This movie is very disturbing at parts but frequently funny in its small insights into human behavior and motivations. Todd Solondz seems to have an inexhaustible fascination with the random pain an loneliness inflicted on every on of us and I dont mind that he doesnt let the viewer off the hook with feelgood endings where the innocents are comforted and the victimizers get their just desserts. It makes his films singular, although not necessarily comfortable to sit through.
I come away from his movies(especially Welcome to the Dollhouse) thinking about the true consequences of the hurt people(and, by extension, I) perpetrate on other people- you cant help but thinking that these semi-comical tragedies and victimizations are happening as we speak and that speaks to the power of Solondz' vision. He does not, as Ive seen critics suggest, just throw a pile of anguish and pain on the screen just for it's own sake or to shock-I think there's a moral lurking about but it's one that the viewer has to discern.
I come away from his movies(especially Welcome to the Dollhouse) thinking about the true consequences of the hurt people(and, by extension, I) perpetrate on other people- you cant help but thinking that these semi-comical tragedies and victimizations are happening as we speak and that speaks to the power of Solondz' vision. He does not, as Ive seen critics suggest, just throw a pile of anguish and pain on the screen just for it's own sake or to shock-I think there's a moral lurking about but it's one that the viewer has to discern.