Review of Towelhead (2008) by Manny C — 12 Jan 2009

Here's a pull-quote for you: Alan Ball's Towelhead is what Crash would have looked like if it were directed by Todd Solondz.

Ball, the screenwriter of American Beauty and creator of the HBO series "Six Feet Under" and "True Blood", tells the story of thirteen-year old Jasira. Jasira's story is a typical American tale: after Jasira's mother (Maria Bello) catches her live-in boyfriend shaving her daughter's pubic hair, Jasira is shipped off to Texas to live with her father... an employee of NASA who is trying his darnedest to be as American as possible, while also being the stereotypical strict father who gets mad at his daughter for wanting to purchase tampons. But, you know, it's all about cultural differences!

Jasira is just reaching the age where she is discovering her sexuality, which she explores by looking at the "men's entertainment" magazines that her army reservist neighbor (Aaron Eckhart) keeps. Of course, Jasira's sexual awakening is all too obvious to the men in her life: it's not long before the neighbor notices Jasira's, ahem, nubile young body, and feels the temptation to try to seduce her. Furthermore, a black kid at school finds Jasira's submissiveness and willingness to experiment the perfect way to release his own pent-up sexual aggression. Curiously enough, he hurls a racial epithet at her moments before trying to win her hand (and various other body parts).

Alright, so that's the set-up: here we are contrastic the values of all of these characters with the way they act. There are numerous times when the camera is careful to show the American flags adorning the homes of both Jasira's father and her pedophile neighbor. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT AMERICA? Jasira's father lets her drink beer, but freaks out if she wears t-shirts. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT DIFFERENT CULTURES? These over-arching themes are so clunky and shallow that I spent a lot of time wondering whether we the audience were really supposed to take the film seriously, or look at it as a satire of movies like Crash. Unfortunately, given Ball's tendency toward easy-to-spot metaphors, it's quite unlikely that this was meant as anything other than a hard-hitting drama.

If it's hard-hitting, though, it isn't because of the powerful themes and symbols. No, it's because Ball doesn't shy away from showing thirteen-year old Jasira being placed in embarassing and shocking sexual situations, both alone and with the men that inhabit her life. A lot of reviews of the film label it "cringe-worthy", but I think that's probably their way of saying that it is erotic, and that makes them uncomfortable.

Would it be giving Ball too much credit to suppose that this was an intentional choice? Rather than handle these scenes from a distance, keeping the actions taking place on screen at arm's length, everything is in soft dark colors to enhance the sexiness.

So I think that a lot of critics are saying that the scenes are "cringe-worthy" because it's better than saying, "Man, that little girl is damn fine!" But even if it were Ball's intention to make his viewers squirm in their seat from their heretofore unknown pedophilia... what purpose does it serve besides that? How does that work with the rest of the film? Are we supposed to see Aaron Eckhart's character Travis Vuoso (this could be after Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver, could it?) as sympathetic somehow? Or are we just supposed to marvel at what some people are capable of? I don't know. The movie doesn't make it clear. So, like a Todd Solondz movie (Happiness), it seems that the film's main intent is just to freak you out with controversial images.

It's incredible, then: Ball doesn't seem able to commit to either his flimsy little morals OR his shocking peek into "real" life.

As an aside, the fact that Jasira's father (Peter Macdissi) spoke with a gay affectation made him entirely laughable and difficult to believe. Instead of a dominating father figure, it was easier to perceive him as a gay man with one foot still in the closet, trying to retain some machismo by being demanding with his daughter.