X
- 1996
- R
- Columbia TriStar Home Video
- 1 h 28 m
- 1996
- R
- Columbia TriStar Home Video
- 1 h 28 m
Summary Welcome to the Dollhouse is a stark suburban comedy about 11-year-old Dawn Wiener (Matarazzo), a middle child in middle school in the middle of New Jersey. (Sony Pictures Classics)
Directed By: Todd Solondz
Written By: Todd Solondz
- 1996
- R
- Columbia TriStar Home Video
- 1 h 28 m
- 1996
- R
- Columbia TriStar Home Video
- 1 h 28 m
Welcome to the Dollhouse
7.7
Where to Watch
Summary Welcome to the Dollhouse is a stark suburban comedy about 11-year-old Dawn Wiener (Matarazzo), a middle child in middle school in the middle of New Jersey. (Sony Pictures Classics)
Directed By: Todd Solondz
Written By: Todd Solondz
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 20 Critic Reviews
83
95% Positive
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
5% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 20 Critic Reviews
83
95% Positive
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
5% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Todd Solondz's grand prize winner at this year's Sundance Film Festival lapses into satire, but its parodistic slant only exaggerates what is truthful, making the unpleasantness of that awkward age all the more disturbing and hilarious. It's a horror film starring reality in the monster role.
Though lacking the sensationalistic elements of a movie like "Kids", Dollhouse offers unflinching realism, meticulous attention to detail and deliciously wicked humor as it explores the growing pains of a misfit.
With a fine vengeance along with flashes of great, unexpected tenderness, Mr. Solondz lethally evokes every petty humiliation that his seventh-grade heroine can't wait to forget.
Hilarious and stunningly frank, writer-director Todd Solondz's evocation of awkward adolescence is a bracing antidote to the counterfeit nostalgia of "The Wonder Years" or "My So-Called Life".
It may not be to everybody's taste, but this is a daring antidote to its more saccharine cousins.
Solondz ("Fear, Anxiety and Depression") is almost unrelenting in his quirky fixation with the adolescent outsider and he pursues visions of everyday human injury nearly to the point of caricature. But he stops just short, and this amusingly twisted film mixes humor and heart-tugging sadness with a disturbing vitality.
This obsessive movie, awarded the grand jury prize at the Sundance festival, may not quite live up to its advance billing; the subject is powerful, but the filmmaking often seems slapdash, and the final half hour dithers.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 30 User Ratings
7.7
90% Positive
27 Ratings
27 Ratings
3% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
7% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 30 User Ratings
7.7
90% Positive
27 Ratings
27 Ratings
3% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
7% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Awards
Film Independent Spirit Awards
• 1 Win & 5 Nominations
20/20 Awards
• 3 Nominations
Young Artist Awards
• 2 Nominations
