Roger Ebert nailsthe problem with Alan Ball’s Towelhead

“Towelhead” presents material that cries out to be handled with quiet empathy and hammers us with it. I understand what the film is trying to do, but not why it does it with such crude melodrama. The tone is all wrong for a story of child sexuality and had me cringing in my seat. It either has to be a tragedy or some kind of dark comedy like Kubrick’s brilliant “Lolita,” but here it is simply awkward, embarrassing and painful.