Do not watch this movie if you want to keep the Christmas spirit in your heart. Welcome to the Dollhouse is a grotesque portrayal of life as a transcendently unpopular 12-year-old girl who is striving so hard to be loved that she throws herself into the embrace of a would-be rapist as the only person who pays her any attention. This movie punches you in the gut and then repeatedly kicks you in the head while you’re down. It’s billed as a dark comedy but the emphasis is without question on “dark.” Recommended, but not for the faint-hearted or if you demand a movie with a happy – or even a merely hopeful – ending.

Comments

1. brokenface on 2005-12-22 00:19:32 wrote: what you didn’t like it? come on, it’s guys like Tod Solondz who make you feel better about yer own life! :) i love movies like his because hollywood endings are unattainable, your life is contstanly moving and you will never come to THAT happy ending, cause you still have to get up on monday and go to work. so what i’m saying is i like movies like these cause i’d never want my life to end up like thiers and i can say “you know i don’t have it that bad.” especially in economic hardtimes like these. anyway your flickr toys rock!

2. john on 2005-12-22 01:00:16 wrote: Oh no, I liked it. But if I ever want to pull myself out of a funk with an uplifting movie this is one of the last ones I’d choose. :-)

3. David on 2005-12-22 08:42:25 wrote: I kind of agree with brokenface on this. I feel quite normal and well adjusted after a Todd Solondz movie. Indeed, I once had a colleague who adored this film, saying “It’s the story of my life”. He was a very pleasant guy but one who found it very hard to keep a grip on happiness. It delighted him to find someone who articulate the misery of his teenage years in such a fashion. Unsurprisingly, “Happiness” is the title of Todd Solondz’s next movie which is even more outrageous.