Line #75 Film/WelcomeToTheDollhouse


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2	[[quoteright:214:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/WelcomeToTheDollhouse.JPG]]
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4	''Welcome to the Dollhouse'' is a 1995 {{coming of age}} {{black comedy}} film written, produced and directed by Creator/ToddSolondz. The film stars Creator/HeatherMatarazzo in her [[StarMakingRole breakout role]] and was also Solondz's breakout film, winning the Grand Jury Prize at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival.
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6	Dawn Wiener (Matarazzo) is an unpopular, unattractive seventh grader whose family treats her as just as much of an outcast. She has great difficulty making friends and is almost always the target of cruel and isolating behavior from her peers. At home, she is the least favorite of the three Wiener children, a fact that is often exploited by her younger tutu-wearing sister Missy (the apple of their parents' eye) in order to get her in trouble. Dawn goes through life in a quiet and awkward state of mind.
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8	One day, Dawn's older brother Mark brings over a high school senior named Steve Rodgers to tutor him in exchange for Steve playing in Mark's band. Upon meeting, Dawn becomes infatuated with the older boy and develops a crush on him. Things get even more complicated for her as one of her classmates Brandon antagonizes her more and more, mostly because he has feelings for her.
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10	While ''Film/{{Palindromes}}'' is considered a nominal sequel, ''Film/WienerDog'' was released in 2016.
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12	Not to be confused with the TV series ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}''.
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14	----
15	!!This film provide examples of:
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17	* AdultsAreUseless: They're either sadistic like Dawn's mother and teacher or ineffectual like her father and principal.
18	%%* AlphaBitch: Lolita and Cookie at school, Missy at home.
19	* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Dawn. She's unattractive, shy, and extremely unpopular, frequently bullied at school, and has exactly one friend. Even in her own family, she's treated like garbage.
20	%%* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:Missy herself at the end, obviously.]]
21	* BerserkButton: Don't call Brandon a retard. [[spoiler:Dawn later learns that he's sensitive about the insult because his own brother is mentally disabled.]]
22	%%* BitchInSheepsClothing: Missy.
23	* BlackComedy: Darker than the darkest death metal band playing in a pitch-black abyss populated by {{Eldritch Abomination}}s who hold teens in a state of AndIMustScream while shouting "bloody murder" in a collective groan composed of the cries of dying children. Ah, TheNineties...
24	* BlackComedyRape: A number of examples.
25	** Brandon arranges ahead of time that he was going to rape Dawn. He calls her house to reschedule when it doesn't work out the first time. [[spoiler:He doesn't actually go through with it and instead kisses her]].
26	** Missy is kidnapped by a pedophile neighbor. He doesn't seem to have done anything to her, however, beyond filming her pirouette in her tutu.
27	** Mary Ellen Moriarity, a girl who spoke at Dawn's school about the dangers of talking to strangers, was kidnapped while memorizing her lines for "Hello Dolly." It is also hinted that she may have been raped.
28	* ButtMonkey: Dawn is a rather dark, humorous example. Extreme is not strong enough a word.
29	* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Unlike her tormenters, Dawn pays dearly the few times she tries to fight back, as when she gets in trouble with the principal for hitting a teacher with a spitball meant for Brandon. Her odious mother actually tells her that she has no right to fight back.
30	%%* TheCharmer: Steve.
31	* ClassicalAntiHero: Dawn's an insecure and unloved PinballProtagonist who's trapped in a downward spiral of misery who's either unable or unwilling to improve her situation.
32	* CrapsackWorld: [[EnforcedTrope Well, it is a Todd Solondz movie.]]
33	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: In the end, nothing at all has improved for Dawn, and she's in the exact same miserable state as before -- only this time she's utterly friendless and goes along with the Disney trip because there's no point to do anything but fit in.]]
34	** Made even worse in the semi-sequel ''Palindromes'' when [[spoiler:it's revealed that Dawn killed herself in the end]].
