Welcome to the dollhouse

Todd Solondz’s debut feature is a darkly funny and bleak tale of the trials and horrors of high school outsiders. “Welcome to the Dollhouse” exacts with excruciating and all too familiar detail the ritualistic and cut throat pecking order of a New Jersey high school. In the title role Solondz has found an unusual alter ego in eleven year old Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo), whose thick glasses, social awkwardness and infantile dress sense have marked her with the cruel nickname of Wiener dog. This has made her into the prime target for every high school bully including Brandon (Brendon Sexton the 3rd), a vicious delinquent who is constantly threatening to rape Dawn after school. Brandon’s promise of sexual assault become one of the many obstacles Dawn must deal with in her unrelenting journey through puberty, along with unsympathetic parents, a younger prissy sister that is unbearably wholesome, and a painful crush on the dreamy school rebel Steve (Eric Mabius). Cast also includes Daria Kalinina, Matthew Faber and Dimitri Iervolino. (Awards: Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival)