Palindromes 2005

Critics score:
42 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: A squirmer of a movie. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: I still don't like it much, but I respect it --because it's the kind of film most American filmmakers won't make, bristling with the kind of issues and questions they hesitate to face. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's just shock for shock's sake. It doesn't linger in the imagination the way, say, David Lynch's shocking content often does; rather, you just want it to go away. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Palindromes" isn't a wise movie, or a particularly true movie, but it's an honest one and a singular experience. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: I'm still sorting it all out, but if a work of art has this much of a lasting impact, I want you to see it -- if only so we can compare notes. Thumbs up for this unique, creepy, confusing, disturbing film. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Unlike anything you've seen at the movies. Plus, the picture is often redeemed by the director's daunting intelligence and pitch-black humor. Read more

AV Club: Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: It's a more challenging trek, but well worth it for some. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: If you don't want your deepest convictions about adolescence, motherhood, and the abortion wars raked over the coals, you should probably stay home. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: As depressing as it is hard to watch, Palindromes is also consistently, horrifyingly funny and sharp-witted. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: No comic filmmaker in America today works so hard to stay on the knife's edge between humor and pathos or is so eager to challenge his viewers emotionally. Read more

Houston Chronicle: Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: An intellectually satisfying puzzle. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: That rare event: a memorable provocation. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Let the discomfort commence. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: [A] triumph of Solondz's bleak fatalism over his heroine's ingenuously American insistence on the possibility of happiness. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Not much more than trickery and artifice, and not worth the death of dear, departed Dawn. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: However brazenly it challenges audience expectations, Palindromes contributes little to such dialogue except more unfocused rancor. Read more

Ken Tucker, New York Magazine/Vulture: Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Solondz has said he wanted to play with conventions of audience identification and sympathy, but the whole gimmick is about as playful as a bucket of water poised over the theater door. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR.org: Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: There is simply no way to get or stay involved in a movie when the main character has more physical forms than Count Dracula, especially when most of the amateur actors assuming the role cannot act at all. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: The real problem, it seems to me, is not that Mr. Solondz goes too far, but that he seems to have no particular direction in mind, no artistic interest beyond the limitless ugliness of humanity. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: As amusing as lung cancer. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Subversive by reputation, Solondz is an acquired taste on his best day, and he's just all over the place with this one. Unpleasantly so. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: A shallow, transparent satire/social commentary, Palindromes lives and dies on a gimmick. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: You do not emerge untouched from a Solondz film. You may hate it, but you have seen it, and in a strange way it has seen you. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: I would like Palindromes a lot better if I thought Solondz were actually satirizing something. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: It should be said that Solondz is an equal-opportunity misanthrope, mocking the garishly insensitive rah-rah-abortion mom, the thoughtlessly fanatical opposition, and everyone in between. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Indie filmmaker Todd Solondz deserves credit for thinking outside the box and challenging his audience. But this time, he steps over the line that distinguishes challenging from confusing. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: In its own peculiar way, it is a more compassionate and useful religious document than Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: The movie's oppressive atmosphere of flatly rendered, all-consuming determinism leaves it sparkless, pointless and ultimately not very funny. Read more

Time Out: Read more

David Rooney, Variety: A boldly intriguing if not entirely satisfying subversion of American family values. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Is Solondz a moralist or a misanthrope, or both? Does he hold his characters or his audience in greater contempt? Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Solondz presents his characters as such exaggerated monsters that they don't resemble human beings as much as helplessly squirming specimens under his poison-tipped probe. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: For those willing to take it, Palindromes has its share of backhanded rewards. Read more