Towelhead

TOWELHEAD is so challenging, on so many levels, that it left me dazed and confused. A movie about a 13-year-old girl's emerging sexuality - and the men and boys who take advantage of it - ought not to be this funny. And a movie this creepy ought not to be this funny, either. What's going on? Is this a real breakthrough, or just an exercise in transgression for its own sake, as we've seen before in movies such as Thirteen and Larry Clark's Kids? Is it genuine or just exploitative, and how do you tell? Towelhead was renamed Nothing Is Private in the US after protests by Arab-Americans. Their sensitivities are understandable, but they miss the point. The movie mounts a solid attack on the attitudes behind such words, but context is nothing to those who feel outraged. Towelhead was the name of the source book, by Alicia Erian.... [read full story]