User reviews

Grimly convincing portrayal of life in junior high school for the unpopular. If you aren't blown away by how realistic this is then you weren't unpopular enough: this is the real deal.

This movie strips away the rosy patina of nostalgia that covers most other films that portray the grim nature of childhood. I admire the film for avoiding the common trap of making the lead an innocent victim. Heather is, when the opportunity arises, just as cruel as anyone else in the film. The movie doesn't make Heather a child, but instead makes her a confused human being full of conflicting emotions such as hatred, lust, anguish and guilt.

I think to understand this movie though, you need to realize that you are viewing everything from Heather's point of view. Teachers and parents are ridiculously unfair, classmates are alarmingly sadistic, and you could point at some action and say, oh, I doubt that would happen, but there's a strong emotional truth; this is what it feels like to be an unhappy child.

When I watch movies about unpopular kids, I am always disappointed because their lives are better than mine was, and this is the first movie I could point to and say, if you want to see what I was dealing with in Junior High, watch Dollhouse. But while I always wanted a movie that shows the unvarnished truth, it is really difficult to watch. Although if you can make it through the first half hour it gets just a shade less horrific. And it does have a quirky sense of humor that lightens it some. I avoided this movie for years because I was afraid it would be too painful, and a friend said no, it's not that painful, and she was sort of right and sort of wrong. But it's definitely worth seeing.

"Welcome to the Dollhouse" is a feel-bad movie with little to make most viewers smile. It's depressing, awful and painful to watch. It's also incredibly insightful and incredibly well made.

Heather Matarazzo stars as Dawn, a miserable kid who just began middle school. She's not particularly pretty, nor talented nor self- assured. The other kids are incredibly nasty and take full advantage of her insecurities, her teacher could use euthanizing and her mother is a complete jerk...and as a result Dawn is depressed and lost. The film follows her during part of the school year and by the end, her life still seems to suck...just as much as when the film began.

So why do I give this miserable film an 8? Well, writer/director Todd Solondz really understands kids this age...and most Hollywood films completely get kids this age wrong! They usually make them too smart, too self-aware and too happy...which is great if you are a movie star but not reality. Here, however, Solondz explores what life can be like for kids who feel like outsiders...which is incredibly tough at that age. The only negative is that there really is no ending to this story...Dawn is still miserable, her mother still is a terrible parent and things look like it's just going to be more of the same. But wow...what an incredibly well made little film!

Do not go into Welcome to the Dollhouse expecting a charming coming-of-age story. Don't expect to have a lot of laughs either. I'd seen this film several times before this viewing, including its original theatrical run, and it was just as cringe-worthy as the first time, if not more so because you know what to expect and find that you are bracing yourself.

Solondz gives us the story of Dawn Weiner, a painfully awkward 13 year old girl who not only has to contend with being ostracized and friendless at school, but is essentially ignored and treated with disdain at home as well. Being the middle child is obviously not the easiest thing to deal with within the family dynamic, but when your older brother is a geeky over achiever and your little sister is a gorgeous ballet-dancing cherub who commands total devotion from her mother, life is generally difficult for Dawn.

Solondz throws in some intriguing plot points that punch up the story and encourage introspection, but while the story and presentation are excellent, the real breakout element of the film is the performance of Heather Matarazzo. It is amazing that she was the same age as her character during filming because the performance, while the right age, exhibits a talent beyond her years. You would be hard pressed to find someone who actually found the torment against her as humorous. Rather, Solondz is so relentless with the abuse that it's almost like picking at a scab. However, in the character of Dawn Weiner, we also see strength and conviction to go along with her vulnerability. It's as if she finally realized and perfected these defense mechanisms simply so she can `survive' junior high school.

Welcome to the Dollhouse is not a feel-good movie by any means. It is a stark and realistic look at adolescence in a way that we don't normally see it – it is not a sunny and idyllic junior high/high school experience, and not every `nerd' is stereotypical, a fact soundly proven by the complexity of the heroine of this great movie.

