Welcome to the Dollhouse
reviewed by Stan Schwartz
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An overnight sensation first at the Toronto film festival, then at Sundance, Welcome to the Dollhouse, a wonderful new independent film written and directed by 36-year old Todd Solondz, has just opened commercially. If you have been disappointed (as I have) by such recent indy efforts as I Shot Andy Warhol and Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, Welcome to the Dollhouse will go a long way to compensate, and then some.Welcome to the Dollhouse is the story of 11-year old Dawn Wiener, as she suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous humiliation attendant to a hellish 7th grade in suburban New Jersey. Let's face it, it would be kind to call Dawn awkward and geeky, a fact not in the least bit lost on her
schoolmates, who tease and taunt her in ways that are sometimes out and out brutal. And there is no consolation to be found on the home front. Mr. and Mrs. Wiener are emotionally absent for Dawn, much more intent on lavishing their praise and attention on her younger sister Missy (Daria Kalinina) who, clad in her ballerina Tu-Tu, pirouettes her way through the film with such nauseating cuteness that you want to kill her.
It's a thought that, in one powerful sequence, occurs to Dawn as well. Then, there's Mark (Matthew Faber), the older brother. At one point described as "The king of the nerds," he divides his time neatly between his computer and his rock band (in which he plays clarinet!), and early on, viewers are treated
to a rendition of the Stones' Satisfaction that is so bad, it will have you rolling in the aisles. The musical quality of the band takes a definitive turn for the better when older and longer- haired teenage heart-throb Steve (Eric Mabius) is recruited as the new lead singer. Dawn is instantly smitten, but of course, her feelings aren't even remotely reciprocated.
The crux of Welcome to the Dollhouse, however, is the dark and complex relationship which develops between Dawn and the school bully Brandon McCarthy (Brendan Sexton, Jr.). Brandon starts out as the stock bully from the wrong side of the track, given to such monstrous behavior as threatening Dawn with "Rape." I place this in quotes because it is one of the film's major
notions that children appropriate adult language of violence, use it without fully understanding the true import of what they're saying, and occasionally even transform it (unintentionally and hence very poignantly) into meaning something very near the opposite. The would-be "rape" scene is arguably the most fascinating and touching scene in the film, and the best scene of its kind in any American film I can recall about children. Suffice it to say nothing remotely approaching a rape actually occurs. Quite the contrary, points of commonality are subtly and tentatively formed between this seemingly unlikely pair based on their shared feelings of intense alienation and hurt.
Welcome to the Dollhouse is ostensibly a comedy and many, many moments will make you laugh. But there are just as many moments that will make you shiver, for Mr. Solondz does not shy away from those moments of humiliation and pain which we all know are so much a part of growing up. The young actors are amazing, and the adults are not bad either, though it is in the nature of this kind of film that they tend slightly towards caricature. But what is most rare and admirable is Mr. Solondz's unrelenting honesty and assiduous avoidance of cutesiness and sentimentality. I can't wait to see his future work. If Welcome to the Dollhouse is any indication, Todd Solondz is someone to watch closely.
An interview with the filmaker.