Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996)

Right from the beginning, I thought, "Oh my god, the people that made Napoleon Dynamite" totally ripped this off!" I mean, the whole character of Napoleon, looks, affectations, everything, is just completely Dawn! What the? Even the brother seems to be the same ish! I know I might be late to the game, but is that even fair? I though N.D. was pretty cool, but now...As for the movie, well, junior high sucks, but for Dawn, it REALLY sucks! Heather Matarazzo plays her role perfectly, in this sad glimpse of teenage life. I felt so bad for her, all the way through. Sometimes, it was hard to watch, but there are moments of "lightheartedness" like the dancing sister, the awful cake, and cycloptian teacher! The end, end, is terrible, but this is a good movie, and the lyrics of "Welcome to the Dollhouse" are still rumbling around in my brain!

Many similar Dawn Weiners of the past will empathise with what Todd Solondz channels in Welcome to the Dollhouse. That terror-stricken walk in the cafeteria, clutching lunch tray and desperately trying to find a place to fit in is a cliché because it rings true - belonging is a see-sawing struggle in junior high. It's a pity because despite the intentions of Solondz to find a delicate balance and sensibility of the 11 year old girl who feels the whole world is against her, it becomes less a dark comedy and more a over-the-top caricature with a mean streak behind it. Overloading the main character with woe after woe and a barrage of insults and dumb luck is just as boring and uninspiring as the character whom has nothing go wrong for them. To signal her complete underdog status, the big-nosed Heather Matarazzo is cast, but that's not enough, we have to stick spectacles on her face too. Nerd, the bullies might jeer. And there are so, so many of them. An entire assembly chants insults in a tender moment. She is branded a lesbo almost immediately by the usual mean cheerleaders. Her parents flat out hate her, and hide this behind big, fake smiles. Even her little sister is some conniving little evil genius, undermining her in the background then putting on a angelic, beaming look of love. Ugh. It is to no surprise that its best moments are the ones that surprise Dawn, and the ones that are low key. In these brief scenes Slondz shows an actually understanding of the 11 year old besides a potty mouthed bully. Brandon lashes out in anger at her, and tells her to not be late for her 'rape', but at this age it is suggested that he does possess that kind of malice, nevertheless know what rape is. So he tries to get out of it, but still maintain his outward persona - oh you might be late to get home, so I won't rape you just yet. These are just kids, and they barely understand sexuality, but can feel it blossoming in spades and tug at their heartstrings. There's a certain sweetness in the way Dawn fawns over the older, handsomer version of Brandon, Steve, and how she attempts to impress him by feeding him jello and playing a piano piece. And Mark may the only family member who does not treat Dawn like a little pest; there's no malice or intent to intimidate as he tells his little sister that high school is just more of the same. He simply presents it as a fact of life. For all its mess, the ending is a quiet, unassuming one - there's no moment of inspired change, no resolve to fight back, but just an acceptance that things will go on their way. Unfortunately these moments of quiet contemplation are far and few. Solondz throws challenge after challenge at young Dawn; to the point that any 11 year old would collapse and rage, and then expects her to behave, to take it on the chin, to put down the hammer, because its just another day in the life of kid. Paradoxically he expects the subject matter to be taken seriously - for abuse, for drugs, for kidnappings to ring hard and true. But they don't, they hide behind a layer of comedy. Oh, he was just videotaping her doing pirouettes. The movie is funny, of course. But it goes beyond and above until it becomes absurdly dark and it becomes uncomfortable to laugh. The sneering Lolita, wearing a choker and a nasty glare, traps Dawn and waits for her to sh*t right there in the moment. The dialogue is filled to the brim with uncharacteristic profanity, as if Solondz wants to be hard hitting and genuine. "I didn't mean to be a c*nt", murmurs Dawn. This is supposed to be a sweet, subverted moment of naivety for her, a genuine instance of her attempting to act older than her age suggests. But it seems so facile.

Dawn is bullied in her middle school. She is insecure, wears unflattering clothes and doesn't feel attractive. Her inattentive parents care far more about her smart and nerdy older brother and her spoilt, elegant little sister(that she actually has to share a room with, in spite of being 11) than her, leaving her the overlooked middle child. She falls in love with a guy five years her senior. But could that possibly work out? This is one of the most brutally honest(it admits that teenagers actually think about sex), painful(the cake scene is torture), and difficult to watch films I've ever seen. I knew that it would be, because this is not my first exposure to the immensely talented Solondz... I own a copy of the quite good Storytelling, and I had heard that this was much harder on the viewer. This really doesn't let up(there are those that will use the word "nihilistic"), it's pure bared nerve endings, and it shows with no pretense the kind of cruelty some of us experience, and what effect it has on us. Everyone lashes out at someone weaker than them when they're in agony. While some of the actions do encourage headscratching, the characters in this are entirely realistic(I would say almost everything in this is), credible and well-developed. No one is a hero or a villain(don't expect to like everything about any of them). The acting is amazing. Matarazzo(who I can barely believe was willing to play the role) is impossibly perfect. Her body language, voice, eyes, everything is spot-on. Everyone is convincing in this. The tension is present and thick right from the beginning. I suppose one could argue that this doesn't have all that much genuine plot... we get a string of scenes in chronological order, and several things aren't followed up on. A ton does happen; I think this is mainly meant to show a small portion of the girl's life. Don't expect a lot of growth or change, or for this to have a conclusion(it kind of just stops... one can interpret the last image to mean something, though, and it certainly isn't randomly chosen). I'm not sure I understand classifying this as a comedy... if so, definitely note that it's black and sardonic humor. You can really *feel* the setting. The lunch-room, class-room and the suburban home... you're *there*, and you feel as suffocated and trapped as our lead does. This is filmed and edited impeccably well. There is disturbing content and strong language throughout this. The DVD comes with a trailer. I recommend this to anyone who wants an uncompromising look at what for many are the worst years of their life. 8/10

