Towelhead (R)
Racism and abuse sabotage teen's sexual awakening.
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Seen the movie?
Movie details
- Studio: Warner Independent
- Directed By: Alan Ball
- Cast: Toni Collette, Aaron Eckhart, Peter Macdissi, Summer Bishil
- Running Time: 124 minutes
- Release Date: 09/10/2008
- Genre: Drama
- MPAA Rating: R
- MPAA Explanation: strong disturbing sexual content and abuse involving a young teen, and for language.
Parents need to know
Parents need to know that this disturbing movie is highly controversial by intent. The film's trailer sells it as a contemporary satire about an ethnically mixed culture, but the only humor comes from viewers' shock at seeing characters portrayed as ridiculously obtuse, cruel, and unaware. There are many scenes of intense psychological and sexual abuse. The victim is a 13-year-old girl who's dealing with her own budding sexual urges; throughout the film, she's at the mercy of predatory adults, dysfunctional parents, and race-baiting teens and kids. Scenes of masturbation, statutory rape, intercourse, and bare-breasted fantasies alternate with scenes of racial name-calling, dishonesty, jealousy, and heartlessness. In other words? Not for kids.
Families can talk about what the movie says about victims of racial prejudice taking out their frustration on other ethnic groups. What other messages does the movie send? Do you think a movie that's controversial for controversy's sake can be effective? Families can also discuss Jasira's journey as an example of survival under horrific circumstances. Do you think she'll ever be able to overcome the life she's been handed? What clues does the filmmaker give to help you find the answer to that question? How does the movie show that having one good person on your side can make a difference?
Families can talk about what the movie says about victims of racial prejudice taking out their frustration on other ethnic groups. What other messages does the movie send? Do you think a movie that's controversial for controversy's sake can be effective? Families can also discuss Jasira's journey as an example of survival under horrific circumstances. Do you think she'll ever be able to overcome the life she's been handed? What clues does the filmmaker give to help you find the answer to that question? How does the movie show that having one good person on your side can make a difference?
Message
Social Behavior:
Racism (both subtle and overt) is seen from a variety of angles: toward Middle-Eastern people, toward African Americans. People who are themselves victims of bigotry reveal themselves to be bigoted. A Lebanese girl is called "towelhead," "camel jockey," "sand n----r." She learns to fight back and not allow such behavior. Adults continually act in inappropriate ways, exhibiting ignorance, self-involvement, cruelty, inept parenting, dishonesty, and sexual perversion.
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Father gives taste of beer to young teen daughter; 13-year-old sneaks margarita and feels its effect; adult couple gets tipsy after wine with dinner.
Violence
A father loses his temper on two occasions -- he grabs, hits, spits, and uses his fists on a girl. A dead kitten on road, then seen in plastic bag and placed in freezer. Sexual assault against a teen girl.
Sex
Frequent sexual scenes that include bare-breasted women (in a magazine and in a sexual fantasy), a teen boy and girl having intercourse, sounds of an adult couple having sex, an adult male seducing and sexually assaulting 13-year-old, a teen boy and an adult male preparing to shave a young teen's pubic hair in two separate scenes, menstrual blood (including one scene of a bloody tampon), multiple scenes of teen masturbation (both off-camera and partially on-camera), and a teen girl being asked to strip for male pleasure on two occasions.
Language
Used liberally throughout: "f--k," "bulls--t," "ass," "piss." Racial slurs (including the term used as the movie's title) as well.
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Renee Schonfeld
When 13-year-old Lebanese-American Jasira (Summer Bishil) threatens her insecure mother's relationship with a live-in boyfriend, the young teen is sent to live with her father, Rifat (Peter Macdissi), in an arid, charmless community in Texas. The self-absorbed Rifat hasn't a clue about parenting and relates to his daughter only as a misguided, short-tempered authority figure. In her desperate need for a loving, nurturing relationship, Jasira falls prey to the seductive advances of Mr. Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart), a military man who lives a few houses away; to the hormone-driven magnetism of Thomas (Eugene Jones III), an African-American classmate; and to the anti-Arab sentiment everywhere around her. Only the arrival of Melina (Toni Collette) in the house next door offers Jasira a safe harbor and the hope of a better life.
Is it any good?
TOWELHEAD is very hard to watch. The fact that it's being touted as a "comedy" is misleading at the very least. The only laughs come when the audience reacts to the depths of cruelty, selfishness, and insensitivity on display. Even "black" comedy shouldn't be this bleak. When not laughing at the characters' witless behavior, viewers will gasp at their brutality, ugliness, and insensitivity. These are damaged people, stunted emotionally, blaming others, and wreaking havoc on the next generation.
If the intention of writer-director Alan Ball is to "shock" and "awe" audiences on his way to revealing that even the most vulnerable among us can survive nearly anything, he's partially successful. The performances are stellar, with all the actors making an effort to show the humanity beneath the horrific behavior. Unfortunately, the end product is just inescapably grim and relentless.
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