Saw Wecome to the Dollhouse. It was a deeply frustrating movie. It revolves around Dawn, a girl who is the bottom of the social ladder in junior high. She sticks up for others who are victimized like she is but, recognizing her desire for companionship as a weakness, they instantly turn on her, cashing in her friendship for miniscule status-points. She seeks safe-harbor with her family. A family that, when they aren't actively ignoring her, are demanding sacrifices from her (with punishment, of course, if she does not comply.) Her barbie-doll-adorable little sister prances about the house in a ballerina outfit, whimsically highlighting the contrast between her effortlessly easy life and Dawn's life of unending trials and indignities. Her brother is a skinny lump of emotion-free nerd and her mother is a narcissist who probably resents her non-ballerina children for ruining her perfect life. Dawn's every attempt to fight back at the injustices in her life backfires spectacularly. She tells on a kid trying to cheat off of her, she gets in trouble. When she protests the harsh treatment, she's assigned a 100-word essay on dignity. The irony is cruel and what humor there is is pitch black. After about 15 minutes, I was rooting for Dawn to burn the whole fucking school down.
She even tries to buy affection with her body, seeking comfort and attention from an impossibly sleazy high-school boy (who looks about 30) who casually steals from her family and talks about ex-girlfriends who only lasted a few days. Her only other 'friend' is an angry, knife-owning boy who uses her in public as an outlet for his rage and in private as an outlet for his insecurities. Of the entire film, he is the kindest to her and even he sees her as just a resource to be exploited. It is depressing, but little wonder, that by the end of the film she's becoming just as bad as the rest of them, selfish and cruel. The only escape seems to be New York, a dangerous but perhaps better land. She never gets to New York.
I highly recommend this film to anyone who had a good experience in high school/junior high. If you had a shitty time of it, avoid this movie. A painful and frustrating film. Dawn is a pillar of strength in a sea of bullshit and that pillar is sinking.
I can't say I found high school to be all that pleasant. And at danger of generalizing my own experience beyond reason, I will say that while high schoolers are not universally cruel, I suspect cruelty to more the norm than the exception in high schools. My burgeoning sexuality and self-awareness left me emotionally raw and more apt to perceive slights by others and lash out in fashions that were often cruel--and I suspect many others have done the same. I don't think there is any way to remind people--and be people, I mean me--of how horrible high schoolers can be to one another.
ReplyDeleteI guess when I see this one in the bargain bin, I'll be staying on the far side.