Review of Welcome to the Dollhouse

Writer-director Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse" is both brutal and ridiculous, meaning: it will strike a deep chord with select viewers, while others will see through the film's veneer to the 'cleverness' at play. Solondz gets into one particular groove and never helps himself out. It would be a wise move. By the ninth or tenth humiliation against our heroine, an outsider named Dawn Wiener, one begins to tire of the ugly language, the over-the-top parents (awful), and the flatness of the film's entire conception. Solondz beats his one note to death, pummels poor Dawn without letting her stand up for herself (except once, in her brother's room), and seems to snicker behind her back. Why, for instance, does he have her continue with her thank you speech after the kids have already tired of her and begin jeering? He holds the shot for too long, for no purpose other than to expose more pain. Certainly the dead-end suburban scenario is captured vividly, providing ample room for black humor, irony, wistful teenage despair; however, Solondz is more interested in hammering home his point: that there's no way out for Dawn, and in a way we're all trapped in childhood. It's like a prank on the audience. **1/2 from ****