Welcome To The Dollhouse
The first feature film by my new favourite screenwriter. Since discovering Solondz through his 2001 picture ‘Storytelling’, I have seen all of his commercial releases and I can’t seem to ease the frustration I have for knowing that I am jumping on an already jam-packed bandwagon. The reason I decided to leave the first until last is little more than coincidental but half way through watching ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse’, I started to wish it wasn’t so. The obscene black humour, tricky characters and controversial subplots that I am so fond of in his later film ‘Happiness’ seem to be nothing more than foetal here. Although the plot is as slippery as it is stodgy in the portrayal of a young schoolgirl loner, the punch lines and anecdotes seem so tame in comparison to Solondz’s later work. It is almost as if ‘…Dollhouse’ is an attempt at testing the water.
This distraction is inevitable and I am trying not to litter my genuine appreciation for what Solondz has created, but it is so hard! His debut feature length is without a doubt triumphant… Albeit rather cultivated in comparison to what was to follow, the film still sits on the rickety fence of controversy. The story reflects on tumultuous family life in suburban America, it stops to highlight the misery of the class loser and rejoices in her twisted personal victories. The plot is most cunning and certainly sets the ball rolling for the director’s future projects. I only regret not being there at the beginning, when there was still a bit more room on this bandwagon; it’s giving me cramp.
Copyright Daniel Emmerson 2008 all rights reserved