A prime quality that the DVD had for me was a price much higher than I usually can pay. Used to be that when I browsed IMDb details I sometimes looked at the tag at the top that showed availability in the different Amazon countries, availability as disk or tape or whatever. Way back then I purchased from local low cost shops, but it was interesting to browse. Then I progressed to purchases from the local, UK, Amazon but only for what I could pay for by cheque. Then I got to be able to pay electronically and it was suddenly possible to purchase low cost disks from second hand sources in the UK, Germany, USA and Canada, etc, via Amazon UK. The disk availability box at the top of an IMDb page was starting to have potential for real value, though I tended to search just in Amazon UK. Some of the really interesting disks were not available, some needed access to paying to a different country's Amazon, especially for low cost disks, but this was a massive start for being able to search for disks by title rather than from the more restricted range of what was available locally. Locally is still really useful, but it is more a serendipity sort of thing. Then the IMDb system changed. The disk availability button was not there. Then it was there but not showing the range of countries or versions of disks, if UK Amazon had the title in a variety of versions then either only one would be shown or an Amazon USA version would be shown. So, there was a basic indicator of availability, which is useful knowledge, just the way of searching the different stores was gone and at August 2009 this was still gone. So things were okay and unless an Amazon other than UK became the sole outlet for such as The Adventures Of Pete And Pete Season 3, some have a hunger for that Trachtenberg series, then things were tolerable. What happened instead was that Amazon USA became the sole outlet for Unfabulous Seasons 1 and 2. Also Zoey 101 seasons 3 and 4. While the prices are nothing like my ideal it was suddenly essential for me to get a payment method that Amazon USA accepts and in August 2009 I managed. Dollhouse. When I got to make my first order there was a copy of this at USA at a much lower price than I had ever noticed at Amazon UK or any other outlet. Except that order failed, it was not available for a delivery address in the UK. Two other items went through, though. It looks as if some traders are able to export, but not others. Later experiences told me that I still have a problem re availability of difficult to find titles. The outlook can seem bleak. The stuff that I had been noticing will mostly have not been available for export. * Dollhouse is from the year when season 3 of Pete, Pete appears and is a couple of years after Heather Matarazzo appeared in an episode of each of seasons 0 and 1. It is weaker than Pete, but in some ways it is as strong. I find that it echoes My Girl and Tideland, but from a different culture and in a more down to earth way. All have the main actor as of an appropriate age, scary but sense when musing on these sort of aspects. Dollhouse is bound to feel offensive to some who can accept My Girl. To me it has a reality that I can relate to more than with My Girl, though both stories are alien at the same time. Napoleon Dynamite, about a different age range and a different subset of symptoms, I now have to wonder how those characters would appear if that story was set at age eleven. Mysterious Skin and The Quiet expand on the range of faces of this. I found Dollhouse difficult to get into, but I vastly prefer this to Princess Diaries as that falls flat for me as soon as Mia gets the makeover, the point where one is supposed to gain empathy with Mia? Much is said of Dollhouse being a story about the difficulties that an ugly girl can face at age 12, but watch this with any care at all and it is obvious that this is a rather nice looking girl who is badly damaged by the ugly ways of those around her. One needs the right sort of helps to be able to get around that sort of thing and this story makes a loud comment about how real those helps can be. I have to like this feature a lot. The message board hints of some considering the three bad boys to be pure criminal types, but the strongest hint put in a criminal way. For me, Dollhouse gives a context that puts such into perspective. What this shows of their back to front reality, criminal seems an inappropriate label. That is the real strength of this feature. This is not about the apex of the pyramid of society, it shows a dunghill. Dawn comes out with some really putrid behaviour and there are some reviews here that consider that to be a reflection of her personality. To me, she is just showing some effects that can happen when one is blowing in the wind, chaff that does not have enough free will to escape being blown in that way. Rather than Dawn being horror I consider that she is blown into a horrifying and damaging situation, but one has had to have been in that sort of situation oneself to accept that is an aspect of her being a victim of horror.