Palindromes
Wellspring Media | Release Date: April 13, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
10
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Like all this adventurous filmmaker's work, it's truly one of a kind. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Most comedies start with a straight story and hang jokes on it; Solondz begins with a cosmic joke and takes his characters by the hand as they suffer through it. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Then there's Todd Solondz's Palindromes, which is that rare event: a memorable provocation. Read full review
88
New York PostKyle Smith
Solondz beats on abortion defenders, stomps on the pro-life crowd and finishes up by telling us there is no free will. If you want some easy laughs tonight you'd be better off curling up with some Kierkegaard. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
If the movie is a moral labyrinth, it is paradoxically straightforward and powerful in the moment; each individual story has an authenticity and impact of its own. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
Palindromes is a cracked American picaresque. Read full review
80
Film ThreatEric Campos
You love Solondz's films, you'll love Palindromes. That same twisted sense of humor is there and certain scenes go on for an uncomfortably long time, but you wind up savoring the discomfort. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
As depressing as it is hard to watch, Palindromes is also consistently, horrifyingly funny and sharp-witted, and the darker and more well-observed its humor, the more it belies the director's unsentimental, even grudging empathy for his fellow DNA monkeys. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
What could have been Solondz's most complex and challenging film winds up being a bit on the flat side. Still, the life-forms skittering over its surface are fascinating to behold. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Solondz likes to put the screws to moral hypocrisy. As always, he goes too far. As always, you don't want to look away. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
What makes Palindromes bearable is that Solondz has yet to come up with an answer. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Palindromes isn't a wise movie, or a particularly true movie, but it's an honest one and a singular experience. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Palindromes becomes a strangely compelling fractured fable, a grim cinematic fairy tale heightened by Nathan Larson's delicate, bittersweet score. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
With the possible exception of Neil LaBute, I can't think of a filmmaker who can divide an audience as efficiently as Solondz. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The experience isn't for everyone. But it amounts to intellectual penicillin for our sequel-driven, franchise-heavy entertainment culture. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Aviva emerges undamaged for all of her trauma. That may be the most compassionate, human act Solondz has offered in his career up to now. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
As bizarre, provocative and almost deliberately off-putting an indie picture as anything that's popped up in theaters recently. Read full review
60
VarietyDavid Rooney
Like the symmetrical word that supplies its title, the mordant comedy-drama recovers ground to become a boldly intriguing if not entirely satisfying subversion of American family values. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Solondz's determinedly removed eye for the graphic and shocking is by now practically a cliche. If Solondz really wants to outrage anyone, he'll have to make a sweet and heartfelt drama. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
The heroes are villains, the villains are heroes, and in between are the innocents who become casualties in their wars waged in the names of morality and righteousness. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Based on Palindromes, it's easy to see what Solondz is railing against but almost impossible to tell what he's railing for. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Solondz, for reasons best discussed with a therapist, can find no good in people -- or at least none that he expresses in his films. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
It's a highly stylized piece of work typical of director Todd Solondz, who renders wildly exaggerated sequences on a topic not generally thought of as a basis for comedy. He leaves it to the viewer to decide if it's insightful whimsy or meaningless drivel. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
If the point of "A Dirty Shame" was that nothing human is foreign to John Waters, Palindromes seems to suggest that, for Todd Solondz, everything human is. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Palindromes read the same way backward and forward, and Todd Solondz' sour tale ends where it begins. Read full review
40
EmpireAdam Smith
It’s occasionally sick-funny, but large swathes are unforgivably dull. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
You could call this film repugnant and abrasive, and Solondz would probably agree. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
A shallow, transparent satire/social commentary, Palindromes lives and dies on a gimmick. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
On the evidence of Palindromes, the most misanthropic, depressing, hopeless film in memory, I'd hazard that for Solondz, childhood is a problem without a solution. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Ken Tucker
Mostly stiff acting and intentionally flat, banal dialogue. Read full review
30
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The human landscape of Palindromes is a vista of grotesqueness, dishonesty and creepiness. These are qualities Mr. Solondz has explored before, but this time he fails to make them interesting, partly because he lets himself and the audience off the hook. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Palindromes finds him (Solondz) stuck with his single theme inside a sealed dollhouse of his own construction. He has gifts to give a larger audience, if ever he breaks out.
30
SlateDavid Edelstein
A thesis movie, almost a manifesto for despair, and certainly worthy of the aforementioned NR-DS rating. Except that its bad vibes don't linger. Have dinner and smart conversation with friends, hug a child, pick up a good book--and poof, life returns with a happy vengeance. Read full review
30
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
As a director, Solondz seems to have his own locked-in fate -- to favor caricature over compassion -- and his movies are the worse for it. Read full review
25
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
This is extremely dark and politically loaded material. Read full review
20
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
I've never seen anything crazier than Palindromes. You can read that as praise if you're that sort of person, but I don't mean it that way. Read full review
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