{image1}If you like to squirm in your seat, rapidly nibble the skin around your fingernails, pray for uncomfortably long scenes to end and feel like American life is completely flocked, "Palindromes" is your flick.
Todd Solondz ("Welcome to the Dollhouse," "Happiness") is again both brutal and brilliant, delivering a painful-to-watch film that begins at Dawn Weiner's funeral, the main character in "Dollhouse," which, by the way, seems like an adaptation of a Judy Blume novel compared to "Palindromes."
In a nutshell, 13-year-old Aviva pines to be pregnant despite her family's attempt to keep her womb clean. Consequently, she hits the road, hoping to find a father, any father, for the baby she so badly wants to bare. Instead, she finds a commune of severely disabled kids named The Sunshines and Jesus-loving Pro-Lifers planning to kill an abortionist.
More interesting than the freaky, disturbing storyline is that eight different actresses play the lead character of Aviva, including a morbidly obese African-American woman (Sharon Wilkins), a young boy (Will Denton) and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
By using eight actors to play one role, Solondz doesn't allow us to attach to Aviva, which is important so we can stomach her molestation, abortion, surprise hysterectomy, dysfunctional mother (Ellen Barkin) and obsession with breeding at age 13.
"Palindromes" is a celluloid train wreck. Although some of the scenes are simply unforgivable - like when a troubled truck driver has sex with Aviva in a place that has nothing to do with baby making -- the desire to understand Solondz's message overrides the torment. You simply cannot look away.
So what is the message? It's possible even Solondz would shrug, considering the layers of irony, meandering plot and nagging bewilderment as to why the film is named after words that are spelled the same backwards and forwards. (Other than the fact Aviva's name is a palindrome.)
Perhaps it is a film about how hypocritical life can be -- particularly when it comes to creating life, also known as motherhood. After all, even though Aviva's only a teenager, would she have done much worse than her own unstable, insensitive mother or the glaze-eyed, brainwashing Mama Sunshine?
Or maybe it's saying that it doesn't matter what a person wears or the color of their skin or whether it's read backward or forward: it's all the same thing and we're all having a similar experience.
Or maybe it's just one long, sick joke.
"Palindromes" opens Friday, May 20 at Landmark's Oriental Theatre.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
