Rated R for a smattering of offensiveness.
Todd Solondz has been a master of “cringe cinema” for more than 25 years and Welcome To The Dollhouse is the misanthropic director at his peak. He understands what real children and real teenagers go through better than most filmmakers do and he certainly understands the effects of bullying. Heather Matarazzo’s take on Dawn Wiener is nicely complex too because she isn’t just a sweet victim of the jerks at school or a victim of her own indifferent family. She’s awkward and out of touch with the kids at school, but she also has no trouble paying that abuse forward to younger kids. So show your fingers to your unattainable crush before the dangerous boy who likes you threatens to do terrible things, but first inhale the 424th Ellises’ Analysis as we try our best to get into a good school while we break down this movie.
Well, Actually: It’s actually Robert Wisdom in that infamous sex scene with Selma Blair in Storytelling, not Keith David.
If you feel guilty about your missing sister and have to trek to the big city to find her, you just might need some Sparkplug Coffee in your travel mug. Wait…”might”? You DO need it! And the even better news is that using our promo code (“top100project”) will nab you a discount of a glorious 20%.
The Twitter tweets are in play. We are @moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis
Ryan also warbles on about flicks with sports in them. It’s called Scoring At The Movies
LINKS:
Links to: Happiness and Storytelling and Palindromes and Wiener-Dog and Eighth Grade
Previously on The Ellises’ Analysis: Starship Troopers
January 17th on The Ellises’ Analysis: Bowling For Columbine
T100P 