13-year-old Aviva is awkward and sensitive. And she wants a baby. She meets(and yes, has intercourse with) a couple of potential fathers, runs away from home and is at one point with a family of fanatical Christians where most of the members are children who were abandoned because of a disability they have... and this portion is the creepiest and most disturbing thing I've ever seen(and you feel trapped there). Solondz divides audiences yet again. This has been called provocative, smart, artsy, disgusting and honest, and I think it is all of the above. No, the man is not "well", mentally. The line between genius and madman is thin, if there is one. While this doesn't mean that we should accept everything that is offensive, I do think that this one offers enough insight and poses important questions. Sometimes you have to break the rules, go against taboo, to point something out. If there isn't a message, or it is a purely destructive one, we can discard the work as "wrong". This confronts abortion from several angles, with the usual black, frank approach and existentialism of the writer/director. The story's structure is a palindrome, and several of the names are... because we never really change. We are what we are, and the fundamentals of that remain the same. There are a handful of different people portraying our lead, including a boy(not unlike I'm Not There). This is to show her emotional state at the time, and all we ever see of others are projections, anyway, we never truly see the entire person. Every single role in this is perfectly cast, and the acting is utterly amazing by them all. This arguably makes the point that women want kids, and men want sex. Every character is well-developed, credible and a real human being. We may like them or hate them; we can't help but respond to them. This has few cuts and many long takes. The camera moves if it should, and otherwise not. This is funny at times. The theme song is haunting. There is a lot of pedophilia, a little strong language and brief, bloodless violence in this. The DVD comes with a trailer for this. I recommend this to anyone with a sufficiently open mind to appreciate this. Not for everyone, and not meant to be. 7/10

Having seen most of Solondz' films (including the tepid Storytelling and the frankly unfortunate Life During Wartime), I think Palindromes may be his second finest, after Happiness. It isn't as funny as Happiness, but it is also less judgmental of Western humanity than that film (a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective), and has plenty of other things going for it besides.Just about all I knew about Palindromes going in was that it was to some degree based on or inspired by Solondz' best-known film, Welcome to the Dollhouse. Unlike his more recent Life During Wartime, which fails because it tries (unconvincingly) to make too many various direct connections to its "prequel" Happiness, Palindromes is much less literal or obvious in those connections. Despite the occasional character reference to / recurrence from Dollhouse, it succeeds as an entirely separate and independent work, and one that I personally find much more sophisticated and interesting than the original that semi-inspired it.Unlike most of the IMDb reviewers here, I was also totally unaware of the "multiple Avivas" device going into the movie. Quite late in the film, once Solondz starts alternating his various Avivas within the same "chapter," I finally realized the multiple actresses playing Aviva were all intended to be representations of *the same character*. To that point, I'd viewed them as separate but effectively interchangeable characters simply sharing the same name, along with a handful of obvious motivations and personal connections (even the fact that they wore the same outfits didn't throw me a clue; I figured it was just an attempt at semi-opaque metaphor, or maybe just an interesting way of improving continuity).I felt pretty dumb about this when I got it all sorted, but perhaps I had been biased going in by the more disconnected vignettes that comprise Solondz' prior effort, the questionably uneven Storytelling. I ultimately think it was a good thing anyway, as it allowed me to experience additional layers of possible meaning that I know I would not have experienced had I known the full story throughout the film.Palindromes is much less about black humor than Solondz' '90s films, but it's not to say there aren't quite a few flinch-worthy funny moments. By far, the hardest stretch to sit through-- but also the most entertaining-- is the long chunk of Palindromes that takes place at the Sunshines' compound for disabled, brainwashed children. This interminable but wonderful chapter has some of the funniest / skin-crawlingest scenes involving kids that have ever been laid to non-documentary film (upping the ante, without the humor: the real kids interviewed in Jesus Camp).Mostly, Palindromes is a semi-realistic and touching art film about teen identity and sexuality, thankfully without the creepy quasi-pedo voyeurism of Larry Clark. There are plenty of moments where you'll find yourself shaking your head and saying "no" under your breath, but unless you live in the kind of permanent state of denial that would find you rooting for the likes of the Sunshine "family," it's an eminently watchable and moving film with an interesting and well-crafted linear narrative that comes together at just the right time.Palindromes deserves to be seen by more people, and I can see it being much more broad in its mainstream appeal than much of Solondz' earlier work. I really hope Solondz can find his way back to making films like this and Happiness in his future filmmaking.

Where to begin.... I feel as though my soul has evaporated from watching this movie. My friend and I were planning on watching a feel-good movie -- it was between step brothers, august rush, and this one. We thought, "any movie with cartoon back fat on the cover can't be that bad." Oh, how wrong we were. Now I am an empty shell and will not be able to sleep for a very long time. In fact, even our friendship is in question due to this movie, and we're not even sure why. There's just this air of...emptiness. I don't even know what to say. There's nothing left but silence. Thank you Todd Solondz for bringing meaning (or lackthereof) to my life. I can never look at a coathanger again. Amen.

I am beginning to wonder at this point if Todd Solondz is himself a pedophile. But don't get me wrong; if he is then he at least understands whats wrong with it and at the same time he understands people, both victims and perpetrators. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he is in fact not a pedophile and this is somewhat supported by the Mark Weiner character who for all intents and purposes may as well be Todd Solondz himself. Mark Weiner in a moment of what I believe to be total honesty declares to the Aviva character that he is in fact not a pedophile. It would have been safe enough for him to admit to her that he is a pedophile if he is. You'll have to watch the film to understand why. I was totally blown away by the film and actually watched it twice in a row because I needed to understand it more thoroughly. I highly recommend it for anyone who is a Todd Solondz fan and also for David Lynch fans as well. I'm not sure what to make of his portrayal of the Christian family, the Sunshines. I think it shows both the good and bad of the Christian right in America. I actually did spend sometime being good friends with a very similar family and eventually had to cut my ties with them after their illusion of Christian family bliss was shattered by the wife/mother's sexual advances toward me. An additional group of people I would recommend this film to is current or former right-wing Christians who are questioning their faith. This is where I come from and the movie definitely resonated with me because of that. I also appreciate Solondz' brave study of abortion. One could almost see it as a pro-life movie if it weren't for the fact that most pro-lifers would probably be horrified by it. I'm of the rare-breed that is a pro-lifer but not over-sensitive to controversial media. Still I would not say that this film proves Solondz' to be pro-life, rather it probably shows that to him the subject can never be completely black or white, which of course is a very wise and healthy viewpoint to have. Great job Todd Solondz!