58. PALINDROMES
 
United States
dir. Todd Solondz
world premiere 2004
U.S. release 2005
 

 
Because the movie has two ambitious, divisive, reciprocal subjects: the horrible things that can happen to American kids and the almost equally lurid way in which we fetishize children at an impossibly high standard of sentimental value. The bitterness of Solondz's critique is obvious, but I feel a real compassion and intelligence underneath it.