--Shelly

This is a very funny comedy about the indomitable spirit of an 11-year-old junior high school girl, Dawn Wiener, played with geekish verve by Heather Matarazzo, who overcomes real life horrors the likes of which would make war heroes shutter. How would you like to be courted by a guy whose pick up line is 'I'm going to rape you at three o'clock. Be there.'? Or have a mother who splits your chocolate cake in front of your watering eyes into two pieces and adds them to the plates of your brother and sister? Or have your dream lover tell you he can't be a member of your Special People Club because it's 'a club for retards'?

It gets worse. You're taunted daily by choruses of 'Wiener Dog!' and 'Lesbo freak!' and bullied at school by everybody including some teachers and the principal. And at home, your siblings tear down your club house. And when you're missing from home for a day and phone home, you're told to call back later, mom and your spoiled little sister are mugging for the TV cameras.

Ah, but Dawn can overcome the night. She turns the would-be rapist into a macho-posturing little boy who really only wants to be affectionate ('I make the first move!' he boasts) and demonstrates that no matter how hard they hit her, she'll be back tomorrow, undaunted.

Matarazzo does a great job, but she isn't alone. Brenden Sexton stands out as the posturing macho boy who loves her but can't admit it, as does Eric Mabius playing Steve Rogers, the self-absorbed high schooler/rock star wanna be (and Dawn's first love). The rest of the cast is also good, especially Victoria Davis in a bit part as the foul-mouthed, sexually ambiguous 12-year-old Lolita who corners Dawn in the bathroom. Incidentally that scene in which Lolita slyly tells Dawn 'You didn't come in here to wash your hands,' and insists that she do what she intended to do is just a great piece of pre adolescent camp. Another fine (and subtle) scene is when Dawn in her bedroom hears Steve Rogers sing for the first time (in the garage with her brother's 'band'). The expression on her face, as she rises up enthralled and follows the sound, suggests someone in the throes of a first awakening. And I loved the bit where Dawn, after being told by one of Steve Rogers's ex-girl friends that they 'finger-...(you-know-what)' one night and that was all, is inspired to demonstrate her finger work on the piano to Steve and then to show him her hands, fingers spread so he can see them. Of course he hasn't a clue to what she's thinking--and we're not too sure either!

Now some people may think there is some exaggeration here, and they're right. I mean, nobody wears a pirate's black eye patch after getting hit in the eye with a spit ball! And teachers, even bad ones, know better than to deliberately humiliate their students (although some do it unconsciously). Nonetheless, while the action may not be entirely realistic at times, its spirit is totally true. Just ask anybody who remembers junior high school. Which brings me to the question: how did director and script writer, Todd Solondz, get it so right? Did he take notes when he was still in junior high to use when he grew up? Did he steal his daughter's diary? Clearly somebody lived this script. I'm guessing that 'Dawn' is 'Todd' at least in spirit, and the striking capture of the psychology of the world of being twelve-years-old is due to his having been there and done that, 'big time,' as is written on Dawn's locker.

Whatever, this full color world of the middle child is an adorable, witty, psychologically honest, beautifully directed and edited, masterfully conceived entertainment, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, 1996, and sure to steal your heart.

Final irony: this is a movie for and about 12-year-olds (it would appear) yet it is rated 'R' and so, in effect, junior high school life is not only 'not suitable' for those under thirteen, they can't even view it!

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

"Welcome to the Dollhouse" was the introduction of an important voice in the American cinema. Todd Solondz's incisive study of a suburban family is one of the best indie films of the last decade. Having seen it in its theatrical release, we had the opportunity recently to take a new look at it. Mr. Solondz has created a picture of what cruelty does to a child, and how prevalent it is everywhere.

When we first meet the Wieners, living in suburban New Jersey, they appear to be the ideal family. Both parents, on the surface, look normal, but in watching them closely we come to the conclusion they are not. Some couples are not meant to be parents and the Wieners, obviously, while supportive of the older son, Mark, and the cute younger daughter, Missy, turn a blind eye toward Dawn, their middle daughter who is going through a hard time as she starts junior high school.

Not only is Dawn an unhappy girl, but she is the object of cruelty in the hands of the other students, both in her class, and in her school, in general. We watch as Brandon, the punkish boy, begins to taunt Dawn in his own sadistic way. Other girls come right out and ask Dawn whether she is a lesbian. There's also another girl that terrorizes her when both meet in the school bathroom. Every time Dawn tries to rebel, it turns out in disaster. Her school teacher doesn't even see anything wrong with Dawn, who is obviously affected by all she is experiencing at this crucial moment.

