01
Happiness
Why this pick
Its meticulously awkward suburban tableaux, taboo-facing black humour, and emotionally bruised ensemble make it the closest match for Palindromes’ severe, absurdist moral atmosphere.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE2004 1h 40m USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
Palindromes
ComedyDrama
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Palindromes, try these.
01
02
Life During Wartime
Why this pick
Another acidic Solondz ensemble, pursuing damaged people through pastel suburban surfaces and painfully comic attempts at forgiveness; it retains the same detached, unsettling emotional register.
03
The Bothersome Man
Why this pick
This cool, surreal Scandinavian satire turns conformity and private despair into precisely framed deadpan unease, echoing Palindromes’ artificial surfaces and quietly devastating absurdity.
04
The Piano Teacher
Why this pick
Haneke’s clinical control and refusal to soften humiliation or desire create a similarly confrontational experience, though with far less comic relief than Palindromes.
05
Little Children
Why this pick
A polished suburban drama with an ironic, watchful distance from its characters’ rationalizations; its emotional discomfort and moral ambiguity suit Palindromes’ bleakly observant sensibility.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
The film opens with a funeral for a young woman; the deceased is Dawn Wiener (the protagonist from Solondz's ''Welcome to the Dollhouse''), who went to college, gained a lot of weight, and committed suicide at age 20 after she became pregnant. Her older brother Mark (Matthew Faber, reprising his role) reads the eulogy while Dawn's tearful parents (Angela Pietropinto and Bill Buell, also reprising their roles) sit in the audience. Dawn's younger sister, Missy, does not attend the funeral. One of the attendees is Aviva, Dawn's cousin.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Matthew Faber
Mark Wiener
Angela Pietropinto
Mrs. Wiener
Jennifer Jason Leigh
'Mark' Aviva
John Gemberling
Second Judah
Stephen Adly Guirgis
Joe/Earl/Bob
Bill Buell
Mr. Wiener
Ellen Barkin
Joyce Victor
Richard Masur
Steve Victor