X
  • 2008
  • R
  • Warner Independent Pictures (WIP)
  • 2 h 4 m
  • 2008
  • R
  • Warner Independent Pictures (WIP)
  • 2 h 4 m

Summary 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 neighbo...

Directed By: Alan Ball

Written By: Alicia Erian, Alan Ball

  • 2008
  • R
  • Warner Independent Pictures (WIP)
  • 2 h 4 m
  • 2008
  • R
  • Warner Independent Pictures (WIP)
  • 2 h 4 m

Towelhead

Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 32 Critic Reviews
57
User Score Generally Favorable Based on 9 User Ratings
6.8
My Score
Hover and click to give a rating Saved

Where to Watch

Summary 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 neighbo...

Directed By: Alan Ball

Written By: Alicia Erian, Alan Ball

Where to Watch

Top Cast

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View All Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 32 Critic Reviews
57
44% Positive
14 Reviews
44% Mixed
14 Reviews
13% Negative
4 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 32 Critic Reviews
57
44% Positive
14 Reviews
44% Mixed
14 Reviews
13% Negative
4 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
100
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.
FULL REVIEW
88
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.
By Ken Fox FULL REVIEW
70
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.
FULL REVIEW
60
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?"
By David Edelstein FULL REVIEW
50
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.
By Dana Stevens FULL REVIEW
50
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.
By Todd McCarthy FULL REVIEW
20
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.
By Nick Pinkerton FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

 View All
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 9 User Ratings
6.8
56% Positive
5 Ratings
44% Mixed
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings

User Reviews

 View All
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 9 User Ratings
6.8
56% Positive
5 Ratings
44% Mixed
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings

There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.

Details

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Production Company Indian Paintbrush, Scott Rudin Productions, This Is That Productions, Your Face Goes Here Entertainment
Release Date Sep 12, 2008
Duration 2 h 4 m
Rating R
Genres
Tagline How Can You Find Yourself if No One Can See You?
Website https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/towelhead/
View All Details

Awards

Women Film Critics Circle Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Film Independent Spirit Awards
• 1 Nomination
Deauville Film Festival
• 1 Nomination

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