'Towelhead's' Alan Ball makes 'em squirm -- and maybe learn
THE DIRECTOR'S CRAFT
The 'American Beauty' writer heads to the other side of the camera as he traipses once again into socially and sexually complex issues.
IT'S A big month for Alan Ball. The Oscar-winning writer of "American Beauty" and creator of "Six Feet Under" is enjoying the recent premiere of a new series, "True Blood," on HBO. And "Towelhead," his feature film directorial debut, hit theaters on Friday.
On the surface, the two projects couldn't be more different. Based on the 2005 novel by Alicia Erian, "Towelhead" is the story of an Arab American girl's sexual coming-of-age in the bland subdivisions of Houston. The film features a thoroughbred cast -- Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Toni Collette, Peter Macdissi, plus newcomer Summer Bishil, 20, as 13-year-old Jasira -- and is suffused with Ball's postmodern-gothic sensibility, alternately creepy and revelatory, with a frisky dose of politics thrown in (the film takes place during the first Gulf War).
"True Blood," by contrast, is about vampires in Louisiana and the mortals who are both repelled and fascinated by them, now that the princes and princesses of the night have come out of the coffin and walk among the living, thanks to the invention of a Japanese synthetic-blood beverage, sold in six-packs. As it turns out, there are good vampires and bad vampires. Actress Anna Paquin is stuck in the middle, as Sookie Stackhouse, a psychic heroine retained from Charlaine Harris' "Southern Vampire Mysteries" books, the source material for the show.
"Towelhead": An article in Sunday's Calendar section about Alan Ball's new film, "Towelhead," said the movie was originally titled "Nothing Is Hidden" at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival. The title was "Nothing Is Private."
"Towelhead": An article last Sunday about Alan Ball's new film, "Towelhead," said the movie was originally titled "Nothing Is Hidden" at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival. The title was "Nothing Is Private."
Earlier this summer, back when both projects were just beginning to register on the pop-culture radar, Ball, 51, was tipping back a cup of Starbucks in his office on the old Warner Hollywood lot in West Hollywood, looking trim and fit, discussing his unique sensibility and the career it has allowed him to shape.
A true veteran of épatering the staid American bourgeoisie, he said he wasn't surprised that "Towelhead" -- originally titled "Nothing Is Hidden" when it first screened at the Toronto Film Festival in 2007 -- has invited flustered criticism from the political right (and mixed reviews from critics). Fox News columnist Roger Friedman likened it to "kiddie porn" and called it the "worst and most offensive movie I've seen in a while."