Dawn hits a nerve with Brandon when she calls him a retard. Little does she know his own brother is mentally challenged. Usually in the case of bullies like Brandon, they are acting up their frustrations by taking it on others they perceive as weaker, which is why he thinks he can do anything to Dawn because she will never do anything to him.

In a scene that gives cruelty a new name, we watch as the Wieners are having dinner one night. When Dawn contradicts something her mother has said, she is punished by not getting her dessert. We watch in total disbelief as the other Wieners begin to eat and Dawn's slice of chocolate cake remains near her mother until Missy asks to share that piece with Mark.

Dawn only has a friend. The young boy who shares her interests in hanging out in the dollhouse in the Wiener's backyard. When the hunky Steve Rogers joins Mark's band, Dawn discovers an irresistible attraction toward this loser. Dawn turns against her only friend and will call him names that we all realize is her own way to deal with emotions she has no control on. Instead of finding happiness among her peers, Dawn only encounters scorn and ridicule.

In Heather Matarazzo, the director found a young talent to give life to Dawn Wiener. Ms. Matarazzo has a peculiar kind of beauty, but she is made to wear horrible clothes to capture the essence of this sad young teen. Ms. Matarazzo under the guidance of Mr. Solondz makes an appealing Dawn. This young actress gave her character a range of emotions that even older, and more accomplished, actress wouldn't have given to this lost soul.

The rest of the cast is perfect. Brendan Sexton plays Brendan, the boy from a poor and broken home that has to deal with the blow life has given him. Angela Pietropinto as Mrs. Wiener is seen as the mother from hell. Mattew Faber and Daria Kalinina play Dawn's siblings.

This was a film that put Todd Solondz on the map. As he has shown with later films, he is a voice to be reckoned with in the independent cinema.

WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE (1996) **** Heather Matarazzo, Brian Sexton Jr., Eric Mabius, Matthew Faber, Daria Kalinina, Angela Pietropinto. Easily one of the best independent films ever produced. Matarazzo is brilliant perfection as 11 year old Dawn Wiener - Wiener Dog - who is trying desperately to survive the 7th grade NJ suburban hell with her existence as a gawky, nerdy yet smarter- than-the-rest protagonist facing every conceivable roadblock to hurdle including a dimwitted hunky high schooler and a seemingly threatening classmate (Sexton who is also great) who can't decide if he wants to "rape" her. Heartbreaking and all too close to the bone perfectly realized depiction of how judgemental we all are and just how harrowing adolescence really is. Dare not to be angered when her self-indulgent mother takes away her cake at the dinner table while the rest of the monstrous family greedily eat their desserts. Black comedy satire and documentarian genres blending seamlessly to a genuine masterpiece of poignancy sharply observant parable of anomie and angst by writer and director Todd Solondz (who won the Best Picture prize at Sundance). Wickedly funny and dead on accurate.

i really enjoyed this movie but its ending was disappointing to say the least..we go to the movie to escape reality..not to have it thrust in our face..we want to see dawn have at least one thing go right..is the message of this movie life sucks so deal with it? if so we dont need to go to the movies then..we want the good guy [or girl in this case ] to WIN. outside of the dissapointing ending this was a GREAT movie

"Welcome to the Dollhouse" is a fresh, creative, no frills pic about a junior high school girl who is the personification of "uncool". This poignant film could be dark comedy, light drama, satire or even farce depending on how its interpreted. However that may be, it shows in painful detail the assassination of the self esteem of a sweet, kind, and thoughtful girl who wants little more than to be liked. Entertaining as it may be, "...Dollhouse" is a movie with a message for everyone who has ever been 12.

A thirteen year old girl is living in her own private suburban hell. Disliked and unpopular at school (where she is bullied widely) and little regarded at home - where she comes a sad third to her little-miss-perfect ballerina sister and her nerdy (but smart) older brother.

(Who doesn't like girls because he "wants to go to a good school.")

How rare a subject this is for a professional film, even a low budget one. My mind has span out for a parallel in the movie world - underground or over ground - and come up near empty. The nearest I could come up with is Kes (a brilliant English film from 1969), but that was set in another time and another place.

