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Towelhead
EMAILPRINTWarner Independent Pictures
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Alicia Erian (novel)
Alan Ball
Directed by: Alan Ball
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 12, 2008
DVD: December 30, 2008
Running Time: 124 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong disturbing sexual content and abuse involving a young teen, and for language
Starring Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette, Maria Bello, Peter Macdissi, and Summer Bishil
When Jasira's mother sends her to Houston to live with her strict Lebanese father, she quickly learns that her new neighbors find her and her father a curiosity. Worse, her budding womanhood makes her traditional and hot-tempered father uncomfortable. Lonely in this new environment, Jasira seeks friendship and acceptance from her neighbors Mr. Vuoso, an Army reservist, and Melina, a meddling but caring expectant mother. (Warner Independent Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Film Threat Zack Haddad
Racism, teen sex, and war are all hot button issues. When you are a young person these things can seem new and confusing. In Alan Ball’s genius Towelhead, all of those above mentioned subjects go hand-in-hand in a truly wonderful cinematic experience.
Read Full Review >Premiere Priya Jain
To call Towelhead exploitative is to miss the point. What made Towelhead the novel so extraordinary was the honesty in Jasira's adolescent narrative voice, the genuine way she misguidedly, but honestly, conflates the sexual attention she receives with the parental affection she really needs. With the film, Ball, though he drops the book's first person narration, is faithful to that voice.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
Alternately disturbing, laceratingly satirical and affectingly poignant, the film, which he adapted from the novel, Towelhead, by Alicia Erian, is very much a companion piece to the Ball-penned "American Beauty" in its unwavering examination of the dirty little secrets and raging hypocrisies lurking just beyond all those manicured suburban lawns.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
The movie belongs to the fifth-billed Bishil, a truly gutsy young actress who captures the essence of young female desire in all its adolescent confusion.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
The result is a movie about the many forms of social and sexual abuse that does not make the abusee a victim but victor.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The movie puts Jasira -- and the audience -- through the wringer, but it also makes the ride worth it.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The story builds to a feverish pitch and then never reaches a satisfactory conclusion. But while it’s onscreen, the film moves, incites, and jabs, all while reminding us how difficult it is to grow up female and sane in this world.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Tasha Robinson
Everything about the film is aggressively provocative, in both senses of the word.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Ball may not have the answers but he eloquently and forcefully explores some of the potential ramifications. The ending may be too pat, but the journey to get there - bitter, spicy, and poignant - more than compensates for any last-minute fumbles.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Neely Tucker
It's clever and original with an excellent cast. Ball's script catches a lot of the novel's pop, often word for word. I laughed a lot.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Beautifully acted and accomplishes exactly what writer/director Alan Ball set out to accomplish.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
As it becomes clear that Ball, in essence, has just restaged American Beauty with a socially conscious paint job, the sensationalism of Towelhead looks more and more like a dramatic tic.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The heart of the movie is really in Jasira's moments with her father, a mass of contradictions that Macdissi plays with comic ferocity and genuine feeling.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
This third-act redemption raises Towelhead several notches, but it still ends up feeling like a well-acted and well-intentioned after-school special, a long way from the vividness and texture of Ball's television work.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
The film is superbly acted (especially by Macdissi, who makes the father a borderline hysteric), but it's hard to know what to feel except, "How can any girl navigate this oversexualized culture?"
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
A crude but scathing portrait of suburban life.
Read Full Review >NPR Bob Mondello
The performances are nicely calibrated, even when the director isn't meshing them into a persuasive whole. Summer Bishil makes Jasira an appealing naif -- smart, precocious and curious, if too easily led by hormones.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
From its title on down, Towelhead alarms and manipulates, and succeeds in goading the audience like a schoolyard bully, but apart from Bishil's harrowing attempts to find herself, the strings stay too visible.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Towelhead is transgressive without being effectively subversive, gutsy to no particular end. It simply lacks style, which counts for so much in this sort of thing.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
The potency of the acting is also undercut by leaden pacing and a sense of claustrophobia.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Gary Goldstein
On the upside, newcomer Summer Bishil turns in a gutsy, quietly riveting performance as Jasira.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
What he (Ball) intends as knife-edge realism instead comes across as another con job.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
The 19-year-old actress Summer Bishil captures the terrifying combination of lubricity and innocence that is being 13. Her performance is the truest thing in a movie that, for all its good intentions, feels thoroughly phony and mildly embarrassing.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Ball's snide humor and cynical arrogance undercut his message at every turn.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
As a director Ball amplifies the flaws in his own writing; his supporting characters are too broadly pitched to take seriously, and he tends to smack you in the face with the point of every scene.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
As a first-time feature director, though, he (Ball) seldom lets the material speak for itself. Every shot is a statement, every scene sells an attitude.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Ball's trying to be honest about adolescent coming of age, but since he's dishonest about everything else, the movie collapses in on itself.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
So disturbing it makes you uncomfortable watching it.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Nick Pinkerton
Ball, who can't conceive of human motives beyond the hypertrophic, smutty sexuality that's his stock in trade, primly divides his characters into avatars of Sick Repression or Healthy Liberation.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Branden R. gave it a2:
Why was this movie made? It had no redeeming qualities in it.
S M gave it a9:
Although a real drama, it is definitely worth watching.
Jan S. gave it a3:
I found this disturbing in a unsettling feeling of discust for the making of a sex abuse issue a pretty thing. I found it boring, way too long and should have not gotten the ratings it did.
Linda N gave it an8:
This is less of a comedy than you might think based on the previews, but a great story. Aaron Eckhart and the guy who plays the dad give fantastic performances. The girl's somewhat complex behavior rang true to me.
Sean F. gave it an8:
I would have given this a ten, but some of the content seems a little over the top. If you like movies like Happiness or American Beauty, this movie will not disappoint.
Jay H. gave it a7:
This movie tackles some pretty heavy subject matters, and pulls it off quite professionally. Very well acted by everyone in the cast. I never lost interest, fine direction. The score is a bit routine though.
Joan gave it a3:
I did sense the germ of an important story in this film; however, as a big fan of Alan Ball's 6 FEET UNDER, I was shocked at the poor writing in this film. Although the lines were spoken by a strong ensemble of actors, I felt as if I was watching a first-time student film...very disappointed.
