Review of Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996) by Alyssa N — 16 Sep 2008
Most movies about adolescents that deal with heavy subject matter include moments of humor or lightheartedness to even things out, but there's very little to smile at here. Still, the best movies are the ones that make you feel, and the gloomy and startling feelings this film evokes won't end with the credits.
It's certainly one of the most depressing movies I've seen about teenagers, but despite how the director was trying to recreate the "real" junior high experience without glossing anything over, I actually found Dawn's situation to be so dreadfully awful that at times it felt contrived.
It began to seem like it wasn't the junior high kids, but the movie itself that was trying to make Dawn's existence as miserable as possible. Or maybe this kind of stuff really does happen, and when I was that age I was too naive to notice.
This review of Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996) was written by Alyssa N on 16 Sep 2008.
Welcome to the Dollhouse has generally received very positive reviews.
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