Maybe also About A Boy (with Hugh Grant), but that was a comedy with a hero about to come to the rescue. Rather than here, where any rescue is going to have to come from within.

You could also throw in a few foreign films - such as Pixote - but these films are often about utter desperation (and even hunger) a million miles from the "safe" American suburbs of modern New Jersey.

With this Tod Solondz won the Sundance Film Festival Best Picture award of 1996 and you can clearly see why. If independent cinema has any role to play in the world it is telling the small private stories that would otherwise go untold.

(While I might be talking prematurely here I am not sure he is a rounded film maker who could take on a variety of projects. However he is more than welcome to prove me wrong!)

Most people are not writers, diarists or raconteurs. However they make small observations and notes which they store away in some cubby-hole in their heads. Occasionally stage comedians tap in to these shared memories and observations - such as the problems of your first kiss, for example - and the audience laughs. What you might call "the laugh of recognition." This film is entirely built around the laugh of recognition or something very much like it.

We have often heard how cruel children can be. The truth is that they have not yet learnt to hide their true selves. While some may grow to be wiser, all that normally happens is that the hatred or dislike of something or someone becomes hidden, unsaid or even intellectualised. Have you ever noticed how childlike arguments become when someone starts losing an argument? Name-calling never really leaves us!

(And if you don't believe me you should read some of my private messages sent to me via the IMDb board!)

Credit Heather Matazzo (as Dawn Wiener) for carrying the whole film on her tiny sloping shoulders. I would be intrigued to learn her technique and approach to the subject. Is she a method actress? Did she snub the "school bullies" at the lunch truck? Pretend is all real? Has she had a hard childhood - to that point at least? Given the targets and script it is hard to see how she could have been any better.

Within the film she forms a strange relationship with a smaller "special education" bully who says that she is going to be "raped." But so empty is her life that she goes along with it and call the boys bluff. What follows is the only real piece of depth that the movie aspires to and isn't easy viewing.

Her parents aren't really fleshed out and are rather two dimensional and one note. Parents do have favourites, but they can never be as cold as they appear here. At least their total disrespect doesn't turn violent!

The rest of the plot involves the formation of a garage band lead by the wonderfully empty headed Eric Mabius - a would-be Jon Bon Jovi with the IQ of a fish. Heather forms a crush on him that might as well be with the real Jon Bon Jovi for all the chance it has of going somewhere. However it allows for some comic interaction with the older boy who she feeds up with home-made snacks. The meeting of two daydream believers!

How will she grow up? Will she find her place in the world? We simply don't know. However she has some intelligence and a lot of nerve and that could serve her well. One day soon the real world will come flooding in and she will laugh at what she once believed and once said. Growing up isn't easy, but nothing really is...

Welcome to the Dollhouse is an excellent film. It shows, in a strictly un-opinionated manner, a young girl's experiences as one of the unpopular kids in her junior high-school. She is faced with the extreme viciousness commonly shown in schools towards the students who, for whatever reason, don't fit in. The film never attempts to go any deeper than simply displaying these occurences to us, never really analyzing them or questioning why things like that happen. It just shows what is, what we've all experienced or at least seen, and for that I think it's all the more effective.

There are also some humorous moments thrown in, which I thought were nice and somewhat alleviated the otherwise depressing mood of the film (not that I'm complaining).

Welcome to the Dollhouse is a great snapshot of human behaviour. That's the best way I can describe it.

Junior High must be the tenth circle of Hell. How do any of us scrawny, not-cool geeks survive it? Perhaps we don't, and all our adult neurosis trace back to 7th grade homeroom and not Mom after all.

Not convinced? Watch Welcome to the Dollhouse and relive Hell.

Dawn Wiener is the protagonist, an awkward 7th grader who is put-upon by everyone from her family to schoolmates. She suffers a multitude of insults, all too small to register with adults who could help, but which inflict a thousand darts to her soul. The movie made me cringe, unearthing long suppressed memories of adolescent cruelties and torment at the hands of bullies. Is this entertainment? Absolutely, Todd Solondz did an admirable job in his freshman movie.

