Not Every Mirror Shows the Same Reflection

Read Time:5 Minute, 42 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Palindromes [4K UHD/Blu-ray Limited Edition]
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Genre: Drama
Year Released: 2004, Radiance Films 4K 2025
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director(s): Todd Solondz
Writer(s): Todd Solondz
Cast: Ellen Barkin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alexander Brickel, Matthew Faber, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Angela Pietropinto, Bill Buell, Emani Sledge, Valerie Shusterov, Richard Masur, Sharon Wilkins, Debra Monk, and others
Where to Watch: available June 24, 2025, pre-order your copy here: www.radiancefilms.co.uk, www.mvdshop.com, or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: With PALINDROMES, Todd Solondz returns to the deeply uncomfortable territory he’s known for, offering a narrative as fragmented as it is fearless. This 2004 film, now restored in 4K and presented in a limited dual-format edition by Radiance Films, pushes boundaries in form and content. It follows a young girl named Aviva who is determined to become a mother, but the path she takes is anything but ordinary, and the lens through which we view her keeps shifting.

Solondz cast multiple actors of different ages, races, and body types to play Aviva. It’s disorienting at first, and intentionally so. This rotating cast forces viewers to confront the idea that identity isn’t fixed, especially in a society that projects expectations onto young girls before they can define themselves. It’s not a gimmick; it’s a reflection of how slippery, distorted, and conditional identity can be when the world refuses to let someone just be.

What unfolds is an odyssey tinged with surrealism, bitterness, and humor. Ellen Barkin plays Aviva’s well-meaning but emotionally reactive mother, Joyce. Richard Masur portrays a father clinging to some semblance of moral structure in a world that’s anything but structured. The performances are raw—sometimes jarring, sometimes heartbreaking, always honest. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Sharon Wilkins stand out, each embodying Aviva in radically different ways that nevertheless feel connected by an underlying ache for love, safety, and meaning.

PALINDROMES is not an easy watch, nor does it pretend to be. It confronts issues like teen pregnancy, parental control, body autonomy, and systemic hypocrisy with an unsettling bluntness. But even in its most provocative moments, there’s an undercurrent of empathy—a suggestion behind every silence and satirical jab is a deep concern for how we fail young people in pursuit of sanitized perfection. Solondz is known for his cinema of discomfort, but here, a strange kind of compassion is also embedded in the mess.

The 4K restoration approved by Solondz himself highlights the contrast between the film’s often mundane suburban visuals and the emotionally jagged content beneath them. The set includes a brand-new interview with the director, a conversation with actor Alexander Brickel, and a video essay by Lillian Crawford titled Todd Solondz and His Cinema of Cruelty. There’s also a booklet filled with archival material, writing, and press content that deepens the context of a film that’s sure to polarize.

What makes PALINDROMES particularly effective is its refusal to grant easy catharsis. Aviva’s journey is circular—mirroring the title—and each introduction offers a new set of contradictions, ideologies, and moral frameworks, all equally unstable. Whether she’s caught in a hyper-religious foster home or a roadside encounter, the world she travels through is less about learning and more about surviving a barrage of contradictory messages about what it means to be a girl, a daughter, a woman.

There are moments when the satire feels almost too sharp, threatening to tip into cruelty for its own sake. Some viewers may find the tonal shifts—from humor to harrowing realism—too much to juggle. But that friction is part of Solondz’s signature, and in this case, it reinforces the disjointed, surreal emotional state Aviva inhabits.

While not as narratively polished as HAPPINESS or as tightly constructed as WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE, this film still carves out a space for itself as one of Solondz’s more experimental and thought-provoking works. It’s not about arcs or resolutions—it’s about the repetition of mistakes, the recycling of trauma, and the human tendency to walk in circles, hoping the next time will be different.

PALINDROMES is daring in structure and theme, and while not every moment lands with equal intent, it challenges the viewer in ways that few coming-of-age stories attempt. The result is a film that lingers—not because it tells you how to feel, but because it forces you to question how you think, and why. It's uncomfortable, occasionally absurd, but undeniably human. Just don’t expect it to point you in a straight line.

Bonus Materials
4K UHD & BLU-RAY DUAL FORMAT LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES:
4K restoration from the original negative by the Museum of Modern Art, approved by writer-director Todd Solondz
4K UHD and Blu-ray presentation of the feature
Original 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
New interview with Todd Solondz by critic Hannah Strong (2025, 26 mins)
New interview with actor Alexander Brickel (2025, 14 mins)
Todd Solondz and His Cinema of Cruelty, a new video essay by critic Lillian Crawford (2025, 12 mins)
Trailer
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Bence Bardos, extracts from the original press book, plus archival interviews with Solondz and composer Nathan Larson
Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip, leaving the packaging free of certificates and markings

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[photo courtesy of RADIANCE FILMS, MVD ENTERTAINMENT]

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