Rating: 
Summary: this is a great, great film.
Review: i first saw this, thinking it would just kinda be average sundance fare (some sort of slacker feature in the vein of *shudder* Clerks), but i was proved wrong. what we have here is one of the greatest black comedies i have ever seen. the plot basically consists of the misadventures of Dawn, a young girl trapped in a kafkaesque junior high experience. the film glides on, providing one more tragedy for Dawn to suffer from, be it the ominous presence of a malevolent sociopath of a bully, or "cheating" claims, and of course her ever-present sister. yes, todd solondz has captured suburbia as an unforgiving land that is nearly on the same level as Hubert Selby Jr.'s Brookyn. it's a wonderful film. most people will claim it's merely alienated and tragic, but it has an inner sweetness at the core that, while not immediately visible, will grow more and more evident, until the film has finished and you will have an excellent moviegoing experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Thanks for reminding me, Todd.
Review: It wasn't funny when I lived it, and it isn't funny now.
Rating:
Summary: Depressing stuff
Review: I rented this movie because I had been told by some friends that it was a great black comedy. I fail to see any comedy in this movie whatsoever. Instead, I found myself dragged into the misery of the main character and her despicable family. It was a compelling idea, no doubt, but Solondz would have been well served to lighten this movie up a little bit.
Rating:
Summary: Realism Magnified A Thousand Times...
Review: Writer/director Todd Solondz said he wrote WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE as his "response" to TV's The Wonder Years. Before you argue otherwise -- no, The Wonder Years was not realistic. You didn't have to grow up in the 60s to recognize that. It had realistic MOMENTS but, as a whole, everything was glossed over with nostalgia and highly romanticized Americana. But that works on TV. The medium of the movies allows a writer or director to be darker, more realistic, and more tragic for effect.Only, Solondz didn't merely go for realism -- he magnified it a thousand times to really drive home his point. Hence the reviews that say this movie isn't realistic. No, it is realistic, but those teenage feelings of angst and alienation are distorted, compounded and compressed into 90 minutes. If Dawn's torture was lessened even a little, the movie wouldn't have had as much of an impact. It gives the movie its drama and even its comedy. While we frown at Dawn's tragedies, we can't help but laugh because of the OVERWHELMING amount of turmoil Dawn must fight through on a daily basis. It's a fascinating manipulation of the audience on Solondz's part: we laugh at Dawn but we also see a little part of ourselves in her. So we're kinda laughing at ourselves. Maybe, like Dawn, you had a spoiled baby sister, or a geeky older brother who felt superior to you, or parents that didn't understand you (or even try to), or an older guy/girl you hopelessly had a crush on. Most of us never endured the amount of sheer torture Dawn does, but every teenager has experienced some level of alienation at home and at school. And we can laugh, because most of us have already made it through that awkward part of our lives relatively unscathed. Whether Dawn makes it through or not depends on your interpretation of the final scene. I saw it as Dawn "going along to get along," which is pretty much the best way to make it through those harsh teenage years anyway. It's not a particularly bright ending, but you know she'll awkwardly make it through these difficult years. Like her brother tells her, once she gets to high school "they'll still call you names, but not as much to your face." He's obviously been where Dawn is now, and even HE made it through! And WE know it, too. We pushed through those years, and now we've earned the right to watch something like this and laugh. The absolute key to this movie's success (besides Solondz's writing) was the casting of Heather Matarazzo as Dawn Wiener. She looked the part. She sounded the part. Even her posture and body movements screamed "awkward." Absolutely perfect performance on her part. It had to be, because if you didn't buy Heather's performance, you didn't care about what happened to her character. It's one of my favorite performances of the entire 90s. Which brings us back to The Wonder Years. The Wonder Years wasn't told form the point of view of the kid. It was from the point of view of the ADULT the kid eventually would become, which is what gave the show it's "Gee, all in all, wasn't life pretty great?" feeling. DOLLHOUSE is centered around Dawn. We feel what she feels and that, along with Matarazzo's performance, is what gives WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE its power. It's a tremendous movie -- one of the best of the 90s. FOUR AND A HALF STARS.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome to the hell of Junior High!
