Review: Towelhead

Alan Ball has an axe to grind, possibly several axes to grind. After many years toiling as a sitcom writer for shows like Cybil and Grace Under Fire, he won an Academy award for writing the suburban exegesis American Beauty, created the HBO series Six Feet Under, an at times cruelly bleak dramedy about a family-run funeral home, and has now developed True Blood, a Southern Gothic melodrama television series wherein vampires and humans reside in strained coexistence. So it makes a certain kind of sense that Towelhead, his feature film debut as a director, would contain elements of racism, child rape, pornography, interracial dating, teen sex and militarism -- all under the umbrella of comedy.

Read the full review at Greencine.