This film is relentlessly depressing, dour, and fatalistic. Just when you think things couldn't get worse, they of course do. So, what's the point? A slice of NJ reality? The hopelessness of ugly, awkward girls? What did I learn from this exercise? I can't fault the acting or other film elements, only the nascent decision to make this film in the first place.

This movie was great. I was shocked to see no one had posted a comment on it. A fantastic performance by Heather Matazarro. The movie is all about growing up in a world that expects you to already be an adult. Because Dawn Weiner is "ugly" she is mistreated, harassed, and ignored by everyone she comes across. I don't think I've ever seen a movie that featured a character more emotional alone. There is a scene where Dawn's mother offers Dawn's dessert to her siblings to get back at her. They take it, eagerly. Most movies like this are either black comedies or feature a character who is stoicaly non-conformist or just stoic. Dawn is neither. She bleeds, right up until the movies end, which I won't spoil but I will say that it is all the more heartbreaking for its inertia as for its action. Go find this one. You'll either love it or hate it. It's not a movie that just lets you go.

Just imagine for one second that you are an 11 years old girl with ugly glasses. You are a middle child (the film also known as Faggots and Retards (working title) or Middle Child) with an older brother who is a computer wiz and a little sister, a pretty ballerina. Your name is Dawn Wiener, and almost every student in your middle school hates you, tells you in your face that you are ugly, and nobody remembers your name, you are called Dog Face or Wiener Dog', and one of your classmates greets you every morning with the words, "I'll rape you today at 3 pm" . The film should be called "Welcome to Hell", and Todd Solondz is our Virgil in this Inferno.

Heather Matarazzo is absolutely terrific. She was able to play both, an archetype of an insecure, unloved, misunderstood, and lost in this cruel world child as well as one very real suffering young girl from New Jersey. That's why I could not forget her Dawn, I wanted to talk her, to tell her that yes, the world is cruel, and she was dealt the mixed cards from the beginning but she could play them, there is always hope, there are books, music, and art. Hang on; I would tell her, you are not going to be an "ugly duckling" forever. You'll take off your stupid glasses, you will grow up, you'll be just fine and you will find friends – just wait. But how can one wait at 11? The time drags so slowly in childhood, and every day is descending to Hell…

One of the best films about the "happy" school years I've ever seen.

9.5/10

Todd Solandz's first feature is a dead-on accurate exploration of geek childhood as seen through the bespecled lenses of the nerdy Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo). Dawn's rotten school life is compounded by the fact that an older guy at school is targeting her for extracurricular rape. He hasn't quite decided if he's really going to bury the sausage in Dawn, but he's sure getting off on the anxiety he's generating. At home, Dawn must compete with her cute, feisty, outrageously indulged sister Missy (the irrepressible Daria Kalinina), a beauty pageant wanna-be if ever there was one, and a mother she has a huge disconnection issue with. Dawn's life is such a living hell the rape looks like it might be an interesting diversion. Solandz followed this up with the terrific "Happiness", an exploration of a more adult hell. Though the subject matter of "Dollhouse" is incendiary, the nihilism is sautéed in the blackest of humor and deep sympathy for the characters. A true original.

If you've never heard of Todd Solondz, then I should explain that "Welcome to the Dollhouse" is probably the most watchable. His movies - at least the few that I've seen - are always complete downers, containing characters who are either sickos, helpless, or something similar. His first notable movie concerns Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo), a New Jersey middle school girl ostracized by everyone around her. The only boy who gives her any good advice is totally pitiful himself. Dawn's entire life is one big FML.

I recommend "WTTD", but with the caution that it IS a total downer. Hell, you might not even end up liking it. But it is worth seeing.

Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo) is the awkward middle child and social outcast 7th grader. She's got the hated nickname Wienerdog. Girls call her lesbo. Not even the other outcasts like her. The teachers find her annoying. Her parents ignore her. Her mother favors the youngest adorable Missy. Her older brother Mark is a nerd but he's a driven nerd. He gets the popular hunk Steve Rodgers to join his band and she's completely infatuated. Everybody picks on her especially class bully Brandon. She has the Special People Club in the backyard with her only friend the younger Ralphy. Steve Rodgers is actually nice to her and she misunderstands. Brandon starts taking an even more intense interest in her.

