Welcome to the Dollhouse

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Welcome to the Dollhouse

R

1996

1h 27m

Comedy

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

94%

Tomatometer

52 Reviews

86%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

Middle-school student Dawn Weiner (Heather Matarazzo) faces degradation at school -- where she is teased constantly -- and at home. The middle child between nerdy older brother Mark (Matthew Faber) and perky younger sister Missy (Daria Kalinina), Dawn can't seem to find a place to belong. Although she has a crush on a cute boy (Eric Mabius) whom her brother knows, she can only catch the attention of bully Brandon (Brendan Sexton Jr.), who threatens her to show affection.

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Critics Consensus

An outstanding sophomore feature, Welcome to the Dollhouse sees writer-director Todd Solondz mining suburban teen angst for black, biting comedy.

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Kevin Maher

The Times (UK)

Mar 10, 2023

4/5

... There are deep and uneasy truths about emergent sexuality and the Darwinian atavism of the playground.

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Anton Bitel

Little White Lies

Mar 4, 2023

Nobody comes out of this looking pretty, and dignity – a key word in the film – is always far removed from these characters’ Darwinian struggles to survive their day without being rejected, mistreated or much, much worse.

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David Ansen

Newsweek

Feb 27, 2018

The beauty of Welcome to the Dollhouse is its pokerfaced objectivity, which neither condescends to its pubescent victim nor romantically inflates her plight.

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Chelsea Jones

Screen Slate

Aug 26, 2026

With this honest portrait, Solondz confronts the viewer with the strangeness of growing up made exponentially harder in a society where “special people” means the opposite.

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Michelle Kisner

The Movie Sleuth

Mar 13, 2023

Todd Solondz's Welcome to the Dollhouse is one of the genre's most provocative, impactful, and poignant entries.

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Taylor Baker

Drink in the Movies

Oct 3, 2021

70/100

Episode 36: Love in the Time of Monsters / Barbarella / Welcome to the Dollhouse / Johnny Guitar

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step G

@RT89912217 Aug 14, 2026

Just a strange movie... Really strange. I get the feeling that whomever was behind the camera was a strange person and whomever was behind the person operating the camera was even weirder... To be perfectly honest your life would be no different if you didn't watch this movie so go take a walk and water the flowers or something unless you want to be staring at your TV wondering if the people who made this movie were on a certain list and island.

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Dana A

@DanaQ Aug 7, 2026

In my top 10 of all time.

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michael C.

@MichaelC2 Mar 18, 2026

Was really good. Loved it. Was very quirky.

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Jack F

@MovieFan111 Nov 28, 2025

Finally a film worth rating. It's well known to cinema nerds, so it's a hidden gem to everyone else. It's an interesting movie, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and that's good. You pair this movie with Ghost World for a double feature day.

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Scott R

@ScottR Nov 25, 2025

NYT 1000 list. It is a unique movie, but it didn’t quite resonate the same way it did for others. I mostly was not invested in the characters or the issues they faced. It did have some wit I appreciated. Saw on tubi.

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Leaburn O

@RT35452347 Jul 8, 2025

An on point comedy about teenage angst. A cross between Napoleon Dynamite and The Brady Bunch. It is very well acted and portrayed. Made me laugh a lot with the 90s reminders. Watched on Amazon Prime.

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Todd Solondz

Director

Heather Matarazzo

Dawn Wiener

Daria Kalinina

Missy Wiener

Matthew Faber

Mark Wiener

Angela Pietropinto

Mrs. Wiener

Bill Buell

Mr. Wiener

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Synopsis

Middle-school student Dawn Weiner (Heather Matarazzo) faces degradation at school -- where she is teased constantly -- and at home. The middle child between nerdy older brother Mark (Matthew Faber) and perky younger sister Missy (Daria Kalinina), Dawn can't seem to find a place to belong. Although she has a crush on a cute boy (Eric Mabius) whom her brother knows, she can only catch the attention of bully Brandon (Brendan Sexton Jr.), who threatens her to show affection.

Director: Todd Solondz
Producer: Todd Solondz
Screenwriter: Todd Solondz
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Production Co: Sony Pictures Classics, Columbia TriStar
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 24, 1996, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA): $4.8M
Runtime: 1h 27m
Sound Mix: Surround

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