An honest and touching coming of age story that reminds us all how it felt to be a cunt in high school.

Like Todd Solondz's next film Happiness, this is pretty brutal and fucked up at times, but it's also a pretty honest and even kinda sincere story that's hilarious throughout. Does it make me a fucked up bastard for laughing my way through the whole fucked up film? Probably.

Oh yeah, and I gotta give a BIG thanks to Claire Ramirez for giving me a link to this film when I couldn't find one. Thanks Claire Bear!

Brandon, I don't mean to be a cunt.

i know a girl who dances just like dawn wiener.

A cunt convention.

School life through the darkest of lenses. By turns blackly comic, tragic and terrifyingly familiar, Todd Solondz's calling card captures the everyday horror of high school in a manner rarely seen before or since. Heather Matarazzo's shy, unattractive and intensely awkward teenager has a world of humiliations heaped upon her. Her growing sexual awareness (witness the heartfelt and doomed idolisation of Steve), awful family who are too self-involved to care, and doomed romance with a kid who vows to rape her are all played water-tight, pitch black.

There's too many wonderful scenes to mention, but my favourite has to be the fate of Missy, spite being the most knowing teenage response for me, and that last, lost heartfelt scene on the bus.

Cruelly funny and wonderfully poignant; sour and edgy American indie at its best.

And to think Todd Solondz was a name I hadn't even heard before I watched Happiness a month or so ago during a self-curated Philip Seymour Hoffman season. I have every intention of going through the rest of his films now, both of these have been sublime dark comedies and right up my proverbial alley.

Great performances throughout from the young actors involved here. Hilarious, shocking and compelling stuff all round.

One of my favorite dark comedies. Unlike others of the genre, which usually involves death and hilariously crazy people (Clockwork Orange, American Psycho come to mind) Dollhouse uses emotional damage and more realistic characters, which is far more effective and in my opinion harder to make funny. Still, Solondz does it with ease.

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I 100% believe "Napoleon Dynamite" was inspired by this film.

Read my review at...

http://revronmovies.blogspot.com/2013/03/welcome-to-dollhouse.html

This is probably the best movie about the darkest, more complicated aspects of growing up. Heather Matarazzo is amazing. Why isn't she in more movies?

Now this was a strange one. Welcome to the Dollhouse is centred on an unattractive 7th grader who is clearly a social outcast, alienated from her parents, siblings and classmates.

I thought it was a fairly accurate depiction of how unforgiving and cruel high school can be for some people but as I said it's such a strange film. There are moments that are funny when they really shouldn't be and there are moments where I just plain did not know how to react to. And as for the dialogue, I mean some of this stuff that comes out the character's mouths is crazy.

Heather Matarazzo as the film's star does a great job; she has a very awkward quality about her. She almost acts as if she were an alien visiting earth for the first time.

La secundaria puede ser un periodo muy dificil para muchos jovenes, sin embargo para Dawn Wiener es un verdadero infierno. Ella es una chica rechazada por todos (hasta sus propios padres); aun cuando hace su mayor esfuerzo el mundo parece estar en su contra.
"Welcome to the Dollhouse" es una pelicula que perfectamente retrata la vida escolar y los abusos que uno sufre por parte de los niños "populares"; al igual que la sexualidad latente y el primer enamoramiento.
La cinta es seria aunque contiene escenas de humor negro como cuando secuestran a la hermana de Dawn. Cabe mencionar que la actuacion de Heather Matarazzo es muy buena (es triste pensar que recientemente ha salido en bodrios como "Princess Diaries" o "Hostel"). En conclusion "Welcome to the Dollhouse" es una muy buena muestra de cine norteamericano.

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

A depressingly sad take of a girl who is almost ghost like to her family and spat on by her peers and she seems to accept it and keep trudging on day to day. No happiness to be found here - be warned!

The rare Todd Solondz film that is unique and peculiar without being uncomfortably so. The lead performance by Heather Matarazzo is the key here.