Palindromes at the Angelika
That Todd Solondz. I haven’t laughed this much in ages. Dear readers, if you’re ever feeling out of sorts with the world, nihilistic, depressed, or depraved, our friend Todd will set you aright. His newest creation, Palindromes, hammers away at the eyes, stomach, and spirit, leaving the viewer feeling defenseless and wonderfully reborn. The consummate button-pusher, Solondz weaves hot-button topics such as pedophilia, statutory rape, teen pregnancy, abortion, murder (yawn), and red-state Christianity into his smart and affecting screenplay. While this is an inflammatory hoot, I was more intrigued by his strangely arty decision to have eight different actors play the protagonist, Aviva (anyone who sees this flick, let me know what you think about this). As in his other masterworks, Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness, Solondz puts a familiar and sympthetic face on even his most deplorable characters. We cannot paste simple labels on these monsters, dismiss them, or judge them without realizing that they are not so very different from us; they are us. Oh, and the film skewers the idea of human progress or perfectability and shows the inherent emptiness of our systems of belief. Funny, funny stuff.
