Welcome to the Dollhouse
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Movie Reviews of Welcome to the Dollhouse
Movie Review: A painfully honest film you will never forget
Summary: 5 Stars
Bold, unabashedly honest, psychologically riveting, and painfully mesmerizing are just a few of the words and expressions that come to mind when I think about this uniquely extraordinary film. First shown at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, Welcome to the Dollhouse walked away with the grand jury prize, and it is easy to see why. Writer/director/producer Todd Solondz brought a unique vision of the sharpest kind to this film, cutting right through the fluff of the typical "geek makes good" nonsense and forcing his artistic scalpel forcefully down into the nethermost regions of the adolescent heart. The story is so unsettling and painfully uncomfortable that some parents hesitated or refused to let their children participate in the filming. It's just an amazing, unforgettable movie. Eleven-year-old Heather Matarrazzo gives one of the most remarkable performances I've ever seen from an actress of such tender age. Her eyes and bodily expressions encapsulate and transmit the hurt and misery writhing inside her every moment, leaving the viewer helpless to do anything but watch with increasingly unrestrained unease. Born with the unfortunate name of Dawn Weiner, the poor girl is ridiculed, ignored, teased, insulted, and basically mentally terrorized every day at school. Chants of "Weiner Dog" follow her throughout the hallways, her locker is marked with awful graffiti, and even her teachers and administrators are less than kind to her. Then, after school, she has to come home to parents who dote on her smart older brother and "little miss perfect" younger sister. Dawn has only one friend, a younger neighbor boy who seems to be following in her ignominiously alienated footsteps. Dawn does not escape all of this mentally unscathed, taking her own anger out on her sister in particular and doing several things that good girls should not do. In the most surreal of story elements, Dawn longs to be rescued from her situation by a boy, but hers is not a Cinderella type of fantasy. Her infatuation with a rebellious high school boy is somewhat understandable, but her relationship with a certain school bully is nothing short of surreal. I only wish I could discuss the psychology of this aspect of the movie in this context.
The one thing that really struck me about this movie is the fact that we never see Dawn cry; she internalizes all of her torments, and this does not have a pretty effect on her. I may be inventing a phrase here, but the director's vision seems to me to have been one of unsympathetic compassion. Far from holding Dawn up as the paragon of innocent, unrecognized virtue whose Prince Charming will come some day, he gives us a girl who becomes cruel in her own right to those few people around her, turning her hatred of others into a deep hatred of herself, several times teetering on the peak of mental unbalance. Solondz does not stray anywhere near the realm of fairy tale, as this ugly duckling does have an ugly side to her. The brutal honesty and lack of a visibly sympathetic portrayal of the character makes her worst moments even more unbearable to the viewer, and this is where the compassion kicks in. Solondz seemingly makes no effort to redeem this character in our eyes, yet the fact that he shows us, in such a harsh and brutal way, the miseries of this poor child's life makes her a character you desperately want to see find a degree of happiness.
The only thing I don't really understand about Welcome to the Dollhouse is the dark comedy label it seems to have acquired. I found nothing funny whatsoever about anything I saw here. Maybe that's the sensitivity of the former nerd in me, but honestly this movie is just utterly dark and depressing. Those looking for laughs will probably not embrace Welcome to the Dollhouse, but those who want to see the harsh light of truth shone into the bottom of an individual's soul and learn something from the painful experience will walk away from this film a different person than they were an hour and a half earlier. This movie has the power to touch you in ways you may never have imagined.
Movie Review: One of the most honest and true-to-real life films about an unpopular kid
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is about a girl in junior high who is as unpopular as can be. But dont expect an ugly-duckling-to-beautiful-swan type of story - it is much more realistic than that.
If at the age of 12/13 you werent part of the popular in-crowd filled with perfect little miss sunshines, then you will appreciate what Dawn is going through. No one likes her; in fact, everyone hates her. When she asks one of her tormentors why she hates her so much, she responds "because you are ugly". That pretty much sums it all up, as all the people in Dawn's life are mean to her and flat out a_*oles for no apparent reason. Her mother, her father, her brother, her teachers, her peers, - even her little sister whom I hated so much that in fact when she was kidnapped in the end I was actually hoping they had hurt her. Seeing a mere 7 year old be so mean already doesnt leave much hope for the rest of us. Everyone, without exception, is mean and cruel to Dawn, which is pretty sad.
I would not call this movie a comedy or particularly funny. It is actually filled with social commentary, is sad and while humorous at times, it is depressing to watch Dawn be surrounded by so much hatred and dislike and lack of love in her life. No wonder she is mean to those weaker than her, the girl doesnt know anything else. She cant give what she never received. There is one scene, after her sister has been kidnapped, where she tells her brother that their mom doesnt want her to go to school today because she is afraid she might be kidnapped too, and her brother responds deridingly "yeah right"; exemplifying how worthless Dawn is made feel as her own brother doesnt think she is worth kidnapping.
