Towelhead Movie – One movie generating big buzz at Sundance is “Towelhead”, a perverse, sexually explicit coming of age story of a 13-year old girl’s sexual awakening, adapted from the novel “Towelhead” by Alicia Erian.
The Towelhead movie stars Summer Bishil as the naive teen and Maria Bello as her uncaring mother who sends her away to live with her strict Lebanese father in Texas because she doesn’t want to deal with her daughter’s puberty issues.
A few minutes into the movie, pubescent Jasira (Summer Bishil) has her pubic hair shaved by the uncouth boyfriend of her ill-tempered mother, Gail, because she didn’t want to be bothered helping her daughter avoid taunts of “Chewbacca” in gym class.
Arriving in Texas, her father greets her with a face slap because she’s wearing an outfit that’s to revealing. Young Jasira endures endless taunts of Towelhead from the locals and encounters a host of odd people in her journey toward sexual awakening.
Aaron Eckhart plays Mr. Vuoso, a 35-year old Army reservist neighbor, who befriends his young babysitter and soon brutally ravages the sexually naive and lonely 13-year old Jasira.
Not for the fainthearted is the closeup scene where he bloodies his fingers while violating the young girl, then cruelly exploits her sexual awakening.
The Towelhead movie is filled with sexual themes that are tough for most people to endure, such as child molestation and pre-teenage sex, but director Alan Ball (American Beauty) does so with a great amount of style, standing the sometimes disturbing subject matter on it’s head with lighthearted moments.
18-year old Summer Bishil carries Towelhead in convincing fashion, offering a worthy performance of a young girl who is so naive that she doesn’t even understand she’s being abused, at least until her gradual awakening to the gravity of her mistreatment by a kindly female neighbor who enlightens her.
Many are lauding Towelhead as even better than Ball’s Oscar winning American Beauty which dealt with somewhat similar themes, albeit with Mena Suvari playing a teen of legally acceptable age.
I don’t think mainstream audiences are ready to accept the endless depictions of precocious sexual activity and outright abuse of a 13-year old girl, even with the movie’s comic pitch and it’s backdrop of poisonous suburban family dynamics and anti-Arab racial tensions.
Everyone can’t stop talking about it at the Sundance Film Festival, so Towelhead is generating a huge buzz. That won’t translate to big numbers at the box office though because it’s bound to be rated NC-17 by the MPAA.
And that’s the review and pictures of the Towelhead movie.
Tags: towelhead, towelhead movie
February 28th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
The film was certainly astounding and while I’m sure it’s limited release in August won’t generate a significant cash flow, it will undoubtedly be critically acclaimed.
My company, Zoom In Online, did some coverage of Towelhead while we were out at Sundance this past January. Similar to many websites, we posted a review of the film, but unlike other sites, our reviews include Critical Clips – video audience reactions from everyday movie goers after the premier. We also have an interview with Alan Ball and stars Summer Bashil and Peter MacDissi talking about their experiences making such a controversial film. I encourage you to visit http://www.zoom-in.com/sundance and if interested, include our content in your related posts section.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:55 am
[...] movie previews don’t stick with me, but I cant get the preview for Towelhead out of my mind. The movie comes out in September 2008, and I’m not sure how to feel about it. [...]
September 10th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Towelhead director Alan Ball has come under fire for a controversial scene but he insists he was right to show it. Read more and view the trailer to Towelhead.
December 31st, 2008 at 8:04 pm
This is an amazing picture! Not for the straitlaced or prudish though. You will be moved, I guarantee it!
April 15th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Wow! Talk about pushing the morality envelope! I’m sure half the audience will be pedophiles…
October 18th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Im so mad that many people have not yet experinced this great movie I loved it from the begin to the end
June 8th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
u towelheads need to go back wher u came from.thanks