Photo: Todd Solondz's Palindromes
A palindrome refers both to an inverted strand of DNA or words or phrases that read the same forward and backward, and in his misguided Palindromes, the guttersniping Todd Solondz applies a forward-and-backward reflexivity to his narrative in a way that reduces female sexuality and the human experience. In a scene titled Huckleberry, the director vies for credibility as a cinematic Mark Twain. A young runaway boards a child's abandoned swimming boat and makes her way down a river. We're meant to think of Huckleberry Finn and Jim's trip down the Mississippi—a symbol of the social and spiritual unrest of a collective America—but the sinister lyricism masks an even more sinister intention: If the lamb by the side of the river is any indication, the child is just some big dumb animal the director happily leads to slaughter. Once again the solipsistic director fails to differentiate between good and evil, lumping everyone into the same sadistic boat and calling it a day. Ed Gonzalez
A palindrome refers both to an inverted strand of DNA or words or phrases that read the same forward and backward, and in his misguided Palindromes, the guttersniping Todd Solondz applies a forward-and-backward reflexivity to his narrative in a way that reduces female sexuality and the human experience. In a scene titled Huckleberry, the director vies for credibility as a cinematic Mark Twain. A young runaway boards a child's abandoned swimming boat and makes her way down a river. We're meant to think of Huckleberry Finn and Jim's trip down the Mississippi—a symbol of the social and spiritual unrest of a collective America—but the sinister lyricism masks an even more sinister intention: If the lamb by the side of the river is any indication, the child is just some big dumb animal the director happily leads to slaughter. Once again the solipsistic director fails to differentiate between good and evil, lumping everyone into the same sadistic boat and calling it a day. Ed Gonzalez