Welcome to the Dollhouse is brutally honest and it will not sugercoat junior high and the being an unpopular and emotionally-abused 12 year-old experience for you. The sad thing about it is, of course, that people really are like that in life. I could identify with Dawn in so many ways. When I was 12, I was wearing huge glasses and dorky clothes and didnt fit in and just wasnt popular at all and people in my school did treat me like crap. I remember that one time when i was wearing a jacket with a big hood and this kid behind me in line slowly dumped his yogurt, spoon by spoon, into my hood. I guess director/writer Todd Solondaz must have gone through similar humiliating experiences, which is why he was able to retell Dawn's plight in such painful accuracy.
The ending is also pretty strong because it is not a sappy, stupidm Hollywood ending, but a real-life one. The character, unlike the characters of many of the high school classics of the 80s that unduly idolize the school years - such as Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club and Can't Buy Me Love etc. - doesnt come out of age, or grows as a person, is now popular or suddenly finds the love of her life. Nothing really is resolved. Her parents still treat her like dirt and she still doesnt have any friends or gained popularity of any kind. A lot of people complain about the ending, stating that it has no resolution or that Dawn doesnt learn anything or that her circumstances dont change, BUT THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT. As Thoreau once said "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation". They go unnoticed, suffer and then die. Most people who are treated like Dawn dont become either a) happy, pretty, successful, fit, loved, tanned people or b) turn to a life of crime becoming the Columbine shooters or something. On the contrary, they just fade away, suffer through it, cant change anything; like Dawn at the end of the movie. That is because in real life, there isnt a happy ending at the end of the 90 minutes and sometimes people just arent able to rise above or evolve out of their assigned rung on the social ladder. I guess that is why so many people find this movie difficult to watch or dismiss it altogether.
Movie Review: Advice from Someone Who's Insane
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not entirely sure why I'm reviewing this film (besides being completely and ridiculously obsessed with it) seeing as there are already 142 reviews, most of substantial length. I'm not going to provide some prolific summary; that's obviously been done in one of the previous 100 summaries. However, what I'm going to tell you is that, really, and I can't stress this enough, it's perhaps the most wonderfully witty movie I've ever seen. I'll even provide you with several, erh, "concrete" reasons as to why.
Reason Number One:
I'm a cynic. I don't like movies. I can name about six movies I've enjoyed, and one is an Olsen movie, two are adapted from Ronald Dahl's novels, and the remaining two aren't in English. So yeah, I can't say I'm a big fan of films. Let me mention that I also don't find anything amusing. Tell me a joke, but I'm not going to laugh. Now let me explain my friend, the one person I've introduced this greatness of a movie to. When I say I don't like movies, I mean, I can stand them, but I wouldn't watch one on my free time. Now, my friend here, I've never seen her crack a smile during a movie (literally). Usually, after five minutes of a film, she's in the kitchen, making buffalo wings or a smoothie. Food > Films. (Okay, so I haven't said anything of substance yet. Long-winded tangents are more my style.)
Anyway, the point is, during "Welcome to the Dollhouse," my friend not only refrained from hitting the kitchen, but even went so far as to "LOL" several times. As for me, the moment I picked up a copy, randomly, mind you, I've been watching it. When I'm depressed, when I'm ecstatic, when I'm evading school work, when I'm sitting online, wasting away my life, I watch "Welcome to the Dollhouse." I quote it and I memorize it. For a hater of films, I'd say that's pretty extreme.
Reason Number Two:
I'm not going to deny the fact that this has been a very pointless review; it's not even a review, it's basically me just talking about myself and my hatred of films. But what you have to understand (hence reason number two) is that Dawn Weiner, the protagonist of the movie, is nearly the greatest human being to be captured on film, ever. I'm sure you all know an ugly person, a stupid person, a socially inept person, or an irritating person. All those people, generally speaking, have a redeeming quality. If you're ugly, you're smart. If you're annoying, you're attractive. The list goes on and on. This is NOT the case with Dawn Weiner. She's literally a compilation of every single terrible character trait a human being can have. She has NO redeeming quality; as result, she's insanely likeable and hopelessly amusing. By the end of the movie, you're thinking, oh man, Dawn Weiner is the worst/greatest person ever. Of course, I'm not being very nice, I mean, the movie really is about the cattiness of teenagers, growing pains, despondence, but, in all honesty, that's the best part of the film, Dawn Weiner. Not to say the other characters aren't great, because they are.
For example, her brother, Mark, when asked by Dawn if he's interested in females, goes, "Are you kidding? I'm trying to get into a good college." For some reason (mainly because I've said the same exact thing, except I'm a female), that struck me as amusingly realistic and wonderful. Or Missy, the awful shell of a human being. You can't say you haven't ever met a hopelessly rude, yet deceiving attractive/innocent little child. If Dawn is the worst/greatest person ever, Missy surely is the worst/worst person ever.
Okay, well, I'm evading schoolwork and this review isn't really going anywhere. All I'm saying is that if you don't have a life, don't like movies, and probably should be doing many more productive things, view "Welcome to the Dollhouse."
