Palindromes - 2004 - 2½ Stars

Actors:  Ellen Barkin, Richard Masur
Director:  Todd Solondz

I mistrust Todd Solondz.  I feel there's a class of director that has no sympathy for the characters they put on screen - they're private jokes, or strawmen to be knocked over.  The director puts them through extremely unpleasant things and says to the audience 'This is what life is!'  Von Trier's Dogville and Godard's Week-End are examples of this sort of film - films seemingly made in a misanthropic rage, and with the sole aim of alternately shocking and annoying the audience.  Even directors that I like such as Werner Herzog, the Coen Brothers, and David Lynch are susceptible to making this kind of movie.

Palindromes is a confusing auteur mess - there's the elements for a good film here, but they simply didn't coalesce for me.  There were funny scenes in the movie but I didn't laugh once.  There's a point to all this, I think, but it's just grim and awkward and sad.  Sometimes it's good to spend time in that place with art in order to be challenged, but I find this film entirely unchallenging to precisely the audience that would seek it out.