Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)

1h 28mins

6/10

First time watch

Coming of Age – Dark Comedy – Alienation

Dawn is a painfully awkward Junior High student, who is relentlessly bullied at school, ignored by her teachers, dismissed by her family and desperately longing for someone/anyone to truly see and cared for her.

I spent most of this film wanting to jump in and shake the adults for not looking out for poor Dawn.

This film is great at showing how cruel kids can be to one another when they are trying to find their place among their world at school. Poor Dawn doesn’t do anything to any of her peers, but still manages to rub them up the wrong way. She then takes this frustration out on the only people she feels able to, those younger than her, her sister Missy and only friend Ralphy.

I found moments of this film pretty jarring, especially a bully’s threat of rape after school, but that then gets down played and kind of brushed off. This might be to reflect young Dawn’s innocence and not really understanding what this threat actually means. The bully themself might also be too young to actually know what that words means.

A quirky, coming of age story with comedic elements but a dark under-tone.

Would not watch again