Towelhead

As stated in the picture "Towelhead" is from the writer of "American Beauty" and creator of "Six Feet Under." I love the writing in both and find it unique but the subject matter of this film made me too squeamish. I saw the trailer for this film a while back on Apples trailer website and thought it looked just okay. Once I researched it I found out it was a film based on a novel written by someone named Alicia Erian.

The premise follows thirteen year old Jashira who is half Lebanese living with her mother and her mothers boyfriend. The film opens to innocent Jashira wearing a two piece swimsuit in the bathroom and shaving cream on her upper thighs. Her mom's deadbeat boyfriend is holding a razor and says something about how she'll be so pretty now. This obviously set the tone of the film and made me wonder if I was in for a destructive film like one of my least favorites 1995's "Kids" by Larry Clark. Alas, it wasn't as brutal as that film but it was still incredibly uncomfortable.

Soon after Jashira's innocent encounter with mom's boyfriend she is shipped from New York to Houston, Texas to live with her Lebanese, strict, christian father. He lives in a court surrounded by the wonderfully open minded and pregnant Toni Collette and her husband. On the other side of them lives the all American Texas, army reserve and married Aaron Eckhart who ends up taking advantage of Jashira and finger bang/rapes her virginity away. From there it's a downward spiral as everyone beats up on shy and reserved Jashira because she has no one to talk too.

One of the worst things about the film is that the lead Jashira (played by new comer Summer Bishil) is constantly taken advantage of, physically and emotionally beaten while also experiencing womanhood with no one to talk too. One of the cringe worth scenes besides the finger bang/rape is when she gets her period and her father forbids her to wear tampons because they're for grown woman. So poor Jashira is faced with the cheapest pads her father will buy and they are exposed in school when everyone around her calls her racial slurs while emptying out her school bag. Poor Jashira's only pad is passed around in class and she is then forced to the bathroom without any support. There are many scenes like that in which it becomes incredibly uncomfortable to watch.

Playing devils advocate, I'll admit the best part of the film/novel adaptation was the reality of these situations. It was a balls out truthful story and made me forget that I was watching a movie sometimes. It felt like an incredibly private look inside this girls life and honestly portrayed the hardships of being a woman, half Lebanese and sexuality. Thank god, no one gets diseases and passes it around, otherwise it'd be too disturbing but it touches on raw emotion and honest encounters.

Verdict: Not really sure if I loved it. I found it to be incredibly interesting, that it took place in the early 90's during the Gulf war and let you into a characters life that we don't see too often. It was almost a "how to not be an asshole" guide for parents raising young daughters. I think if I had young children it would be a harder film to watch, but I applaud the boundaries that were crossed to depict an honest handful of characters. The only things that I didn't like was the lack of closure and abrupt ending where everything was left "just okay."