Few would question Alan Ball’s talent. He wrote the Oscar winning screenplay for American Beauty (2000), and created and produced the popular television series’ Six Feet Under and True Blood for HBO. Ball made his directorial debut with one of the more controversial films in recent memory, Towelhead. While Ball may have intended to make a serious film that addressed some legitimate political and moral issues, Towelhead comes across as an abhorrent and exploitative exercise.
Based on Alicia Erian’s novel, Towelhead opens on doe-eyed Jasira (Summer Bishil). She stands in a shower, wearing only her bathing suit as her mother’s boyfriend readies a razor to shave the girl’s pubic hair. When mother Gail (Maria Bello) discovers the quietly sexual encounter, she ships Jasira off to live with her stern and insensitive Lebanese-Christian father Rifat (Peter Macdissi), reminding her 13-year-old daughter just before she gets on the plane that “this is all your fault.”
Rifat lives in Houston, where he works for NASA. He is Lebanese and strict — not a Muslim, though. He has Old World ideas about parenting and chastity. When Jasira starts getting her period, he’ll only buy her pads, not tampons. Why? “Tampons are for married women.” Rifat is bubbling with rage–partly because his neighbors believe him to Arab, but he is a Lebanese Christian who hates Saddam even more than they do.
Jasira takes a job babysitting Zack Vuoso (Chase Ellison), the 10-year-old brat two doors down, who introduces her to his dad’s collection of porno magazines. Known only as Mr. Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart) the guy is a real slim bucket. He slowly entices the young Jasira into sex, (more precisely rape) which leaves her somewhat fascinated. That fact that Jasira encourages him is meaningless; she is young and impressionable. It’s Vuoso’s job as the adult to avoid the temptation.
Much of the plot here deals with Jasira’s menstrual cycle, specifically what should be used to deal with it. While this is indeed a pivotal issue in every young girl’s life, Ball handles the issue with little sensitivity; choosing instead to turn it into to one of the most unnecessary scenes of cinema in 2008: a shot of Rifat lifting a bloody tampon from his bathroom floor.
In the midst of all this, Jasira does her best to fit in at school, despite rampant racism. Fellow classmates call her “camel jockey” and “towelhead.” She has sex with an African-American fellow student (Eugene Jones), initially mocks her. Her dad forbids her to see him because he is black.
The only decent adult in this whole saga are a pair of concerned neighbors (Toni Collette and Matt Letscher), whom suspect what’s going on and try to help Jasira and offer her refuge from both her father and Mr. Vuoso. Trouble is Jasira thinks she doesn’t want to be rescued and has come to love sex.
Sexual abuse is a terrible crime. Many people need to be educated about its effects on victims. Unfortunately, Towelhead with Ball’s apparent need to shock viewers at every turn, is more hedonistic than educational.
The disc boasts a fine transfer, capably capturing the unique photography of admirably experimental cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel (Three Kings, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind). His 2.35:1 frame utilizes an unusual, slightly bleached, high-contrast look with no artifacts, dirt, or compression.
The 5.1 surround track isn’t terribly lively; the soundtrack is dialogue-heavy, with the only real action on the sides and back coming from Thomas Newman’s vibrant music. The dialogue is crisp and clean.
The only extra is the two-part featurette “Towelhead: A Community Discussion” (1:20:34), in which writer/director Ball engages in discussions of the film’s title and racial themes. The first discussion features Ball, Bashil, Macdissi, and Council on American-Islamic Relations Executive Director Hussam Ayloush; the second features Ball, Alicia Erian (author of the novel the film is based on), and Rajdeep Singh Jolly (Legal Director of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund).