Review: Would have been a more appropriate title for this masterpiece. Very dark, depressing, and realistic. I had to pinch myself to make sure I was not reliving my own preadolescence. Nonetheless, a compelling piece of filmmaking. Matarazzo's Dawn has lost life's lottery in terms of looks, family, friends. Sandwiched between a techno-geek older brother and a little tutu-bottomed sister who twitters through life, Dawn fades into the background so completely her own parents are not aware of her existence until she does something to piss them off. Dawn is mercilessly tormented at school; part of you roots for her and part of you wants to join in. Matarazzo does an excellent job of making Dawn sympathetic, yet realistic. I felt her frustration keenly when she leaned over her little sleeping sister with a hammer, debating whether or not her lot in life would be improved if she simply bashed the competition's head in. So hungry for love is Dawn that she accepts the violent attentions of the neighborhood juvenile delinquent (the amazing Brendan Sexton), even though his interest in her extends only to wanting to "rape her after school." Through the film, Dawn gains a little insight, becomes a little more her own person, and you think she might make it. The ending is weird and somewhat dissatisfying, but then again it does go along with the rest of this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: A good 'rent' movie.
Review: I got this movie by mistake from Columbia House, and didn't send it back because I didn't want to wait. I watched it that night, and found it really funny, but that's all. It was amusing. I would NEVER call it OSCAR AWARD material, but something you could watch when you were board or wanted to rent a movie. The teasing part (the kids at her school) was realistic, but I didn't think the family or even Dawn portraid realistic people. Come on now, what family is really not going to notice you are even there? I laughed my @$$ off when she wouldn't eat the cake and her mother said "then you will sit there until it's gone," and she sat there all night. Very funny. Also when she ran away and the parents didn't notice, funny, but not OSCAR material (whoever said that should watch it again and realize that it's not). It was also funny when Dawn kept telling that guy (can't remember his name) how nice her fingers were...she didn't get what finger-f***ing was (you'll know when you watch it). I was funny, but it was more Bevis and Butthead or Southpark funny. So stupid it was funny. I would watch it again, but not OSCAR material. That's like saying SOUTHPARK should get an Academy Award.
Rating:
Summary: You call this funny?
Review: A friend and I rented this, and then sat as our terriblefeelings of insecurity and childhood traumas were played out on the screen. It wasn't funny. I know what funny is. Seeing a girl in junior high, who has never even kissed a boy, offer to sleep with an olderguy in order to be popular is sad. The main character is portrayed as utterly pathetic and miserable.
Rating:
Summary: 'Welcome' to a Fantastic New Film-maker
Review: Todd Solondz has proven his talent as an aritist with the dark, wickedly funny satire Happiness, but this is his first, much more modest attempt and it works to an extent. Heather Matarazzo plays an unattractive seventh grader having to endure her school and her family. She finds herself ridiculed by her classmates and dispised by her mother, who wanted an attractive young bombshell of a daughter and looks to have that criteria met by her younger sister. With rejection awaiting her every turn she forms a kind of trauma bond with one of her bullies, who after threatening to rape her she discovers is equally scared and can relate to. It's a painful film to watch and lacks the comedic levity that Solondz sprinkled through his follow-up film, which though superior can't match the intensity of Dollhouse. I can easily recommend this film but I also suggest you take a good look at it's content and are in an appropriate mood to handle such an unpleasant viewing experience.
Rating:
Summary: The most horrific film ever
Review: Some people say that "The Exorcist" is the most scary movie ever. Some say its "Jaws", then some say its Dan Quayle. Not for me. For me, its "Welcome to the Dollhouse". I had to see in a spaces. Part by part, scene by scene, because it was just to painful to watch. Never had any director put on screen so truthfully the pain, misery and loneliness that comes when you are bully. I know that personnally. The story is about this geeky teen, played with natural charm by Matarazzo. She's tormented at school, ignored by here parents in favor of her "so cute you hate her" sister. She falls in love with this much older bum, makes a sort of friend from a bully who wants to rape her, etc. All her attempts to be accepted, to be recognized, backfires terribly. In the story of this girl, director Todd Solondz really manages to show how a segrated society we have and how reputation and looks is more important then what you really are inside. And that is more scary than a shark or an alien.
Rating: 
Summary: quirky look at junior high
Review: I caught this movie on BRAVO the other night. I'm not sure what reaction director Todd Solondz was gunning for; disgust? intrigue? The funniest part of the film was when Dawn runs off to NYC and her family doesn't even realize she's gone. (It seemed as if their sole concern was the youngest daughter). Brendan Sexton gives a good performance as Dawn's loser boyfriend.
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