35	** Averted in ''Wiener-Dog'', which through a {{Retcon}} or AlternateUniverse, [[ThrowTheDogABone throws her massive bone]] and implies she may very well be on the way to [[EarnYourHappyEnding getting her happy ending]]. [[spoiler:Dawn has grown up, gotten a steady job as a veterinary nurse, and managed to reunite and reconnect with Brandon.]]
36	* DreadfulMusician: Mark and his band are completely talentless, and only Steve brings them slightly above horrible into something only kind of awful.
37	* EatingLunchAlone: Dawn is rejected from every table in the school cafeteria, the scene to purely encapsulate the mood of the movie it was used in the trailer as well.
38	* ExtremeDoormat: Dawn couldn't stand up for herself. She does try to on a couple of occasions but just gets in worse trouble.
39	* FamilyPortraitOfCharacterization: In one scene, a portrait of the Wiener family where they are posed properly (if with an artificial air) is shown. In the background, we can hear Dawn arguing with her parents; in contrast to their well-dressed selves in the portrait, they are dressed in gaudy clothes.
40	* ForTheEvulz: Seemingly the ''raison d'etre'' of anyone who makes Dawn miserable. For instance, the whole reason why Lolita wanted to watch Dawn take a dump was simply because she could.
41	* TheGhost: Missy doesn't appear in the sequel and is only brought up in conversation.
42	%%* HandsomeLech: Steve.
43	* HeldBackInSchool: Implied with Steve, who looks and acts much older than an average high schooler.
44	* HenpeckedHusband: Dawn's father comes across this way. When he tells her to listen to her mother and "make things easier on herself," it's as though he's speaking from experience.
45	* HopeSpot: Ironically, Missy's abduction. For a little while, it even looks like Dawn is now appreciated by her family at least, and Dawn herself seems to be resolved to take her life into her own hands.
46	* HumansAreBastards: Seriously, almost ''nobody'' in this film is a good person and nearly everyone abuses Dawn or treats her like garbage. She's either being ignored or abused wherever she goes.
47	* IconicOutfit: The outfit Dawn wears at her parents' anniversary party shows her stomach and is the most memorable outfit of the film, appearing on the poster.
48	* ImagineSpot: Used when Dawn goes to New York [[spoiler:after her sister is kidnapped. She imagines finding Missy and her life instantly improving.]]
49	* ImGoingToDisneyWorld: In a brief phone conversation between Dawn's mother and an unknown friend, it's brought up that Dawn is supposed to be going on a trip to Disney World with the school glee club to the mother's bewilderment, and she confides in her friend that she doesn't understand why Dawn would apparently NOT want to go on the trip. In the end, Dawn is on the school bus with the choir traveling on the interstate. Though it's not said where it was going, it can be assumed that Dawn was forced to go to Disney World with her classmates after all.
50	* ImpossiblyTackyClothes: Everything Dawn wears, but a lot of the other characters too. It's a Todd Solondz movie, after all.
51	%%* {{Jerkass}}: Most of the characters, to inhuman extremes.
52	* KidsAreCruel: Dawn's classmates represent one of the most accurate portrayals of middle schoolers in film history. Dawn is flat-out told that she's hated because she's ugly and she's constantly bullied. At home, Missy isn't much better and constantly pesters her.
53	** Lolita. One wonders what the other kids see in her.
54	* KubrickStare: Lolita gives a particularly frightening one during her introductory scene.
55	* JuniorHigh: The events take place during Dawn's middle school experience. It's a school period notorious for being uncomfortable and cruel for many, making it a nigh-perfect setting for what she's going through.
56	%%* LonghairedPrettyBoy: Steve.
57	* LoserProtagonist: Dawn. One look at her is enough to know she's going to be bullied quite heavily: she's unattractive, shy, dresses poorly, and almost entirely friendless.
58	%%* LoveHurts: Dawn and to a lesser extent, Brandon. Maybe Lolita.