Movie Review: Simply Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
"Welcome to the Dollhouse" is basically a feature length episode of "Freaks and Geeks", with an amped-up rejection level and consequently an even more alienated main character (Dawn Wiener played by Heather Matarazzo). Then throw in a little of the "Jan Brady" middle child syndrome and give the thing a "Napoleon Dynamite" production design. What makes "Welcome to the Dollhouse" so extraordinary is that it is more about what is happening inside each viewer as they watch the film than about what is actually happening on the screen. Meaning that your reaction and the film's entertainment value will have a lot to do with your own experiences at that age or at least your sympathetic awareness of the difficulties that some of your classmates were experiencing. As someone has already said, if you aren't blown away by how realistic this is then you weren't unpopular enough.
While Dawn's 7th grade world and home life are surreal extremes which give the film a nice level of black comedy (the stuff written on her locker is hilarious), even the most extreme of these elements ring true. In part because Heather Matarazzo is so believable as Dawn and in part because our points of view at that age lacked real perspective. Meaning that we greatly magnify minor incidents of rejection and ridicule.
Children who first experience rejection in elementary school typically have a physical or basic hygiene issue. Dawn is not one of those children, she is just one of those who become targets for the first time in junior high school for more subtle differences. Since this is a new thing, she is as much mystified as hurt by this abuse. Not really understanding why it is happening to her, she blunders around in a quest to discover a logical reason for the rejection. At the same time she is dealing with all the physical changes happening to a seventh grade girl. But Dawn's rugged home life has made her self-sufficient and somewhat prepared her for the abuse she has to take in school.
Understandably Dawn responds with retaliation, a welcome change from the more typical portrayals of this type of character as a weak victim. Some of her responses are negative like smashing the tape of her parent's anniversary party, pushing away her only friend, and not relaying her mother's message to her little sister about a ride home. Others are positive, like stubbornly refusing to let the taunts from the crowd stop her from finishing her speech. Based on her refusal to apologize at the dinner table, Dawn would probably refuse to ingratiate herself with her classmates even if she knew how. Which puts most viewers even more solidly in her corner as we not only identify but begin to admire her.
All three of the Weiner children are excellent. Daria Kalinina does a great job as perfect little sister Missy and Director Todd Solondz uses her ballet talents to give sequences in the family home a great surreal quality. Josiah Trager gives older brother Mark a realistic portrayal. He is sympathetic to Dawn's daily situation, having gone through the same thing, but he seems to know that the best help he can give is to lead by example. His hardened survivor attitude and future thinking perspective is probably the best way for her to cope with the next five years.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
Movie Review: Realism Magnified A Thousand Times...
Summary: 5 Stars
Writer/director Todd Solondz said he wrote WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE as his "response" to TV's The Wonder Years. Before you argue otherwise -- no, The Wonder Years was not realistic. You didn't have to grow up in the 60s to recognize that. It had realistic MOMENTS but, as a whole, everything was glossed over with nostalgia and highly romanticized Americana. But that works on TV. The medium of the movies allows a writer or director to be darker, more realistic, and more tragic for effect.Only, Solondz didn't merely go for realism -- he magnified it a thousand times to really drive home his point. Hence the reviews that say this movie isn't realistic. No, it is realistic, but those teenage feelings of angst and alienation are distorted, compounded and compressed into 90 minutes. If Dawn's torture was lessened even a little, the movie wouldn't have had as much of an impact. It gives the movie its drama and even its comedy. While we frown at Dawn's tragedies, we can't help but laugh because of the OVERWHELMING amount of turmoil Dawn must fight through on a daily basis. It's a fascinating manipulation of the audience on Solondz's part: we laugh at Dawn but we also see a little part of ourselves in her.
So we're kinda laughing at ourselves. Maybe, like Dawn, you had a spoiled baby sister, or a geeky older brother who felt superior to you, or parents that didn't understand you (or even try to), or an older guy/girl you hopelessly had a crush on. Most of us never endured the amount of sheer torture Dawn does, but every teenager has experienced some level of alienation at home and at school. And we can laugh, because most of us have already made it through that awkward part of our lives relatively unscathed. Whether Dawn makes it through or not depends on your interpretation of the final scene. I saw it as Dawn "going along to get along," which is pretty much the best way to make it through those harsh teenage years anyway. It's not a particularly bright ending, but you know she'll awkwardly make it through these difficult years. Like her brother tells her, once she gets to high school "they'll still call you names, but not as much to your face." He's obviously been where Dawn is now, and even HE made it through! And WE know it, too. We pushed through those years, and now we've earned the right to watch something like this and laugh.
The absolute key to this movie's success (besides Solondz's writing) was the casting of Heather Matarazzo as Dawn Wiener. She looked the part. She sounded the part. Even her posture and body movements screamed "awkward." Absolutely perfect performance on her part. It had to be, because if you didn't buy Heather's performance, you didn't care about what happened to her character. It's one of my favorite performances of the entire 90s.
Which brings us back to The Wonder Years. The Wonder Years wasn't told form the point of view of the kid. It was from the point of view of the ADULT the kid eventually would become, which is what gave the show it's "Gee, all in all, wasn't life pretty great?" feeling. DOLLHOUSE is centered around Dawn. We feel what she feels and that, along with Matarazzo's performance, is what gives WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE its power. It's a tremendous movie -- one of the best of the 90s. FOUR AND A HALF STARS.