Word: solondz
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...film is Todd Solondz's Happiness, winner of the International Critics' Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival and already the fall's succes de scandale. "I realize some of the material is shocking," Solondz told TIME, "but it's out there in the media every day. Celebrities are always talking about their own abuse. TV news programs discuss the atrocities of children being killed or raped. It has a freak-show quality; it's titillating. Still, I don't think anybody could use the word titillating about my movie. I hope people see there's a certain...integrity...
...Solondz' film is not just a nostalgic tribute to suburbs or even geekiness. At times he brings a malevolent darkness to "Dollhouse" which complements well the more mundane perversions of junior high life. Brandon McCarthy (Bredan Sexton Jr), a thug in Dawn's class, shows his affection for the hapless Dawn by making a variety of dates with her on which, he informs her ahead of time, he will rape her. It's a dangerous move on Solondz's part, but within the context of the film the threat of rape becomes so unreal, so divorced from the reality...
...Luckily Solondz' cast is up to the challenge of this loaded material. Matarazzo's performance is seamless, and it seems inconceivable that she could be anything other than the squinting, mouthbreathing girl she portrays. Her dead-pan performance means that her Dawn is tough, not easily crushed by the blows she keeps facing. The resiliency of the developing spirit is thus a tacit message of the film. Bredan Sexton Jr brings out the tender helplessness of a character that could otherwise seem downright evil, while not overplaying the "sensitive" card. Both these young actors deserve praise for the delicate, sophisticated...
Unfortunately for "Dollhouse", Solondz cannot achieve this same balance in his script. Towards the end of the movie, "Dollhouse" becomes weighted down by a heavyhanded serving of would-be farce. Missy is kidnapped and imprisoned under a shuffle-board court, Dawn runs away to Times Square to look at her, and the father is rushed to the hospital with the nervous breakdown. The strictly mundane world of "Dollhouse" cannot expand fast enough to support such broad, blowsy strokes...
...Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse" is still one of the most imaginative comedies in the theaters today, a carefully observed tour-de-force of detail and character sketch that will seem eerily familiar to those of us who served our time in suburban public schools. The fact that Solondz is a new filmmaker-- "Dollhouse" received the highest possible prize at this year's Sundance film festival-- gives hopes that the unevenness of this film will balance out into a smooth, steady vision in future films...