Welcome To The Dollhouse is a mid-90s coming-of-age comedy-drama that pushes its levels of awkwardness to the max. All making for the cinematic equivalent of an itchy, ill-fitting & bad taste jumper that you kind of grow to love, though from time to time it still causes discomfort & embarrassment. Here from Radiance Films is a Blu-Ray reissue of the film, featuring an HD scan of the picture, a commentary track & a few other extras.

Welcome To The Dollhouse (aka Middle Child) appeared in the year 1995. It was the second film helmed by Newark, New Jersey-born Todd Solondz- who started making shorts in the mid 80’s going on to release his first feature in 1989 Fear, Anxiety & Depression was a comic look at NYC's underground art scene. In total, he has eight feature lengths to his name,  which carved out his own brand of awkward drama/ comedy with titles like Happiness (1998), Palindromes (2004), and Dark Horse ( 2011).
 
The film focuses on Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo) a terminally awkward, often bulled/ belittled, bespeckled, and on the cusp of her teens girl. She is the middle child of the family- with a younger around six or so sister Missy(Daria Kalinina), whose does ballet & is the apple of her parent's eyes, and the large glassed & computer studies geek Mark(Matthew Faber). 

We open with Dawn trying to find a place to sit during lunchtime in her school's canteen, which lands up with her being accused of being a lesbian by a group of cheerleaders- before we see taunting/bullying graffiti on her locker. As things unfold we find out that she only has one friend in the world- Ralphly( Dimitri DeFresco), a several years younger boy who hangs out in a collapsing shed that Dawn calls ‘the special persons’ club- which is just her & Ralphly.
 
Her brother Mark plays clarinet in a barely able-to-play band. The band practice in the family garage, and one day Dawn hears something rather different from the three pieces' normal awkward sonic fumbling’s. And it’s the voice & guitar playing of long-haired senior Steve Rodgers (Eric Mabius)- Mark is helping him pass computer studies, hence he’s joined the band. Dawn is well & truly besotted with Steve.
 
As the film unfolds we get one extremely awkward situation after another- like Dawn, off camera being told to defecate on demand, promises of rape by dumb rednecks, and general belittling, bullying & embarrassment- that literally had my toes curled out of the bottom of my shoes.
 
Matarazzo is awkward pre-teen personified- she plays the role straight, with a fair bit of pathos/ geeky depth to her portrayal of Dawn. The rest of the cast is equally well placed/ realized, as is the film's wardrobe/ sets which push the cringe levels sky high. Yet this element never becomes overdone or contrived.  Meaning it all stays (just about) in feasibility/ reality- I’d say the film is a comedy-drama with a small c, largely playing more like a tragic drama, with moments of embarrassing laughter.
 

Moving onto this new Blu-Ray, and we get a good selection of new extras. First, off we have a commentary track from  BJ and Harmony Colangelo of This Ends at Prom- a podcast that focuses on female coming-of-age films. They begin by talking about the use of the family portrait in the film's opening credits, and how it effectively sets up the rest of the film.  They discuss the effortless & wonderful performance of the film's female lead, and after the lesbian taunt in the film reveal that the actress is actually gay herself.  They comment on the way the rest of the family is introduced, and how ultimately the film is an exploration of the middle child.  We get quotes from interviews with the lead actress & director. They discuss the film's themes and relate back to their own experiences in school. We get talk about character motivations and more. The track is an ok chatty affair, with a few titbits of information/interesting observations- though I didn’t really gain/learn much from it, so certainly just a one-play-through affair. Otherwise, we get two new on-screen interviews- first is with Todd Solondz(15.43) He talks about how the film was his reaction to the classic coming-of-age series The Wonder Years.  How they initially looked for awkward kids to play the roles in local malls, but when this didn’t work out they went down the more formal actor route. We find out they often worked on the filming until the early morning. What he thinks about the film/ how it was received, and how surprised he was when it was such a succusses. The second interview is with lead actress Heather Matarazzo (21.56) she begins by talking about how she first got into acting at the age of seven. How she went on to get the part, after auditioning for another cut role. Her memories of working with the director & films actors. And her feelings about the film now. Both these interviews are well worth a play and give some great insights. Lastly, on the disc, we have Todd Solondz’s Suburban Nightmare (14.45) an audio essay, which sees critic and author Hannah Strong discussing the film and how it fits in with the rest of the director's output.
 
The finished release also comes with an inlay booklet featuring new writing by critics A. S. Hamrah and Molly Lambert, archival writing by Solondz and Julian Murphet and an overview of contemporary reviews.
 
I was aware of Welcome To The Dollhouse when it first came out, but until now hadn’t seen it or any other of Todd Solondz's output. And I must say it’s a wonderful cringe-inducing example of the coming-of-age drama, which shows growing-up in all of its true awkwardness- and hell there’s a little bit of Dawn in all of Us. I’ll most certainly be checking out more of Mr Solondz, and this is another great release from the guys at Radiance Films.