Heather Matarazzo is amazingly awkward. It is cringe-worthy. Writer/director Todd Solondz is the king of the disturbing underbelly of society. The bullying is hard to watch. Dawn is not a nice girl but she is the clueless girl trying to find her way. She often hurts people just as others have hurt her. The movie is so uncomfortable that the audience has no choice but to laugh. And then it gets darker. Sometimes it goes over the edge like what happens to Missy. There's no real need to go that far but it's not a problem. At its center, there is the compelling Matarazzo.

Writer-director Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse" is both brutal and ridiculous, meaning: it will strike a deep chord with select viewers, while others will see through the film's veneer to the 'cleverness' at play. Solondz gets into one particular groove and never helps himself out. It would be a wise move. By the ninth or tenth humiliation against our heroine, an outsider named Dawn Wiener, one begins to tire of the ugly language, the over-the-top parents (awful), and the flatness of the film's entire conception. Solondz beats his one note to death, pummels poor Dawn without letting her stand up for herself (except once, in her brother's room), and seems to snicker behind her back. Why, for instance, does he have her continue with her thank you speech after the kids have already tired of her and begin jeering? He holds the shot for too long, for no purpose other than to expose more pain. Certainly the dead-end suburban scenario is captured vividly, providing ample room for black humor, irony, wistful teenage despair; however, Solondz is more interested in hammering home his point: that there's no way out for Dawn, and in a way we're all trapped in childhood. It's like a prank on the audience. **1/2 from ****

... and I somewhat agree with another reviewer who said Dawn's teacher should be euthanized. Except euthanasia is a final release for animals to end their suffering. I expect better from grown women who should have more empathy, if not why are they in teaching? And Dawn's parents - they have no respect or regard for her as a human being whatsoever. She is just a disappointing outgrowth of themselves while they pay attention to Dawn's older brother Mark, who is somewhat like a teenage Bill Gates - an intellectual looking for activities to put on a college application to an Ivy League school, but with zero consideration for anybody but himself. They also dote on Dawn's younger daughter, who although she is only about eight knows she is beautiful and liked and uses it as a weapon against her older sister Dawn. She'll no doubt grow up to be married to a Wall Streeter and be president of her HOA, spending her days measuring the height of other peoples' lawns. So as for the parents AND her teacher - stake them out to an ant hill covered in honey. They deserve it.

Dawn Weiner is a 13 year old girl bullied by the entire junior high school, who write obscene things on her locker due to her unfortunate last name, throw spitballs in her hair, question her sexual identity to embarrass her, and even the tough girls confront her and assault her in the bathroom. She is safe nowhere. Nobody has her back and she only exists to be a source of mirth or scorn to everybody else. A less than. She talks to whoever will talk to her, including a boy who introduces himself by threatening sexual assault. I've heard some people say they "want to shake some sense into her". But she is 13. What do you expect of somebody who has her life as an experience of what the human race is like?

And then she strikes back, in what appears to be a small but passive aggressive way, and suddenly the film segues into an episode of Law & Order SVU, something Dawn was not intending. I'll let you watch and see how this all works out.

Dawn is a young girl who is bullied. Of course she is is clueless. She'll arrive at college clueless because she'll never have the confidence building experiences that would cure her cluelessness. This film is essential viewing but be warned it is an exhausting tragedy.

This had to be some of the most abnormal folks I've had the pleasure of viewing in many moons. The Wiener family consisted of a gutless, say nothing dad and a mom who doted on the youngest, spoiled rotten, daughter while virtually ignoring the siblings. This didn't seem to faze the son at all as his mind was on college and resumes', but caused the other daughter endless grief and anger. Her life at school was no better; a living hell over having to deal with outrageous behavior from her peers as well as the faculty. Finally, she breaks from the strain and becomes what she hates, at least briefly, and strikes out at a fellow nobody. Even though this was a comedy it had it's serious side, however I found myself howling with laughter even when I should have been crying tears of pity and pain. Dynamite film, well played by all.

This film shows the life of an unpopular schoolchild in an exaggerated and comedic way. To be sure, this is not stylised or nostalgic, it is really brash and inappropriate as schoolchildren can be. At times it has shades of things that we recognise but wildly exaggerated, as it is more about the main character's emotions and not about the events themselves.