage it. There are flashes of cutting comment but mostly his targets are too easy or are gone after in a clumsy, rather mocking fashion that means it is a lot less insightful and intelligent than I would have liked.The delivery of these means it is still engaging. The device of using different actresses of ages, shapes and colours to portray the same teenage girl in different scenes is an interesting one that does stand out for being "different" but it is not as meaningful to me as others have said that it was for them. Horses for courses I suspect but for me it didn't seem to be used that well within the film and as result just comes across as different for the sake of being different. Credit to the actresses playing the part though, all of whom I though did very well (apart from the little girl, who was just annoying).Palindromes is a strange beast that is interesting to watch but nowhere near good enough to really love. Some viewers I'm sure will find much to love in the novelty and imagination involved in it but the killer for me was that it just wasn't smart or cutting enough. Absolutely worth seeing once just because whatever else he is, Solondz is never dull.

downstairs_roro Let's get one thing perfectly straight before continuing in what is about to be a well-balanced and thorough beating-about-the-brow of this movie: There is literally *no* reason for anyone to watch this mess. It has been mentioned that the director, Todd Solondz, spent his *entire life's savings* to create this film, because no studio would back it. And why wouldn't those awful, money grubbing, corrupt SOBs back it?Why, because "Palindromes" is utter, festering drivel. Quite truly, its one redeeming quality is that it ends.Let us forget the fact that the main character is bewilderingly played by eight different actresses, that the cinematography is a step below what you'd expect to find on Youtube, and that the entire plot basically takes the audience on a snore-inducing non-adventure. What truly drives me to hate this movie is that not one single cast member can muster up the ability to actually act. I felt like I was watching cardboard cutouts with dumbstruck little faces scrawled on them.If there was ever supposed to be a deeper meaning to this rubbish, it was lost somewhere between Solondz's inner thoughts and what he actually ended up producing. There are people moving, talking, partaking in awkward sex scenes, and being shot to death, but when it's all said and done, there is truly nothing to be gleaned from this movie save for the ice-cold assurance that you just wasted an hour and forty minutes of your life.