By Charlie Kendellen
If you’re familiar with the work of Todd Solondz, you know he’s no stranger to transgression, controversy, and darkly comical scenes in his films. From Happiness, to Palindromes, to Weiner Dog (Animal lovers, beware), Todd Solondz has been testing the limits of audiences for decades.
His 1995 dark comedy, coming-of-age Welcome to the Dollhouse, starring a young Heather Matarazzo (The Princess Diaries 1 & 2), follows Dawn, a conventionally ‘unattractive’ seventh grade girl who deals with the trials and tribulations of growing up in suburbia with school bullies and narcissistic parents.
The film turns 30 this year, and it’s got me thinking… have coming-of-age films lost their edge? From delightfully creepy films like Coraline and the beloved series Goosebumps aimed at kids and tweens, to American Pie, Not Another Teen Movie, Heathers, to Drop Dead Gorgeous, all aimed at teenagers, which flawlessly depict the edginess of their respective time periods. The 1990s to the early 2000’s were flooded with edgy, often raunchy, and endlessly entertaining films. The only coming-of-age flick with comparable edge and raunch is Easy A which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. The rhetoric of “they just don’t make ‘em like they used to” is frequently used by the older generation or hipsters desperately clinging to the past and refusing to get with the present, while egregiously overused, may actually be applicable to the long-dead subgenre of edgy coming-of-age flicks.
Todd Solondz’s Welcome to the Dollhouse doesn’t shy away from pre-teen angst, making jokes of child kidnappings, mental health crises, problematic, colossally offensive jokes, and plummeting children into increasingly dark scenarios for comedic effect. Say what you will about Todd Solondz, but the man captures the sheer terror of growing up in the suburbs, facing cruel torment from peers, neglect from parents, and the overwhelming awkwardness of growing up, which will still resonate with kids and teens today. The character of Dawn Weiner, while isolated from her status as a social misfit, acts as a comfort to those of us who too struggled with social cliques and relentless childhood bullies.
Going forward, I am a firm believer that coming-of-age flicks could learn a thing or two from Solondz’s unflinching approach to depicting the awkward tween phase we all inevitably face, with sprinkles of sheer “should I be laughing at this?” moments, all thanks to Solondz’s uncompromising dialogue and Matarazzo’s incredible screen debut performance as Dawn. Coming-of-age films in recent years have all glossed over the awkward phase and the true terror of growing up as a social outcast in the often debilitating school system.
Welcome to the Dollhouse reminds us that growing up is supposed to be messy, awkward, and uncomfortable.