Welcome to the Dollhouse
| Welcome to the Dollhouse | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Todd Solondz |
| Produced by | Todd Solondz |
| Written by | Todd Solondz |
| Starring |
Heather Matarazzo Brendan Sexton III Eric Mabius Matthew Faber |
| Music by | Jill Wisoff |
| Cinematography | Randy Drummond |
| Edited by | Alan Oxman |
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Production
company |
Suburban Pictures
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| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics |
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Release date
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Running time
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87 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $800,000 |
| Box office | $4,569,019 |
Welcome to the Dollhouse is a 1995 American coming-of-age black comedy film. An independent film, it launched the careers of Todd Solondz and Heather Matarazzo.
Eleven-and-a-half-year-old Dawn Wiener is a shy, unattractive, unpopular seventh grader living in a middle-class suburban community in New Jersey. Her seventeen-year-old brother Mark is a nerdy high school student who plays clarinet in a garage band and shuns girls in order to prepare for college. Dawn's younger sister, eight-year-old Missy, is a spoiled, manipulative little girl who pesters Dawn and dances around the house in a tutu. Their mother dotes on Missy and sides with her in disputes with Dawn. Their father is a meek, immature, selfish man who sides with Dawn's mother in arguments with Dawn. Dawn's only friend is an effeminate fifth-grade boy named Ralphy, with whom she shares a dilapidated clubhouse in her backyard.
At school, Dawn is ridiculed and her locker is covered in graffiti. After her teacher unfairly keeps her after school, she is threatened with rape by a bully named Brandon McCarthy, who also has trouble socializing. At home Dawn's mother punishes her for calling Missy a lesbian and refusing to be nice to her. Dawn is suspended for three days after she accidentally hits a teacher in the eye with a spitball. Brandon's first attempt to rape Dawn after school fails, but he orders her to meet him again. After she complies, he takes her to an abandoned field. He starts an earnest conversation with her and kisses her.
Mark's band is joined by Steve Rodgers, a charismatic and handsome aspiring teenage rock musician who agrees to play in the band in exchange for Mark's help in school. Dawn decides to pursue him romantically after he spends time with her, even though one of Steve's former girlfriends tells Dawn she has no chance of being with him.
Dawn and Brandon form an innocent romance, but Brandon is arrested and expelled for suspected drug dealing. Dawn visits his home and learns that he has an abusive and alcoholic widowed father and a mentally challenged older brother who requires constant supervision. After kissing Dawn, Brandon runs away to avoid being sent to military school.
After angrily rejecting Ralphy, Dawn is left with no friends. When she refuses to tear down her clubhouse to make room for her parents' 20th wedding anniversary party, her mother has Mark and Missy destroy it and gives them her share of a cake. At the party, Dawn intends to proposition Steve, but gets cold feet and is contemptuously rebuffed. Steve plays with Missy, who pushes Dawn into a kiddie pool. That evening, the family watches a videotape of the party, laughing when Dawn falls into the water. That night, Dawn smashes the tape and briefly brandishes her hammer over Missy as she sleeps.
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