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Ben Mankiewicz, At the Movies: This movie will challenge you on a number of levels, including some beliefs you'd never thought you'd question. Read more
Tasha Robinson, Chicago Tribune: It's impossible to look away. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The film is superbly acted, but it's hard to know what to feel except, 'How can any girl navigate this oversexualized culture?' Read more
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: As a director [Ball] amplifies the flaws in his own writing; his supporting characters are too broadly pitched to take seriously, and he tends to smack you in the face with the point of every scene. Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: As a first-time feature director, [Ball] seldom lets the material speak for itself. Read more
John Hartl, Seattle Times: Towelhead needs more breathing room in order to allow the central relationships to grow, but it's a movie that sticks with you. Read more
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It's too much, too heavy-handed. Disturbing is one thing. Prurient is another. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: [Director] Ball's trying to be honest about adolescent coming of age, but since he's dishonest about everything else, the movie collapses in on itself, ending with a laughably pat resolution that renders Towelhead a Bizarro World After School Special. Read more
Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: Summer Bishil turns in a gutsy, quietly riveting performance as Jasira. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: Gripping, disturbing, powerful and likely outright offensive to many people, Towelhead is an often brutal study of clashing cultures, adolescent abandonment and sexual confusion. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: As it becomes clear that Ball, in essence, has just restaged American Beauty with a socially conscious paint job, the sensationalism of Towelhead looks more and more like a dramatic tic. Read more
Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: There is hardly a scene that does not produce exquisite discomfort and a strong desire to be somewhere else. Read more
Christy Lemire, Globe and Mail: The performances make the material more human and accessible, mainly from the film's brave young star, Summer Bishil. Read more
Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Towelhead spreads itself thin trying to tackle too many issues, but the nuanced characters, and an absolutely stellar cast, make this an uncommonly complex and compelling drama. Read more
Bob Mondello, NPR.org: Ball has found an insinuating, perversely smooth tone in his script, but his less-adept direction inadvertently adds dissonance. Read more
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Ball knows one trick, and it's sure over. Read more
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Towelhead is definitely not for all tastes, but it shows a bravery that's increasingly rare in American movies. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The most deeply disturbing, downright discomfiting movie about teen sexuality since Thirteen. Read more
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Not since Splendor in the Grass has there been such a candid and sympathetic account of the mixed messages, double-standards, giddy highs and hormonal free falls experienced by teenage girls. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The ending may be too pat, but the journey to get there -- bitter, spicy, and poignant -- more than compensates for any last-minute fumbles. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I understand what the film is trying to do, but not why it does it with such crude melodrama. Read more
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: This third-act redemption raises Towelhead several notches, but it still ends up feeling like a well-acted and well-intentioned after-school special, a long way from the vividness and texture of Ball's television work. Read more
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: It is so disturbing it makes you uncomfortable watching it. For the price of admission, you become an unwilling voyeur. Read more
Dana Stevens, Slate: A movie that, for all its good intentions, feels thoroughly phony and mildly embarrassing, like an extended PSA about inappropriate touching. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: It is certainly possible to make a transgressive movie about children in sexual jeopardy, and to do so in ways that realistically and intelligently depict the abuse while not revelling in it. Read more
Christopher Orr, The New Republic: For a film that presents itself as a broadside against prejudice, Towelhead spends an awful lot of time flattering the prejudices of its audience. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: Towelhead tries hard to be incendiary and gutsy, and it sometimes succeeds. But to what gain? Read more
Todd McCarthy, Variety: Nothing Is Private is transgressive without being effectively subversive, gutsy to no particular end. It simply lacks style, which counts for so much in this sort of thing. Read more
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: Ball, who can't conceive of human motives beyond the hypertrophic, smutty sexuality that's his stock in trade, primly divides his characters into avatars of Sick Repression or Healthy Liberation. Read more
Neely Tucker, Washington Post: It's clever and original with an excellent cast. Ball's script catches a lot of the novel's pop, often word for word. Read more