Mark Goes To The Movies

Palindromes (dir. Tod Solondz) I suppose if you're interested in this film, you know what you're getting into. Tod Solondz is as reliable an independent-film brand as Hal Hartley, Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson. All of whom are directors whose work I like, and I suspect I like it because I think they're all writers first and directors second. So though Solondz does have his own visual sense (the colors of suburban-mall America amped up just a little), what's most impressive about his movies is how the scripts set up one really uncomfortable joke after another and then detonate them. So if you find his bleakness blackly hilarious instead of skin-crawlingly nihilistic, this film will be right up your alley. Mark's review: ***½