| Towelhead | 
 enlarge | Director: Alan Ball
Actors: Toni Collette, Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Chase Ellison, Peter Macdissi
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $27.98
Buy New: $15.49
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 2535
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 116
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 1000045079
UPC: 883929047505
EAN: 0883929047505
ASIN: B001KQS3WU
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: December 30, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 12/30/2008 Run time: 117 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com
Haunting and moving, Alan Ball's directorial debut, Towelhead, settles around the viewer for hours, days, afterward, as its delicate layers unfold. Ball, the screenwriter of American Beauty and the creator of HBO's splendid Six Feet Under, revisits some familiar territory here, yet bestows grace upon even his most flawed characters. The film follows the life of 13-year-old Jasira (Summer Bishil), quiet and compliant, who's shuttled between an uncaring American-born mom and a strict, bigoted Lebanese-American dad (Peter Macdissi). When she goes to Houston to live with her father, Jasira starts babysitting for a bratty neighbor kid, whose dad (Aaron Eckhart) takes an unnatural interest in the girl. A new classmate, Tommy, also desires the eighth grader, and one begins to feel Jasira's whole world is a predatory nightmare. Yet the film, while uncomfortable at times to watch, manages to provoke without appalling. Young Jasira is exploring her own sexual awakening, secretly (with echoes of American Beauty), and so desires adult attention that she tiptoes into a flirtation with Eckhart's character, Mr. Vuoso--who is undeniably creepy, yet Eckhart's performance gives Vuoso a begrudging sympathy, no small feat. It's the film's achievement that characters the viewer should be repulsed by--the harsh, overbearing dad; the pervy Mr. Vuoso--have more than a shred of humanity. And luckily for young Jasira, another neighbor, played by Toni Collette, takes her under her wing--and there's almost a palpable sigh of relief when she does. And the script is shot through with humor, which doesn't exactly leaven the intense subject matter, but provides some lightness. When Jasira gets her first period, uptight dad takes her shopping for sanitary pads (no! tampons! ever!), and in the harsh light of the drugstore asks the mortified girl, "Would you describe your situation as Light, Medium, or Heavy?" Bishil is a lovely new discovery, like Thora Birch or Wes Bentley of Beauty, and stays true to herself while the adults around her--with the exception of Collette's Melina--let her down, or worse. The cinematography, draped in shadows, underscores Jasira's unstated plea: See me. Notice me. Care about me. --A.T. Hurley
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 one of 2008's best films January 8, 2009
****1/2
Even at the tender young age of 13, the strikingly beautiful Jasira seems destined to go through life igniting the passions of the men and boys around her. A product of a mixed marriage (her mother is white, her father Lebanese) and a broken home, she lives with her strict, traditionalist dad in a Texas suburb during the time of the first Gulf War. Though shy by nature, Jasira seems wise beyond her years when it comes to exploring her burgeoning sexuality. Like many girls her age, she dreams of one day becoming a famous model like the ones she sees in fashion magazines or on billboards around town. Yet, despite the sternness and rigidity of her father, Jasira winds up getting involved with both a black boy at school and the middle-aged family man who lives two doors down.
With "Towelhead," writer/director Alan Ball returns to the theme of simmering suburban eroticism that he explored so effectively in "American Beauty" and "Six Feet Under." Indeed, it`s safe to say that "Towelhead" is possibly the most perceptive, frank and intelligent exploration of teenage sexuality I've ever seen on film. Somehow Ball has managed to take a subject that could easily have become exploitative and sensationalistic and turned into a moving and compassionate tale of flawed individuals who, despite the fact that they may mean well, often act in ways that cause serious harm to others. As is true of every teen, Jasira is naturally curious about her body and intrigued by that secret, forbidden world of pleasure to which only grownups seem somehow privy. The trouble is that Jasira is surrounded by adults who provide her with either weak or contradictory guidance, or who can't control their own urges long enough to think about the harm they might be inflicting on others with their actions. On a broader scale, Ball questions how modern teens can be expected to make wise decisions about sex when they are routinely bombarded with mixed messages from a culture that is both highly sexualized and highly puritanical at one and the same time. Often times, we get the sense that Jasira is using her new found sexuality - without yet fully understanding the powerful effect it is having on the males around her - to fill an emotional void in her life, a void caused by a mother and a father who are so caught up in their own lives that they have little left over for their daughter. To a somewhat lesser extent, the movie also touches on the racism that exists in not only the white culture but the nonwhite culture as well. For while Jasira is being taunted by the kids at school for her dark skin (even though many assume she is Mexican), her own father is forbidding her to date a black boy who has taken a romantic interest in her.
