Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

match-3 Having seen most of Solondz' films (including the tepid Storytelling and the frankly unfortunate Life During Wartime), I think Palindromes may be his second finest, after Happiness. It isn't as funny as Happiness, but it is also less judgmental of Western humanity than that film (a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective), and has plenty of other things going for it besides.Just about all I knew about Palindromes going in was that it was to some degree based on or inspired by Solondz' best-known film, Welcome to the Dollhouse. Unlike his more recent Life During Wartime, which fails because it tries (unconvincingly) to make too many various direct connections to its "prequel" Happiness, Palindromes is much less literal or obvious in those connections. Despite the occasional character reference to / recurrence from Dollhouse, it succeeds as an entirely separate and independent work, and one that I personally find much more sophisticated and interesting than the original that semi-inspired it.Unlike most of the IMDb reviewers here, I was also totally unaware of the "multiple Avivas" device going into the movie. Quite late in the film, once Solondz starts alternating his various Avivas within the same "chapter," I finally realized the multiple actresses playing Aviva were all intended to be representations of *the same character*. To that point, I'd viewed them as separate but effectively interchangeable characters simply sharing the same name, along with a handful of obvious motivations and personal connections (even the fact that they wore the same outfits didn't throw me a clue; I figured it was just an attempt at semi-opaque metaphor, or maybe just an interesting way of improving continuity).I felt pretty dumb about this when I got it all sorted, but perhaps I had been biased going in by the more disconnected vignettes that comprise Solondz' prior effort, the questionably uneven Storytelling. I ultimately think it was a good thing anyway, as it allowed me to experience additional layers of possible meaning that I know I would not have experienced had I known the full story throughout the film.Palindromes is much less about black humor than Solondz' '90s films, but it's not to say there aren't quite a few flinch-worthy funny moments. By far, the hardest stretch to sit through-- but also the most entertaining-- is the long chunk of Palindromes that takes place at the Sunshines' compound for disabled, brainwashed children. This interminable but wonderful chapter has some of the funniest / skin-crawlingest scenes involving kids that have ever been laid to non-documentary film (upping the ante, without the humor: the real kids interviewed in Jesus Camp).Mostly, Palindromes is a semi-realistic and touching art film about teen identity and sexuality, thankfully without the creepy quasi-pedo voyeurism of Larry Clark. There are plenty of moments where you'll find yourself shaking your head and saying "no" under your breath, but unless you live in the kind of permanent state of denial that would find you rooting for the likes of the Sunshine "family," it's an eminently watchable and moving film with an interesting and well-crafted linear narrative that comes together at just the right time.Palindromes deserves to be seen by more people, and I can see it being much more broad in its mainstream appeal than much of Solondz' earlier work. I really hope Solondz can find his way back to making films like this and Happiness in his future filmmaking.

CitizenCaine The latest film from oddball director Todd Solondz may battle his last film Storytelling for being the least accessible. Reportedly Solondz financed the film himself when he could not find studio backing. The film follows the exploits of young Aviva, the thirteen year old cousin of the Dawn Weiner character from Solondz' first film Welcome To The Dollhouse. Dawn commits suicide off screen and the young Aviva wonders if she is destined for the same fate. Her mother, played by the talented Ellen Barkin, assures her that she's loved and such a fate will not visit her. Aviva spends the rest of the film looking for love and/or trying to get pregnant in order to have a baby to love and return love.What follows is that Aviva is abused, exploited, and mistreated at every turn. She grows more disillusioned throughout the film, discovering the difficulty of her boundless optimism co-existing with the hypocrisy of human beings around her. Solondz attempts to underline the focus of the film fable by removing our identification with a main actress playing Aviva. Instead, several different characters of different ages, genders, races, and sizes play Aviva keeping our attention on the kind of interaction that unfolds throughout the film rather than how or if it affects Aviva. Mark Weiner becomes the spokesperson for Solondz at the end of the film, indicating that people do not really change much. We're raised a certain way, harbor a few desires and wants, and set out to satisfy them, regardless of the world and people around us. This train of thought is also what leads to some funny and ridiculous occurrences in the film. **1/2 of 4 stars.

Ami Kapilevich There are hints of classical allegory (see: Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain) to this intriguing, disturbing, difficult but ultimately triumphant film. I think that the use of several characters to play Aviva (meaning "Springtime" in Hebrew) implies that the young lady is mildly schizophrenic - something that was either triggered by exposure to sex at such a young age, or by the trauma of the aberrant abortion.The film jumps around a bit in time. Chronologically, it starts with the first sexual encounter when Aviva visits the younger Otto (palindrome), and ends with Bob (palindrome) getting shot by the police. The film itself splices a few scenes in between, beginning and ending with the young black girl 'character' who is perhaps the youngest and most innocent of the Aviva characters. I was blown away by the portrayal of the foster family. Had no idea where to place them. I think that ultimately Solondz is sympathetic to them, which gives the film an impressively mature and equivocal view of religious fundamentalists (but a deep, dark part of me had a good chuckle, too).More please, Mr Solondz!

tedg I admit, I liked the idea of this. The story is completely a waste for me, even though we all like to poke cheap fun at sanctimonious fundamentalists as the ironic representative of a flawed designer.What's at the core here is the device of portraying our 13 year old girl by a variety of beings. I liked it when I saw it elsewhere, especially the implicit merger of being in the work of Garcia. Is it worth it for this actorly circumlocution alone? Probably yes, because of the way it is handled. The character, like all real ones, is a blur, a manifold being. We never see people anyway, only our models of them. So to break the wall and see many models is a sort of intimacy. Its not a gimmick, but a device that works.And that's why we come. For something that goes deeper.I wish, though, that Solandz was a bit deeper as a person. Medem goes deeper on this ambiguous identity thing. Several Tilda Swinton projects like "Conceiving Ada" or "Female Perversions" go deeper into the knots of birth urge. Like so many other theatrical experiments, one wishes the technician would meet and marry the emotional explorer. Not work with, not have a relationship with, but marry and coabsorb. Embodiment of futures.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.