Welcome to the Dollhouse

Starring:Heather Matarazzo, Victoria Davis, Christina Brucato, Christina Vidal, Siri Howard, Brendan Sexton III, Telly Pontidis, Herbie Duarte, Scott Coogan, Daria Kalinina, Matthew Faber, Josiah Trager, Ken Leung, Dimitri DeFresco, Rica Martens, Angela Pietropinto, Bill Buell, Eric Mabius, Stacey Moseley, Will Lyman
Director: Todd Solondz
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

What is junior high school but a strange, disorienting pastiche of black comedy, tragedy, soap opera, and (most of all) horror movie? Well, that pretty much describes Todd Solondz's astonishingly honest and clear-sighted film, Welcome to the Dollhouse. Like Solondz's even more controversial follow-up--the acclaimed and despised Happiness (1998)--Dollhouse unflinchingly looks deep into its characters' souls (and their embarrassing desires, and their floundering sexuality) in ways that can be simultaneously disturbing and liberating, appalling and hilarious. Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo) is a hapless seventh-grade geek whose cruel and contemptuous schoolmates have nicknamed her (what else?) "Wiener Dog." Everything about Dawn is so awkward--the way she looks, talks, moves--that it's no wonder other kids dump on her. They're most likely so insecure about themselves that they're terrified of the Wiener Dog they know lurks somewhere down inside themselves, too. So, the best social and psychological survival tactic is to distance themselves from Dawn by relentlessly reminding her of her "place" at the bottom of the junior-high pecking order. Solondz's vision is hardly sentimental, and you wouldn't even call it "compassionate," but it is a moral vision: authentic, undiluted, and, in the end, understanding. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews:

Hysterical...Helped Me Through Junior High.......2007-05-08

I was an outsider in grade school and jr. high for no good reason, as is the case for most kids on the "outside". It was really hard for me to deal with things, and I was unsure if things would ever get better.

My mom took me to see "Welcome to The Dollhouse" at the independent movie theatre when it came out. I could uncannily relate to what Dawn was going through, although I'm an only child (which is also difficult, no matter WHAT they say!) My mom and I talked about the movie, and it really put things into perspective Things eventually got better for me, and I figured the same happened to Dawn as well (if she really existed), I felt such a personal connection to Dawn.

It's still a fave of mine because it reminds me how far I have come, and we all have come, from the horrors of junior high.

Watch and enjoy this gem of a movie. It might change your life! :)

The Curse of a Middle Child or Welcome to Hell!.......2007-03-02

Just imagine for one second that you are an 11 years old girl with ugly glasses. You are a middle child (the film also known as "Faggots and Retards" or "Middle Child") whose parents divide their love between your older brother who is a computer wiz and a little sister, a pretty ballerina. They have neither time nor interest for you. Your name is Dawn Wiener, and almost every student in your middle school hates you, tells you in your face that you are ugly, and nobody remembers your name, you are called Dog Face or Wiener Dog, and one of your classmates greets you every morning with the words, "I'll rape you today at 3 pm" . The film should be called "Welcome to Hell", and Todd Solondz is our Virgil in this Inferno.

Heather Matarazzo is absolutely terrific. She was able to play both, an archetype of an insecure, unloved, misunderstood, and lost in this cruel world child as well as one very real suffering young girl from New Jersey. I could not forget her Dawn, I wanted to talk her, to tell her that yes, the world is cruel, and she was dealt the mixed cards from the beginning but she could play them, there is always hope, there are books, music, and art. Hang on; I would tell her, you are not going to be an "ugly duckling" forever. You'll take off your stupid glasses, you will grow up, you'll be just fine and you will find friends - just wait. But how can one wait at 11? The time drags so slowly in childhood, and every day is descending to Hell...

One of the best films about the "happy" school years I've ever seen.

Welcome to the origins of the awkward - 4.5 stars.......2007-02-10

Welcome to the Dollhouse

I watched this film with some discomfort. A flood of memories rushed forth: A bigger kid straining his neck to lock eyes with me just to say, "You're ugly"; random hands pushing me or knocking heavy books from my weak grasp; and high school kids on mopeds pursuing me as I pedaled my bike as fast as I could. They would later pretend to drown me in the public swimming pool the following summer.

