Heather Matarazzo

Matthew Faber

Daria Kalinina

Brendan Sexton III

Eric Mabius

Will Lyman

Rica Martens

Dimitri Iervolino

Stacey Moseley

Herbie Duarte

Telly Pontidis

Christina Brucato

Victoria Davis

Zsanné Pitta

Angela Pietropinto

Bill Buell

Christina Vidal

Siri Howard

Scott Coogan

Josiah Trager

Ken Leung

Elizabeth Martin

Richard Gould

Beverly Hecht

Teddy Coluca

Tommy McCarthy

James O'Donoghue

Deanna Barillari

Molly Howe

Lorelei Mahoney

Todd Solondz

Donna L. Bascom

Jill Wisoff

Randy Drummond

Alan Oxman

Ann Goulder

Susan Block

Lori Solondz

Melissa Toth

Nancy Cabrera

Margaret Crimmins

Tony Volante

Dan Partland

Ted Skillman

Lucio Seixas

Jeffrey A. Eplett

Learan Kahanov

Chad Braden

Morgan J. Freeman

Susanna Graves

Kelly McKaig

Affonso Gonçalves

Avery S. Brandon

Gabor Szitanyi

Heidi Kulow

Joana Vicente

Alex Wolfe

Comedy

Drama

Welcome to the Dollhouse

Suburban Pictures

United States of America

CinemaSerf

Well if you were ever in doubt about the fallacies of the "American dream" then you need look no further than the life of the young and rather unfortunately named "Dawn Wiener" (Heather Matarazzo). Her life with her geeky brother "Mark" (Matthew Faber) is comfortable enough, but her parents aren't really that interested in her and she is bullied at school by "Brandon" (Brendan Sexton). Her brother has a garage band and it's fronted by the dashing "Steve" (Eric Mabius) in whom she has an almighty crush. Of course she is too young to realise that were he to reciprocate in any way he'd be sent to jail! As so often happens with those who are picked on, she starts to pick on someone else - her little sister "Missy" (Daria Kalinina) and this earns her the annoyance of her family. Feeling adrift and rather abandoned, she begins to seek a bit of solace with her tormentor whilst never quite giving up on her older, would-be, beau - but what can come of any of this? Matarazzo does well here, offering us a gently honest interpretation of a child who is not unloved, just unnoticed. She presents us with a vulnerable character whom you would expect to spend her entire life overlooked, living in the same town for a life unhappily married to a local plumber. Sexton is also quite engaging as the outwardly aggressive and brutish character whom, as we get to know him, is actually not in a wildly dissimilar boat to "Dawn". It's got some soul to it and that, and a certain simplicity, makes for a plausible observation of a life destined to remain, at best, in the slow lane.