TowelheadMovie Reviews

Poster art "Towelhead."

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 57 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
17 not for kids
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 90
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    Alternately disturbing, laceratingly satirical and affectingly poignant, the film, which he adapted from the novel, Towelhead, by Alicia Erian, is very much a companion piece to the Ball-penned "American Beauty" in its unwavering examination of the dirty little secrets and raging hypocrisies lurking just beyond all those manicured suburban lawns. Read full review

  • 70
    Washington Post |

    It's clever and original with an excellent cast. Ball's script catches a lot of the novel's pop, often word for word. I laughed a lot. Read full review

  • 67
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    As it becomes clear that Ball, in essence, has just restaged American Beauty with a socially conscious paint job, the sensationalism of Towelhead looks more and more like a dramatic tic. Read full review

  • 63
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    The heart of the movie is really in Jasira's moments with her father, a mass of contradictions that Macdissi plays with comic ferocity and genuine feeling. Read full review

  • 60
    The New York Times | Stephen Holden

    A crude but scathing portrait of suburban life. Read full review

  • 50
    Los Angeles Times |

    On the upside, newcomer Summer Bishil turns in a gutsy, quietly riveting performance as Jasira. Read full review

  • 50
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    Towelhead is transgressive without being effectively subversive, gutsy to no particular end. It simply lacks style, which counts for so much in this sort of thing. Read full review

  • 50
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    The potency of the acting is also undercut by leaden pacing and a sense of claustrophobia. Read full review

  • 40
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    As a first-time feature director, though, he (Ball) seldom lets the material speak for itself. Every shot is a statement, every scene sells an attitude. Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Ruthe Stein

    So disturbing it makes you uncomfortable watching it. Read full review

View more reviews for Towelhead on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says not for kids Racism and abuse sabotage teen's sexual awakening.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this disturbing movie is highly controversial by intent. The film's trailer sells it as a contemporary satire about an ethnically mixed culture, but the only humor comes from viewers' shock at seeing characters portrayed as ridiculously obtuse, cruel, and unaware. There are many scenes of intense psychological and sexual abuse. The victim is a 13-year-old girl who's dealing with her own budding sexual urges; throughout the film, she's at the mercy of predatory adults, dysfunctional parents, and race-baiting teens and kids. Scenes of masturbation, statutory rape, intercourse, and bare-breasted fantasies alternate with scenes of racial name-calling, dishonesty, jealousy, and heartlessness. In other words? Not for kids.
  • Families can talk about what the movie says about victims of racial prejudice taking out their frustration on other ethnic groups. What other messages does the movie send? Do you think a movie that's controversial for controversy's sake can be effective? Families can also discuss Jasira's journey as an example of survival under horrific circumstances. Do you think she'll ever be able to overcome the life she's been handed? What clues does the filmmaker give to help you find the answer to that question? How does the movie show that having one good person on your side can make a difference?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Racism (both subtle and overt) is seen from a variety of angles: toward Middle-Eastern people, toward African Americans. People who are themselves victims of bigotry reveal themselves to be bigoted. A Lebanese girl is called "towelhead," "camel jockey," "sand n----r." She learns to fight back and not allow such behavior. Adults continually act in inappropriate ways, exhibiting ignorance, self-involvement, cruelty, inept parenting, dishonesty, and sexual perversion.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: A father loses his temper on two occasions -- he grabs, hits, spits, and uses his fists on a girl. A dead kitten on road, then seen in plastic bag and placed in freezer. Sexual assault against a teen girl.
  • sex false5 Sex: Frequent sexual scenes that include bare-breasted women (in a magazine and in a sexual fantasy), a teen boy and girl having intercourse, sounds of an adult couple having sex, an adult male seducing and sexually assaulting 13-year-old, a teen boy and an adult male preparing to shave a young teen's pubic hair in two separate scenes, menstrual blood (including one scene of a bloody tampon), multiple scenes of teen masturbation (both off-camera and partially on-camera), and a teen girl being asked to strip for male pleasure on two occasions.
  • language false4 Language: Used liberally throughout: "f--k," "bulls--t," "ass," "piss." Racial slurs (including the term used as the movie's title) as well.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Father gives taste of beer to young teen daughter; 13-year-old sneaks margarita and feels its effect; adult couple gets tipsy after wine with dinner.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

Towelhead Movie Ratings + Reviews

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So-so 692 fan reviews

Critics say

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