Thanks for the memories!

Memorable, crazy movie

I wanted to but couldn't!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Matarazzo plays this prepubescent teen (excellently) who's the target of every possible social ordeal a teen-child could possibly be subjected to. The tone of the film is between pure caricature and strong realism, the events occurring are both totally exaggerated and genuinely ring true.So the movie is full of stuff happening, the weirdest (but still somehow realistic) stuff, does it while committing to good pace, and communicates its essence scene after scene with efficiency. The director makes it a point to establish clearly the goal and meaning of each section of the whole.Overall the cast is pretty spot-on, Matarazzo herself as Dawn, that young punk Brandon (who threatens her), her little sister and her annoying 'bitchy' face, the beautiful Steve of course... they had something very cohesive and efficient going on in this film generally.Strong 90's comedy: entertaining throughout, good actors with the right profiles, short and sweet, funny and with a number of social messages. 8/10.

"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!

This film well encapsulates the horrors of middle school, perhaps more than was your experience, but the point is well taken. This unfortunately-named girl (Dawn Wiener), whose plight is not helped by her gawky looks, nerdiness, and refusal to take her punishment lying down, brings the pain of middle school into sharp relief. Having read a lot of the comments on IMDb, it's clear that this movie resonates with many. Landmark director Todd Solondz doesn't shrink from depicting the most cringe-inducing, skin-peeling, soul-destroying tortures inflicted by kids on their peers during those difficult tweener/teen years. Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo) lives with a mother who has no idea of the pain in which her daughter is in and with a father with no guts to intervene to his wife on his daughter's behalf. Her older brother is an academic success, although also very nerdy and her younger sister is the belle of the ball who can do no wrong in her mother's eyes.Solondz has constructed a very plausible hell in which his young protagonist suffers. She has no friends save for one boy who is the only other member of her "Special People Club". Her locker is the site of some particularly vitriolic abuse (although, having worked at schools, I found it implausible to believe that no teacher would have intervened to have the abuse removed), she is called "lesbo" and one girl who is particularly nasty will not let her leave the restroom without taking a crap.I liked the fact that this protagonist does not take the abuse lying down. Solondz creates such a good movie that he does not make Wiener into a wallflower. Indeed, she reacts in sometimes callous ways, taking out the anger she feels on someone less powerful than her. It's not necessarily pretty, but it's human nature. She reacts in anger to several things and I found this refreshing. She is not depicted as an ineffectual person. She fights back against her treatment-which people do, in real life-and Solondz deserves credit for this characterization of his protagonist. This really is a tough film to watch but I think this is one many young teens and tweeners would do well to watch and discuss with their parents because it could be a jumping-off point for a discussion about bullying and cruelty at this very difficult age.

A prime quality that the DVD had for me was a price much higher than I usually can pay. Used to be that when I browsed IMDb details I sometimes looked at the tag at the top that showed availability in the different Amazon countries, availability as disk or tape or whatever. Way back then I purchased from local low cost shops, but it was interesting to browse. Then I progressed to purchases from the local, UK, Amazon but only for what I could pay for by cheque. Then I got to be able to pay electronically and it was suddenly possible to purchase low cost disks from second hand sources in the UK, Germany, USA and Canada, etc, via Amazon UK. The disk availability box at the top of an IMDb page was starting to have potential for real value, though I tended to search just in Amazon UK. Some of the really interesting disks were not available, some needed access to paying to a different country's Amazon, especially for low cost disks, but this was a massive start for being able to search for disks by title rather than from the more restricted range of what was available locally. Locally is still really useful, but it is more a serendipity sort of thing. Then the IMDb system changed. The disk availability button was not there. Then it was there but not showing the range of countries or versions of disks, if UK Amazon had the title in a variety of versions then either only one would be shown or an Amazon USA version would be shown. So, there was a basic indicator of availability, which is useful knowledge, just the way of searching the different stores was gone and at August 2009 this was still gone. So things were okay and unless an Amazon other than UK became the sole outlet for such as The Adventures Of Pete And Pete Season 3, some have a hunger for that Trachtenberg series, then things were tolerable. What happened instead was that Amazon USA became the sole outlet for Unfabulous Seasons 1 and 2. Also Zoey 101 seasons 3 and 4. While the prices are nothing like my ideal it was suddenly essential for me to get a payment method that Amazon USA accepts and in August 2009 I managed. Dollhouse. When I got to make my first order there was a copy of this at USA at a much lower price than I had ever noticed at Amazon UK or any other outlet. Except that order failed, it was not available for a delivery address in the UK. Two other items went through, though. It looks as if some traders are able to export, but not others. Later experiences told me that I still have a problem re availability of difficult to find titles. The outlook can seem bleak. The stuff that I had been noticing will mostly have not been available for export. * Dollhouse is from the year when season 3 of Pete, Pete appears and is a couple of years after Heather Matarazzo appeared in an episode of each of seasons 0 and 1. It is weaker than Pete, but in some ways it is as strong. I find that it echoes My Girl and Tideland, but from a different culture and in a more down to earth way. All have the main actor as of an appropriate age, scary but sense when musing on these sort of aspects. Dollhouse is bound to feel offensive to some who can accept My Girl. To me it has a reality that I can relate to more than with My Girl, though both stories are alien at the same time. Napoleon Dynamite, about a different age range and a different subset of symptoms, I now have to wonder how those characters would appear if that story was set at age eleven. Mysterious Skin and The Quiet expand on the range of faces of this. I found Dollhouse difficult to get into, but I vastly prefer this to Princess Diaries as that falls flat for me as soon as Mia gets the makeover, the point where one is supposed to gain empathy with Mia? Much is said of Dollhouse being a story about the difficulties that an ugly girl can face at age 12, but watch this with any care at all and it is obvious that this is a rather nice looking girl who is badly damaged by the ugly ways of those around her. One needs the right sort of helps to be able to get around that sort of thing and this story makes a loud comment about how real those helps can be. I have to like this feature a lot. The message board hints of some considering the three bad boys to be pure criminal types, but the strongest hint put in a criminal way. For me, Dollhouse gives a context that puts such into perspective. What this shows of their back to front reality, criminal seems an inappropriate label. That is the real strength of this feature. This is not about the apex of the pyramid of society, it shows a dunghill. Dawn comes out with some really putrid behaviour and there are some reviews here that consider that to be a reflection of her personality. To me, she is just showing some effects that can happen when one is blowing in the wind, chaff that does not have enough free will to escape being blown in that way. Rather than Dawn being horror I consider that she is blown into a horrifying and damaging situation, but one has had to have been in that sort of situation oneself to accept that is an aspect of her being a victim of horror.