ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, July 5, 1996                   TAG: 9607050027
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1    EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW 
SOURCE: ELEANOR RINGEL ATLANTA JOURNAL AND CONSTITUTION 

'DOLLHOUSE' HUMOROUS - BUT PAINFULLY SO

Welcome to the so-called life of Dawn Wiener, a.k.a. "Wiener Dog," a.k.a "Dog Face."

Dawn (Heather Matarazzo) is the 11-year-old protagonist of " Welcome to the Dollhouse," an alternately hilarious and excruciating look at one seventh-grader's personal hell.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Todd Solondz's bleak black comedy strikes a delicate balance between the poignant and the absurd. His very first scene is enough to send anyone who ever experienced a minute's worth of adolescent angst diving under his or her seat.

Dawn is embarking on that daily junior-high Siege Perilous: finding somewhere to eat lunch in the school cafeteria. Even as she settles into what appears to be a safe place - i.e., totally out of the way - she's surrounded by a gaggle of giggly cheerleaders who tauntingly chant in unison, "Lesbo! Lesbo!" (and let's face it: Seventh-grade lunch is not an easy place to debate the pros and cons of lesbianism as a viable lifestyle).

Thankfully, Solondz chooses to retreat from this nerve-racking pitch of pecking-order torture. He switches gears to a kind of all-purpose suburban mockery. School may be sheer agony, but Dawn's home life isn't much better. Her parents (Angela Pietropinto and Bill Buell) far prefer her computer-geek older brother (Matthew Faber), who plays clarinet in a beyond-awful garage band. And they positively worship her younger sister (Daria Kalinina), a tutu-wearing cutie-pie.

The comic exaggeration - especially an outrageous episode concerning a kidnapping - serves as a buffer against Dawn's ongoing pain. So does an unlikely relationship that evolves between her and a tough kid (Brendan Sexton Jr.) who turns out to be a kind of kindred spirit.

Far crueler - and more accurate - is her massive unrequited crush on a high school hunk (Eric Mabius) who sings with her brother's band.

The picture's particular courage is that it refuses to sentimentalize Dawn or turn her victimization into a martyrdom. There's no swan-self lurking under her ugly duckling surface. She's just your average, ungainly, picked-on kid whose life is likely to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better. In fact, her very ordinariness is part of the point and Matarazzo masterfully conveys the survivalist insularity such outcasts must cultivate.

Near the end, Dawn asks her brother if eighth grade is any better than seventh. In a rare moment of sibling solidarity, he answers, "Not really. But high school's better. They'll still call you names, but not so much to your face."

Such small favors are the essence of a world where the only way to keep going

is to take it one day - and one grade - at a time.

"Welcome to the Dollhouse"

*** 1/2

Starring Heather Matarazzo. Directed by Todd Solondz. Rated R for language and adult themes.

LENGTH: Medium:   65 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  Heather Matarazzo in "Welcome to the Dollhouse":  Your 
          average, ungainly, picked-on kid whose life is likely to get a whole
          lot worse before it gets any better. color.