Review of Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996) by Kurt Y — 29 May 2008

Todd Solondz films aren't for everyone, his movies feature taboo after taboo and throws it at you like a sledgehammer. Never has life of a pre-teen growing up ever been so nail biting and scathing to watch; and yet so much of it is real.

Dawn Weiner is a very average young girl in middle school, she's not pretty, popular, or has some underlying talent, she's just a regular kid who gets teased and harassed by others and takes ever last bit of it with no will or way to fight back. Her life at home isn't that great either, suffering middle-child syndrome to a dorky older brother and being in the shadow of her attention-mongering, darling, younger sister; Dawn is forced to cope with her existence at the expense of never getting any fulfillment or joy. Things start to change in her dim world when her brother starts a band and recruits a dashing and popular high school student that Dawn falls head over heel for, but as events unfold in the movie things go very different than anyway Dawn could have imagined.

Definitely a hard watch at times and not for everyone; but that could be because the movie goes into subjects that most people wouldn't dare discuss in a public situation yet most people could think for a second and realize it's places they've been before. Heather Matarazzo is amazing in her performance as Dawn and truly captures the feeling of what it's like in that awkward stage of growing up and self-discovery that is very true to the harshness of the real world.

A truly unique and darkly twisted masterpiece.