I also recall my poignant retaliation: "Hi, f&%ckers!" I once yelled to the moped kids. Playing dodge ball in P.E. class, I pegged a huge football player right in the face, and the sound echoed loudly throughout the gym. A much larger kid who wanted to fight me backed down. From then on, no one ever picked on me again. It was like other boys and eventually other men could smell it on me: Don't mess with this guy.

Welcome to the Dollhouse is like a therapy session for experiences you thought you had long forgotten. As I've become an adult, something has ruined my view of pre-teens and teenagers. I can't always individualize them. Sometimes, I tend to lump them together into self-centered, easily manipulated materialist automatons. After viewing this film, my empathy for them has returned.

When discussing this film, there's a danger in making it sound like a horrible experience: Who wants to relive junior high? It was terrible the first time around, and this couldn't be better captured than with the painful image (and sound) of utter isolation at the end of the film. But I would not be doing justice to the film if I left it described as an accurate depiction of teenage cruelty. Like Todd Solondz's other films, Welcome to the Dollhouse is funny and entertaining as well as dark.

Heather Matarazzo's performance as Dawn Weiner perfectly captures everything that is geeky and awkward about being twelve years old. Very likely, she will remind you of yourself at that age, or, if not, at least someone you knew back then. There must be a Dawn Weiner in every sixth grade classroom in the world.

Some scenes in the movie are filmed beautifully, as when Dawn plays the piano for an older high school boy with whom she is infatuated. Other scenes are blown over the top, mostly for comedy relief. The overuse of one of the music pieces (you'll know when you hear it for the fifth time) grated on my nerves a bit, but the music overall is carefully selected to keep the balance of humor and darkness genuine and consistent.

Unlike most other movies about pre-teens and teenagers, Welcome to the Dollhouse reflects how kids actually talk to one another. They experiment with different ways of cursing and ridiculing each other and threaten bodily harm and sexual assault...but I swear the movie is funny. I found the humor in Welcome to the Dollhouse more attached to reality than the humor in Napoleon Dynamite. Napoleon Dynamite celebrates the geek and the nerd, but Welcome to the Dollhouse knows that such fantasies are ultimately untrue.

I have no idea why this movie is rated R. Clearly, it's meant for the PG-13 crowd, yet for some reason their experiences, rarified in a cinematic narrative, are too much for them to handle.

I've described the darkness, but I'm not able to explain how darkness is funny. One can't explain to anyone a sense of humor they don't already share on some level. You might be shocked, uncomfortable (as I was initially), disgusted, but you'll know that the film is real, and like all good dark comedies, Welcome to the Dollhouse asks the viewer to make a decision about the awkward turns in life: Is this painful experience a tragedy? Is it a comedy? How will it affect me? How shall I proceed?

Get ready, at 3 o'clock today, I'm gonna rape you.......2007-01-29

This movie is filled with fun stuff to look forward to. No, there's no rape scenes, just a school bully talking trash. He torments Dawn Wiener, an 11-year-old girl who always catches grief from a myriad of classmates, siblings, and/or parents. Her troubles are so comical and deplorable, you can't help but empathize with the poor girl.
Welcome to the Dollhouse really captures that early segue from childhood to adolescence--so many questions, insecurities, pitfalls. It's such a funny and poignant look at growing up. Get ready for a trip down memory lane...

Amazing, just a beginning........2007-01-20

palindromes, storytelling, happiness, this is just what pre-empted the emptiness felt at the end of each movie. AMAZING.

Charlie Rose with Carl Sagan; Todd Solondz; Gerald Uelmen (May 27, 1996)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Carl Sagan; Todd Solondz; Gerald Uelmen (May 27, 1996)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Description

First, Carl Sagan, one of the pre-eminent astronomers of our time, talks about his latest work, The Demon Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark, which explores the country's growing fascination with pseudo-sciences. Then, filmmaker Todd Solondz talks about his new film, Welcome to the Dollhouse. Finally, one of the lawyers who defended O. J. Simpson, Gerald Uelmen, talks about his new book, Lessons from the Trial, which deals with what he learned during the Simpson trial.

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