Welcome To The Dollhouse
I heard several reviews of Welcome To The Dollhouse and most of them were good, usually calling it witty and bitingly funny. I decided to check it out when it came to video, because I didn't have the chance to see it in theaters. I had heard good things about the movie, especially when I saw that it had won the Grand Jury Prize in the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. I watched it and, to my surprise, found it shockingly realistic and hard to watch; on the other hand, I found it unusually hilarious.
It's almost hard to watch a movie where you are grimacing at what is going on on the screen, but you're also laughing out loud. I sometimes wondered if I should have been laughing or shrinking in my seat from the shocking truth being thrown at me. Most of the time I was laughing, but in one scene, Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo) is told by Brandon (Brendan Sexton Jr.) that he is going to rape her, I wasn't sure what to think. It was a very well written scene, but it was disturbing. I'm pretty sure that it was Todd Solondz's intention to make it disturbing and he does it wonderfully. He directs the scene in a way that brings back the memories of the seventh grade. We may not have experienced someone threatening rape, but everyone has had some threatening experiences.
The movie opens with a very good scene that many of us have been through... actually, not that many of us have done it, but I know, and have seen, people that do the exact same thing that Dawn does. She is standing in the lunchroom with a tray full of food. She looks around the room to find a table to sit at. She wants to sit with the popular people, but everytime she would find a seat, someone would quickly sit down at it. She finally finds a spot on a table with one other person who tells her that someone threw up at that spot in fourth period--Dawn doesn't move. A few seconds later, a group of cheerleaders ask Dawn if she is a lesbian. These events, and many others like it, are depressing to watch, but they are also enjoyable because they are done so well.
I felt very bad for Dawn during the course of the movie. I was laughing throughout the movie, but I also had a part of me that wanted to cry for her. She didn't get sympathy from anyone, including her principal, her parents, or her brother. The only ones that really cared about her was Brandon and Steve (Eric Mabius), a handsome singer for her brother's band. The best scene in the movie probably involves Steve and Dawn as they wait for her brother to get home. Dawn plays the piano for Steve and stuffs him with junkfood. The dialogue is very well written and Matarazzo and Mabius do a terrific job.
The thing that I feel that makes this movie work is Matarazzo. In her first major motion picture, Matarazzo is perfect and dead-on with her performance. She is one of the best young actresses I have seen, and this is one of the best performances of the year. I don't think she'll get a nomination because the competition for Best Actress is fierce this year. However, I believe that her performance is better than most this year. The rest of the cast is superb as well, especially Eric Mabius and Brendan Sexton Jr. They were both very good and worked well with Matarazzo. In fact, everyone in the picture works well together. Even Daria Kalinina, the younger sister, does a great job, always dancing in her tutu.
Welcome To The Dollhouse is rated R for language and sexual connotation. There are some scenes where I cringed at some of the dialogue going on, but I grew up in a place where I never heard things like that, but I knew people said them. It's very realistic, and yet, for some reason, funny as well. Todd Solondz does a great job directing and writing this masterpiece. This has some very well written dialogue and scenes, and it's at its best when Dawn is trying to gain popularity with guys. This is one of the best films of 1996.