Isn’t the world horrible? Jesus what a way to start a new year! I see and usually rate the “look I’m provocative for the sake of provocation” school of films a banal average rating. (“Welcome to the Dollhouse”, “Happiness”, “Kids”, “Spanking the Monkey”, etc) They remind me of the ‘torture porn’ flicks that have to desperately go over the top in the name of attempted coolness. (Cough- Tarantino!) Excess only works in the context of an already strong film (“Thirteen”, ”Trainspotting”, “Eating Raoul”, “Boogie Nights”, “City of God” and in theaters “Slumdog Millionaire”).Since Alan Ball wrote the fun “American Beauty” (and “Six Feet Under”) and was making his directorial debut with “Towelhead”, I thought this would be decent. Somewhere between the low angle shot of menstruated panties and the -well: the dead pet in the freezer, the casual sex between young children, the pedophilia, bigotry, abuse and other such horrors presented in a matter of fact fashion, my mind just switched off. Our shell shocked teen (who in fact acts appropriately like a zombie compared to thirteen year olds I’ve met) moves from one abuse to another while some critics cheer. Set in Texas against the backdrop of the first Gulf War our broken Middle Eastern family comments on – blah- blah-blah…not one of these characters seemed real to me but were more like caricatures in a morality play. The DVD has extras that include discussions on prejudice in a desperate attempt to cast this film as non-exploitive. It is in the “Funny Games” camp of filmmaking to manipulate the audience to teach it about itself. I get enough condescension in real life guys, get into documentaries and stop exploiting the same wrongs that you preach to be against. It’s ‘Theaters’ not “The Haters" , so please stop hating the audience. Like your main charactor we are shell shocked and in need of love or at the very least meaningful entertainment that touches us without that sledgehammer.
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