Ball has populated his story (based on the novel by Alicia Erian) with a rich array of complex, multi-dimensional characters, each one a unique and closely observed individual. Beyond the intriguing Jasira, there is her hot-tempered father who, in his own, perhaps clumsy, way clearly loves his daughter but who is so bound in by the traditions of his culture that he can't even begin to understand what is going on in her heart. There is the kind, pragmatic next door neighbor who keeps her eye on the girl and extends the hand of friendship when it is needed most. And, finally, there is the older man caught between what he knows is right and his compelling need to seduce a child young enough to be his own daughter. Ball makes it clear that none of these characters is a hero or a villain, that life is simply too messy and complex a business for us to be assigning such roles to individuals. Yet, he clearly acknowledges that there is such a thing as going over the line, and that adults need to understand that their own desires should never be fulfilled at the expense of others more vulnerable than themselves.
Summer Bishil is heartbreaking and utterly believable as young Jashira, while Peter Macdissi infuses both a sense of menace and a strangely offbeat humor into the role of her hardnosed, dogmatic father. Toni Collete is her usual first rate self as the older woman who takes Jasira under her wing, offering her the kind of guidance her actual parents seem either unwilling or unable to provide for her. As the neighbor who seduces Jasira, Aaron Eckhart brings a great deal of courage, subtlety and restraint to one of the trickiest roles imaginable for an actor. Eckhart is obviously secure in the conviction that the audience will be mature enough to see the humanity in his character even while feeling disgust at his actions.
In fact, that's pretty much the way it is with the entire film. There are some who will be instantly turned off by the highly sensitive nature of the subject matter. But, true artist that he is, Ball has been able to transcend the sleaze to provide us with a heartbreaking human drama that, by touching on the universal, is able to strike a chord of familiarity in the audience.
Put simply, "Towelhead" is one of the very best films of 2008.
 What on Earth were they thinking? January 5, 2009
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I don't understand how movies like this get produced. We have the option to watch it or not watch it, but the fact that it exists is creepy to say the least. It has no real point besides there are some sick people out there and easy to get girls. But I watched it and fast forwarded many scenes to see what it was about.
If you don't already know, the girl in the movie is really 20 years old but looks like she could be 10. The fact that she is having sex at the age of 13 is not a problem because girls mature around 10 or 11 years old. The problem is that this girl is having orgasms in every other scene and is willing to let any man shave her private parts who asks nicely. This is unreal. I've heard of gullible girls, but I don't think this is possible and it is sick, even if this is a movie or a fantasy.
I laughed hysterically when the black boyfriend first asked if he could masturbate in front of the girl and was shocked when she said maybe. Then he asks her later in the movie, after he was upset that he was not allowed to see her anymore because he was black, that the only way he can impress her is by having sex with her. When she said ok, his head was in a downward position and as soon as those words got to his ears, his head shot up in disbelief. Every time he expected her to say no to his request, but he got his wishes.
The Father of the girl is also funny with his weird Arab pride style. I remember him as the gay guy in Six Feet Under and he is the same person except with a mustache and a girlfriend. The one scene that was good was when he sat down in the home of one of the neighbors and was upset that her daughter was dating a black guy. He admitted this and said he was "just trying to save his daughter from shame." I did not understand what kind of shame, but I have always been taught(as a Muslim) that you should not have sex until you are married, whether you are a boy or girl. Does anyone still believe in that?
I don't think anyone should watch this movie, but if you must, then be ready to forward about 30 minutes of the movie.
 This movie is SICK!!!!!! January 4, 2009
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
We had to turn this movie off after about 12 minutes. The writers of this movie are sick, child predators--don't rent/buy this movie!!!!!!
Tough Subject, Some Clumsy Handling, but Fine Acting January 4, 2009
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
TOWELHEAD may have been the successful title of the novel by Alicia Erian on which this daring movie was based, but it seems that the title could have been altered to focus on the real issues writer/director Alan Ball addresses. The audience for a film based on variations of child abuse and racism and prejudice and dismembered parenting and the physical coming of age of our youth may be small, but for those who had the courage to view TOWELHEAD either in the theater release or on DVD, the rewards are plentiful.
