Movie Review- Welcome to the Dollhouse

I have not done a movie review in a while. I have seen several films, Taxi Driver, Cape Fear, Chinatown, but none of them inspired me to do a movie review. The movie I saw yesterday did inspire me. Welcome to the Dollhouse is an independent film about a seventh grade girl, Dawn, and her life. It takes place over a span of a few weeks or at least that was my impression. She is made fun of constantly because her last name is Wiener (pronounced weener) and so she is called Wiener Dog. She is also struggling with junior high while her older brother is in high school and trying to start a band. Her younger sister is of course the cute little dancer, who is always telling on Dawn because Dawn takes her annoyance at everyone in school out on the little sister. Dawn has few friends and struggles socially. The movie is short, but very well done.

I kind of identified with Dawn, as I pretty much hated middle school. It is a time where everyone is just beginning to try to figure out who they are and hormones have started racing and you just have not figured out how to handle yourself. There are also some great scenes where she has a crush on this high school boy, that is in her brother's band and she is trying to figure out ways to hang out with him and even attract him. I guess this film is kind of like Mean Girls and all of those other films that come out where one girl is supposed to be ugly and unpopular, but rallies the whole school against the "mean girl". This film is better as the unpopular girl really is not super attractive like Lindsay Lohan (yes she is a bit skanky now, but still attractive in Mean Girls and hence makes no sense). This film is maybe more like Heathers, but not as long and there is no revenge just the trials and tribulations of being a junior high girl, which I wasn't, but I can still understand the pain she had to deal with.

So this is the quick review, see this movie if you want to revisit the pain of junior high and see a really well done movie.