TOWELHEAD  (MA)  Starring Summer Bishil, Toni Collette
Directed by Alan Ball

Alan Ball’s companion to his Oscar winning American Beauty turns over more suburban stones and what he shows wriggling beneath is astounding in its ugliness.

He’s not strayed far from what he knows best – exploring greater realities through the microcosm of idiosyncratic people going about their daily lives. As with Six Feet Under, pain, love and laughter share the same heartbeat. What sets this apart is the cultural ignorance that has saturated his post-9/11America.

Jasira is sent to live with her Lebanese-American father Rifat in a carbon-copy cul-de-sac. Her relationship with a black schoolmate throws her father into paroxysm of bilious confusion while the real threat – a predatory neighbour – goes unnoticed.

The provocative beauty of Ball’s writing is ever present. His characters defy expectation, twisting and turning as he alternates lacerating satire with gut-wrenching poignancy. Foremost, the story is a hugely satisfying dissection of adolescence replete with unbearable embarrassment, dark shock, black comedy and light relief.

Throw in hot button issues of underage sex, racism, paedophilia and patriotism and you’ve got all the parts of a modern classic. Towelhead is a stunner. Really.

It’s like having your head bashed about by the distressing reality of what’s probably happening right now, right next door.

- Colin Fraser