13-year-old Jasira (Summer Bashil in an impressive debut) lives with her mother Gail (Maria Bello) and the live-in boyfriend Barry (Chris Messina) until an inappropriate physical advance results in Gail's denial and Jasira is sent to Texas to live with her Lebanese American Christian father Rifat (Peter Macdissi) just as Bush's preemptive Iraq War is opening. Transported to a strange world Jasira suffers the prejudices of her holier-than-thou father and in addition to school is forced to get a job babysitting - with the next-door son Zack (Chase Ellison) whose parents are redneck bigots Evelyn (Carrie Preston) and Travis Vuoso. At the Vuoso's home Jasira discovers Travis' girlie magazines shared by Zack, and Jasira's burgeoning sexuality emerges. Both at Zack's house and at school Jasira is treated as an outsider (she is half Arab half American) and endures verbal abuse from everyone - the only exception is a young African American student Thomas (Eugene Jones) who pays attention to her as a beautiful, physically mature young woman. Jasira's need to be loved and to belong leads her into situations that cross borders of proper behavior - both with Thomas and with the predator Travis. Incidents occur as Jasira learns about physical relationships and the only caring deterrent adult is the very pregnant neighbor Melina (Toni Collette) who with her husband Gil (Matt Letscher) attempt to protect Jasira from abuse. How Jasira copes with her inept parents, the cloud of prejudice, and her approach/avoidance feelings about her sexuality forms the conclusion of the story.
Yes, the subject is tough, and yes, there are moments when better writing and better direction could have delineated character development and the presentation of the pertinent incidents could have made the movie more thoroughly acceptable, but given the concept of the film, the actors are each strong enough to make their characters credible. Bashil, Eckhart, Colette, Macdissi, Jones, and Bello are superb as is the supporting cast. This film may take a few years to cool off before it is more widely accepted. It deserves a wider audience who will be willing to face issues the film presents. Grady Harp, January 09
Squirm-inducing movie that deals with sensitive issues January 3, 2009
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
With a title like "Towelhead", I assumed that the movie would be dealing primarily with racism, but I was wrong. Though racism is explored in this movie, it only skims the surface. The story centers around 13-year-old Jasira [Summer Bishil] who lives with her mother [Maria Bello] and her mother's live-in boyfriend. When mom's BF gets overly intimate with Jasira, mom goes into panic mode and sends Jasira away to Houston to live with her Lebanese-American dad [who is Christian by the way] Rifat [Peter Macdissi]. This is a man who rails against Western permissiveness and slaps his daughter's face when he deems her attire too provocative, forbids her using tampons ["only married women use them"], and disapproves her dating an African American ["others will look down on you", he says].
Basically, Jasira is starved of real parental love and concern and gravitates to those who do show her affection, even if it's not always the proper sort -an over-sexed boyfriend, mom's horny BF, perverse next-door neighbor Mr Vuoso [Aaron Eckhart] who hires Jasira as a babysitter, but is soon soliciting 'services' of a different kind. The scenes between Jasira and Vuoso are the most difficult to watch [she is only 13 after all, and one particular molestation scene was too graphic for me]. It is obvious that the director is trying to push audience's buttons by taking the boundaries of this film to its extremes.
I felt the lead actress Summer Bishil was very credible in her role as the naive and troubled 13-year-old girl who craves love and affection but instead finds herself the object of predatory lust by the opportunistic men in her life. This is a girl who is forced to grow up way before her time because of uncaring, self-absorbed parents who hardly qualify as role models and the one person who does show genuine concern for her, next-door neighbor Melina [Toni Collette] is not really able to 'save' Jasira.
The other supporting actors are quite good too, especially Jasira's father Rifat [Peter Macdissi] who seems almost like a caricature [the lines he spews just seem incredibly fake]. Yet, even with stilted dialogue, Rifat's masochistic, holier-than-thou character retains credibility. Aaron Eckhart's role as the predator-pervert Vuoso is hard to watch [just too creepy] yet very credibly done. The director of this movie, Alan Ball was also behind American Beauty and one can see parallels between "Towelhead" and AB, though I felt this movie had much darker themes than AB.
Despite all the squirm-inducing scenes, I still found this movie an engaging viewing experience, and it definitely raises questions for discussion.
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