59	* LoveTriangle: Lolita likes Brandon. Brandon likes Dawn. Dawn kind of likes Brandon, but is completely infatuated with Steve.
60	* LovingBully: Brandon torments Dawn because he likes her.
61	%%* ManipulativeBitch: Missy.
62	* MeaningfulName: The AlphaBitch character's name is ''Literature/{{Lolita}}''.
63	* MiddleChildSyndrome: Dawn. Her older brother gets attention for preparing to go to college and her younger sister is the pretty favorite. Her parents don't care about her and never even notice when she's missing.
64	* MiddleSchoolIsMiserable: Dawn Wiener is an awkward 12-year-old girl that is the epitome of "uncool" and suffers for it. Many students, and a teacher as well, take sadistic pleasure in bullying Dawn and all while the other adults that should be looking out for her often turn a blind eye to the problems she's facing in school.
65	* MoreInsultingThanIntended: Dawn calls Brandon a "retard", [[spoiler: unaware that Brandon has a brother with Downs Syndrome.]]
66	* NietzscheWannabe: In the semi-sequel ''Palindromes'', [[spoiler: Mark has wholeheartedly embraced nihilism.]]
67	%%* NinetiesAntiHero
68	* ParentalFavoritism: Dawn's parents, especially her mother, adore Missy and prefer her to the other two kids.
69	* PhotosLie: The film opens with a close up of a family portrait of the Wiener family in which everyone is beaming happily at the camera (poor Dawn especially).
70	* PrecociousCrush: Dawn was crushing hard on Steve, despite him being much older than her.
71	* SadistTeacher: Dawn's teacher who gives her a detention for no good reason and makes her read out loud an essay to the class about grade-grubbing.
72	* ScrewTheRulesImBeautiful: Steve who is a self-absorbed, inconsiderate thief.
73	* SecretRelationship: Brandon threatens Dawn to keep their relationship a secret. [[spoiler: No one finds out, except for maybe Ralphy who was spying on them in her clubhouse.]]
74	* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler:Despite all her trials and tribulations, Dawns' situation has not improved by the end of the movie. She's just as miserable as she was before]]. When you take ''Palindromes'' into account, [[spoiler:it becomes a ShootTheShaggyDog story as Dawn's life only gets worse before she finally kills herself.]]
75	* ShrinkingViolet: Dawn is very shy and quiet, part of the reason she has no friends.
76	%%* SmallNameBigEgo: Steve.
77	%%* TheSociopath: Lolita.
78	* SoundtrackDissonance: Pretty much deliberate, as the movie is a BlackComedy based on bitter {{Irony}}. Playing heavenly [[Theatre/PeerGynt Solveig's Song]] to what the viewer must think is a prelude to a rape is outright jawsdropping... on the second thought, rather brilliant.
79	%%* SpoiledBrat: Missy yet again.
80	%%* StepfordSuburbia
81	* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: [[spoiler:Dawn herself in the movie's [[ThematicSeries loose sequel]] ''Palindromes''. She went to college, gained a lot of weight, became pregnant from date rape, and died by suicide. So much for life improving as she gets older, but maybe now, they will leave you alone.]]
82	* ThrowTheDogABone: Dawn gets a very tiny one, when the principal shuts the audience up so that Dawn can finish her speech.
83	%%* TwoDecadesBehind: In the it's still TheEighties sense.
84	* TheUnFavorite: Dawn and, at least in relation to her sister Missy and brother Mark. Her mother openly favors Missy, but Dawn in particular gets the short end of the stick, such as when her clubhouse gets torn down.
85	%%* ThisLoserIsYou: Poor, poor Dawn.
86	* TroubledAbuser: Brandon is the meanest bully in school, probably because of his traumatic home life. [[spoiler: He has an alcoholic, misogynistic, widowed father; a special needs brother who needs constant supervision; and is poor.]]
87	%%* YoungestChildWins: Missy.
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Context Film / WelcomeToTheDollhouse