Review of Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996) by Carly H — 01 Nov 2009

Todd Solondz's VERY dark satire of middle school and all the horrors we wish we could forget from that time is infuriating, hilarious, and all too true. Our lead character is fleshed out into a three-dimensional human, as is one of her main bullies, but virtually nobody else is. Indeed, everybody else but these two is a glorious, decadent caricature of the cold kids and negligently clueless adults who populate every middle school in the country.

At times it is played for laughs, at other times it is played straight. We are captivated whichever way. Solondz's themes are evident, but slightly out of focus, as he sometimes loses sight of his goal amidst gratuitous amounts of irony and underdeveloped periphery characters.