Anyone catch the image in which diesel fuel costs $123/gallon? Whoa.
Towelhead Trailer: Bad Title for Good Looking Film
Coming out of Sundance, I had no interest in seeing a movie titled Towelhead but the trailer has been making the rounds and I finally got around to seeing - though only after finding out that the film was the first feature from “Six Feet Under” creator Alan Ball and that it starred Toni Collette, Aaron Eckhart and Maria Bello.
Summer Bishil plays 13 year old Jasira, a tween of Lebanese descent who is passed along by her mother (Maria Bello) to her father. She ends up living in the Houston suburbs with her controlling father, being obsessed over by a creepy neighbour (Eckhart) while herself obsessing about her sexuality.
The film was originally titled Nothing is Private a title which shifted the emphasis of the story from a racial perspective to what Ball felt was a better representation of the story he wanted to tell which, according to an indieWire interview, is “a universal coming-of-age moment in a young person’s life.” I’m surprised at the title change back to Towelhead because it does immediately suggest a film about race relations rather than a Lolita-like sexual coming of age, complete with an ubber creepy Humbert-like character.
Towelhead is scheduled to open in limited release on August 8th. I hope the limited release manages to crawl into my neck of the woods. I have a strange curiosity about odd sexual attractions and what’s creepier than an old guy ‘falling’ for a tween? Necrophilia is only slightly higher on the list.
Trailer is tucked under the seat.
Oh how I loathed this film: http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/tiff-report-nothing-is-private-review/
Comment by Kurt Halfyard — April 29, 2008 @ 1:50 pm
WOWSERS. That does NOT sound good.
Comment by Marina Antunes — April 29, 2008 @ 2:09 pm
Ha. It looks pretty interesting to me. Not great, but definitely interesting.
I’m in.
Comment by Andrew James — April 29, 2008 @ 9:24 pm
I wonder if they changed the title after the plethora of bad reviews. I know during TIFF it was hands down the one film that no one seemed to have anything good to say about it.
That being said I saw the preview yesterday and was interested until they showed scenes with Aaron Eckhart and Summer Bishil, after which it looked too creepy.
Comment by Shannon the Movie Moxie — April 30, 2008 @ 7:47 am
It’s not the lolita aspect, it is everything else that is heavy handed, and not in a good over-the-top way. Although, being one of the few in the theatre that was consistently laughing (and getting dirty looks for doing so), I can attest that it plays well as unintentional black-comedy.
BTW, if you are looking for something positive to say about the film, 6 Feet Under’s Peter Macdissi character is a joy to watch. I’m hoping that as the film goes down in flames, he’ll get more acting gigs, the IMDb doesn’t list anything beyond Towelhead (aka Nothing is Private) and before 6 Feet Under he had only bit-parts, mainly in TV shows. I wish that the film would have matched his performance.
Comment by Kurt Halfyard — April 30, 2008 @ 8:10 am
“being one of the few in the theatre that was consistently laughing (and getting dirty looks for doing so)”
Oh, I’ve so been there!
Comment by Shannon the Movie Moxie — April 30, 2008 @ 8:54 am