Palindromes
This movie is so quirky I feel like a lot of people might read the comments of someone like me and be like, “well, sure, you’ll like it, you like anything weird …” – well, that’s true, but I wanna start by saying how much I expected this one to be too far up its own butt even for me. Todd Solondz is probably the most difficult film maker working today (if he’s still working, that is?), like Vincent Gallo’s movies his often seem too much designed to inflame and infuriate above any other intent. But, y’know, any movie that contains the following exchange:
“I’m not a pedophile.”
“I know. Pedophiles love children.”
I mean, damn. It puts Little Children and others to shame in a matter of seconds.
The acting, by presiding standards, definitely leaves a lot to be desired in places, though I’m not entirely sure in some places this isn’t deliberate; and the story is pretty thin bar one heart-stopping moment towards the end. But the central gimmick – and yes, it’s a gimmick, I’m not gonna be so charitable as to call it anything else (the main character is played at different points in the movie by actors of different ages, races, even genders) – is impeccably executed, those performances all put together are the ones that work, and it works so well that anything else goes out of the window. I can’t wait to watch this one a second time because I think I’ll get a lot more out of it then, if that’s possible – even now I can’t give it less than 5 stars … and I’m dying to see Storytelling now, no matter what anyone says about it … this guy and Belle & Sebastian? I could almost review it already lol. The music here ain’t too shabby, either, incidentally: especially the main theme.