Mike S. Ryan, Todd Solondz, Shayne Levine & Tyler Maynard (All images by Matthew Rettenmund)

I remember seeing the films Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness (especially) and then Storytelling by Todd Solondz and being wowed by the utter originality. It was one of those things where I marveled at his ability to get this delightfully weird shit made.

Then, along came Palindromes in 2004, and it made his other films feel like Titanic.

Palindromes follows a somnambulant young girl named Aviva who loses her virginity to a family friend, gets pregnant and is forced to have an abortion by her extra mom (Ellen Barkin), resulting in her inability to do the one thing she wants to in life — bear children.

She runs away, only to be molested and find herself taking refuge in a nutty Christian halfway house for kids with so-called defects — no limbs, chronic illnesses ... GASP! ... homosexuality — where she joins them in their bonkers religious version of the Backstreet Boys.

♫ “Am I sexual? Not until marriage, and only then for procreation.” ♫ (Image via Wellspring)

In all, it is a bizarre film already, but its calling card is that in various stages of Aviva's young life, she is played by totally dissimilar physical types, including a little Black girl (Emani Sledge), a middle-aged Black woman (Sharon Wilkins), a white boy (Will Denton), and others ... even Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Palindromes Playing at NYC's Metrograph April 13!

That a Jewish teen would be played by so many other types, one-upping color-blind casting, makes Palindromes an arresting meditation on identity itself.

Solondz said he remembered so little from the shoot, yet said the Christian singers were his version of the von Trapps.

Twenty years later, the film is even stranger and even stronger. It feels more cohesive than I remember, and definitely deserving of a fabulous 4K restoration. Made on half a shoestring, every frame looks like spare art, and the cast (including Debra Monk as Mama Sunshine, the lady corralling all those kids in a sea of sex offenders) is very fine.

Hannah Freiman, who played the pregnant Aviva, mentioned she is 8 months pregnant now and seeing the film in a new way.

I went to a Q&A after a Sunday screening at Metrograph, which featured Solondz, producer Mike S. Ryan (who also did Junebug), Shayne Levine (the Aviva during the film's crucial climax), Tyler Maynard (the gay kid in the halfway house) and costume designer Vicki Farrell.

Solondz was very receptive to his many fans. Not as weird (in a good way) as his films are (in a good way)!

What I found stood out to me was Ryan and Solondz confessing the nonunion, no-budget film was made so sketchily that it was actually dangerous, and they wouldn't do it again in spite of being proud of the results; everyone else associated agreeing with that but raving about the experience; Ryan's outrageously funny Barkin memories (she'd been scaring off interns by yelling so demanded Ryan present her with a list of who it was okay to yell at with his name on top of it); and the surprise appearance of Monk and other cast members (Avivas Denton and Hannah Freiman) afterward.

It took forever to upload, but you'll find more than 40 minutes of the 44-minute talk below, plus after-party pics:

Broadway star and NYPD Blue Emmy winner Debra Monk popped by.

Monk with her Sunshine babies — Will Denton & Shayne Levine

Monk with Tyler Maynard, who you may recall from Altar Boyz — isn't he cuter 20 years later?

This guy showed up dressed as Dawn Wiener from Welcome to the Dollhouse to have this poster signed.

Shayna with her director (sitting next to him, by the way, not on his lap)