Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996)
Directed by Todd Solondz
An unattractive 7th grader struggles to cope with suburban life as the middle child with inattentive parents and bullies at school.
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What critics compared Welcome to the Dollhouse to
To anyone familiar with the work of Todd Solondz, it seems like we could be in for some uncomfortable humiliation à la Welcome to the Dollhouse , where something bad happens to someone who deserves better.
And what’s more impressive than that is the way he unflinchingly and unsparingly follows a young girl on the outside of middle-school society while avoiding either sentimentalizing her or descending into the callous misanthropy that marred Todd Solondz’s conceptually similar Welcome to the Dollhouse .
Eighth Grade is, first and foremost, a charming coming of age comedy, that is never judgmental towards its lead character despite her adolescent mistakes; in fact, it’s far too wholesome to even be mentioned in the same breath as its closest narrative analogue, Todd Solondz’ dyspeptic 1995 film Welcome to the Dollhouse.
With the exception of those omnipresent screens—and headphones—these are themes that have been explored in many films over many years, with varying degrees of comforting humor (from the caustic “Welcome to the Dollhouse” to the comparatively vacuous “Mean Girls”).
It’s like what Mark says to Dawn in 1995’s Welcome to the Dollhouse , (pardon me, better movie): “High school is better.
Not since Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) has a comedy captured so vividly the agony and the ecstasy—well, OK, it's all agony—of being a homely, marginalized teenage girl.
"Ghost World", based on Daniel Clowes comic novel, has the keen incisive eye of "Rushmore" and "Welcome to the Dollhouse".
It's often pretty grim, venturing into the same territory occupied by Todd Solondz's films, Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness .
Although it's based on another source (Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of the same title), "Ghost World" is reminiscent of nothing so much as director Terry Zwigoff's last outing, the documentary "Crumb," crossed with the nightmarish "Welcome to the Dollhouse."
Much like Todd Solondz's shockingly effective "Welcome to the Dollhouse", Ghost World is a masterfully crafted mosaic of growing pains and self-awareness that is so convincingly perceptive.
For a good hour or so, the film plays along in the vein of “Happiness” and “Welcome To The Dollhouse,” cutting a quirky, captivating style, yet never losing sight of the darkness of the material.
Directed by Brigham Young University film graduate Jared Hess and written with his wife, Jerusha, "Napoleon" suggests Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse" stuffed into the confines of an MTV interstitial skit.
In many ways Hess' film owes considerable debt to the likes of Tod Williams' The Adventures of Sebastian Cole and Todd Solondz' Welcome to the Dollhouse, at least in terms of narrative structure and the deadpan exploration of the outer fringes of the high school social system.
When Napoleon appears in moonboots, elastic-waistband pants and a teal, wolf-emblazoned t-shirt, it's clear there hasnt been a movie character of such social-bullseye proportions since Heather Matarazzos Weiner-Dog in Welcome to the Dollhouse .
With its horribly geeky and painfully needy characters, this black comedy by Jared Hess bears a certain resemblance to Todd Solondz's Welcome to the Dollhouse but steers clear of Solondz's punishing nihilism, allowing its hopeless misfits some genuine comfort in one another's friendship.
Unlike Todd Solondz's acidic Welcome to the Dollhouse, rife with stinging perceptions, Napoleon Dynamite ends up diluting its potency with some unbelievable side trips.
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The end result has wit approximate to Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse," plus the cheap special effects and gratuitous, sexually charged carnage of a "Toxic Avenger" film.
His New Jersey is not the New Jersey of Todd Solondz (Dark Horse, Welcome to the Dollhouse) or Woody Allen (Broadway Danny Rose), although we can see the broad outlines.
Melissa Sagemiller ("Soul Survivor") and Heather Matarazzo (still best known for "Welcome to the Dollhouse") play sorority girls.
…by Walter Chaw Greta Gerwig's hyphenate debut bears the influence of erstwhile collaborator Noah Baumbach's urbane micro-comedies--Hal Hartley's, too, along with some DNA borrowed from Ghost World and Welcome to the Dollhouse for spice.
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For a while, it seems like Anderson might be trying to do his own version of Welcome to the Dollhouse.
Based on the book series by Jeff Kinney, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" is no "Welcome to the Dollhouse," but as a PG-rated family film navigating the frequent pitfalls and rare triumphs of a sixth grade nothing, it's got a certain charm and wisdom about it.