DeniDVD Vault: Welcome To The Dollhouse (1995)
May 26th 2010 10:40
Category: Comedy, What to Rent?
Junior high was the crossroads we all faced - the purgatory we all had to endure while our hormones raged and re-molded us for High School and beyond, it was our cocoon
Heather Matarazzo as Dawn Wiener
Welcome To The Dollhouse is the story of Dawn Weiner (Heather Matarazzo). She's a girl that stood in all the wrong queues - she dresses horribly, her glasses are grotesque, her hair style is something to be desired. She is awkward and geeky personified and to add insult to injury she's stuck with the surname "Wiener". Of course, all this makes her the most unpopular girl in high school, but that's not all. She has it rough on both ends because she's just as unpopular at home. She's the dreaded middle child - her eldest brother, Mark (Matthew Faber), is a nerd whose only ambition is to get into a good college and her younger sister Missy (Daria Kalinina), is the apple of their parents eye - she's beautiful, she's a ballerina and she gets all the attention, despite her mother claiming to love all her children - it's blatantly clear that poor Dawn is left hanging on the line, desperate from some sort of familial reassurance.
Matthew Faber and Heather Matarazzo
Dawn makes her life even more complicated when she
Now, this movie is not as depressing as I have described it.
I love the ending of this movie. When all is said and done, you just have to suck it all up and roll with the punches and get on with it because if you don't, life isn't going to get much better. Writer director Todd Solondz did a brilliant job capturing junior high and all its foibles. And Heather Matarazzo is dead on as Dawn. I don't know of anyone who could top such an enigmatic performance and capture every conflicting emotion of a girl whose world is crashing all around her.
I almost felt a distant chill as some of the things in this movie were kinda too familiar.I had no problems in Junior High or High School but still, some things are better left a distant memory and Junior High is definitely one of those things whether or not your memories are good or bad.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
It still retains a freshness all these years later with an edge many have tried to channel but few have succeeded.
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
I'm actually not a solondz fan at all - I hated Happiness and I thought story telling was so so.
I have heard good things about this one though and your review has brought me closer now to wanting to actually check it out - I'll get back to you after I have.
Comment by Deni
Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald
I hope you like it. When I write about movies I try not to go too far in my reviews. I hate when movies are over-hyped because I walk away feeling cheated based on someone else's enthusiasm.
But I do recommend this one, please let me know what you think!
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by Deni
Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald
I don't know - maybe JD remember back in high school when it was absolutely taboo to take a dump in the toilette at school?
Don't know what it was like in Australia or other countries but when I saw that scene in the movie where poor Dawn was confronted in the bathroom, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!