SnoopyStyle Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo) is the awkward middle child and social outcast 7th grader. She's got the hated nickname Wienerdog. Girls call her lesbo. Not even the other outcasts like her. The teachers find her annoying. Her parents ignore her. Her mother favors the youngest adorable Missy. Her older brother Mark is a nerd but he's a driven nerd. He gets the popular hunk Steve Rodgers to join his band and she's completely infatuated. Everybody picks on her especially class bully Brandon. She has the Special People Club in the backyard with her only friend the younger Ralphy. Steve Rodgers is actually nice to her and she misunderstands. Brandon starts taking an even more intense interest in her.Heather Matarazzo is amazingly awkward. It is cringe-worthy. Writer/director Todd Solondz is the king of the disturbing underbelly of society. The bullying is hard to watch. Dawn is not a nice girl but she is the clueless girl trying to find her way. She often hurts people just as others have hurt her. The movie is so uncomfortable that the audience has no choice but to laugh. And then it gets darker. Sometimes it goes over the edge like what happens to Missy. There's no real need to go that far but it's not a problem. At its center, there is the compelling Matarazzo.

mark.waltz "Are you a lesbian?" Teenager Dawn Weiner is greeted with these words after finally sitting down in the school cafeteria just minutes after starring open-mouthed for a table where she would be hopefully welcome. It is obvious that poor Dawn is the school reject, a dandelion among roses, or so the nasty cheerleaders who ask her this rude question choose to believe. After denying the question, a possible lesbian of years to come announces that Dawn had just come onto her and later will demand to watch her defecate in the school bathroom. This isn't a polite movie, and to put blame where it really should go, Dawn's treatment at the hand of these bullies is not helped by the adults in her life: her nasty teacher, the principal who believes he is trying to help her, and especially, her self-centered parents who baby her little sister while basically treating her equally as nasty as the students do.Mother (Angela Pietropinto) is the biggest culprit, always believing the worst about her, and emotionally abusing her every chance she gets. Anyone who has felt that their parents hated them simply because they misunderstood them will identify with Dawn here. She spoils the Jon Benet Ramsey look-alike Missy (Daria Kalinina) and belittles poor Dawn every chance she gets. Like a character out of a John Waters movie, Mrs. Weiner should go down in the hall of fame as one of the nastiest movie mothers ever. She makes Faye Dunaway's Joan Crawford look like Sally Field's M'Linn from "Steel Magnolias" in comparison.While it is understandable that she'd want Dawn to tear down the clubhouse she's built (it is after all an eyesore), the way she does it is without any type of sensitivity. Father (Bill Buell) isn't any better, maybe a bit quieter in his abuse, but still supportive of it. The only remotely likable member of the family is brother Mark (Matthew Faber), and he ain't any prize, either, totally selfish with his consumption of his rock band and desire for education, but perhaps it's because he can't wait to escape from his truly messed up family. Missy is one of those nightmare "Bad Seed" children, oh so pretty, oh so polite, but phony, phony, phony. While I wouldn't wish a fate which befalls her on any child, I can see why Dawn can't stand her.Dawn, herself, ain't totally without faults. She bullies herself, in this case, her only friend, a sixth grader who hangs out with her in the clubhouse, obviously desperate for a friend: any friend. After a scene with a bully (as Brendan Sexton Jr.) who has threatened to rape her, Dawn yells at this innocent kid, who has just offered her comfort, calling him a faggot. Heather Matarazzo gives a heartbreaking performance as the unfortunate Dawn, someone you are sure will either end up an ax murderess or a suicide victim. As for the character of Brandon, the bully who has threatened to rape Dawn, Sexton gives an insight to what makes a bully a bully. He obviously is curious about who Dawn really is underneath, yet can't help but treat her like crap when around their fellow students. But once alone with her, he reveals who he truly is, and this reminds me of junior high bullies I knew who actually became quite a different person when alone with me. Still no excuse, but an excellent insert into the screenplay to allow us to see the multiple dimensions of seemingly really horrid kids. Victoria Davis reminded me a lot of a young Jodie Foster, albeit one who needs to wake up and stop harassing other people for being something her character obviously is.The ending is a sad one, an insight into what is going to be in this character's life. Yes, there are moments where you can't help but laugh, and yet, still feel bad about the fact that you are indeed laughing. Bullying is, in fact, no laughing matter, but perhaps that is the intention of the writer and director to get us to see that while he wants us to laugh, he also wants us to think. In thinking about it, hopefully we will grow up and realize that humanity really needs to get away from the images it tries to project on children to be. Grow up, he says, Dawn Weiner could be you, your daughter, your sister, your best friend's kid. Time to wake up and smell the junior high school cafeteria mystery meat.

Rich Wright You'd think, with all the humiliations that pile up on our mousy heroine over the course of this unbearably cruel film, the scene is set for a big revenge moment... A huge climax where she finally sticks it to all her enemies and proves her worth. You would be completely wrong. This is no 'triumph of the underdog' tale, just a survival story about the spirit of a kid who must endure almost consistent harassment everyday, whether she's at school or home... And we wonder, how does she avoid cracking up? Her family don't want anything to do with her, preferring to lavish their affections on her 'perfect' younger sister, while in class she's the target of bullies, and the teachers seem to consist of a bunch of patronising jerks.Even the few chinks of light that occasionally shine through the gloom of her existence are quickly snuffed out, so if you're looking for a movie to put you in a good mood you're better off watching Bambi's mother get shot on an endless loop. BUT... (and this is a massive BUT) it also happens to be one of the finest films I've seen in years. I had it on DVD but guess what... a massive scratch on the disc stopped it after half an hour. Even with that small taste, I knew it was something special. So I waited... And FINALLY the whole thing has been uploaded to Youtube... And may I just say, it fulfilled my initial reaction to it, and then some.A huge part of it's success lies squarely at the feet of Heather Matarazzo, who cuts a sympathetic (or perhaps just pathetic) figure as she shuffles through life, being abused and hated by all. It's a role which could easily have descended into caricature, but her breathtaking performance as a bright girl doomed by circumstance to eke out this rubbish existence makes her plight evermore tragic. The supporting parts hit the bullseye too, as everyone from her nerdy best (and only) friend to her tutu-wearing, sickly-sweet younger sibling infuse proceedings with a quality which is rarely seen.This is a great film... Not a happy one, but I guarantee a far more relatable flick than half the homogenised coming-of-age motion pictures out there. You know, the ones where everyone is beautiful, most of your fellow students are wealthy minorities and you burst into the chorus of a cheesy song every few minutes. Hmm, what could I possibly be talking about... 9/10

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews Dawn is bullied in her middle school. She is insecure, wears unflattering clothes and doesn't feel attractive. Her inattentive parents care far more about her smart and nerdy older brother and her spoilt, elegant little sister(that she actually has to share a room with, in spite of being 11) than her, leaving her the overlooked middle child. She falls in love with a guy five years her senior. But could that possibly work out? This is one of the most brutally honest(it admits that teenagers actually think about sex), painful(the cake scene is torture), and difficult to watch films I've ever seen. I knew that it would be, because this is not my first exposure to the immensely talented Solondz... I own a copy of the quite good Storytelling, and I had heard that this was much harder on the viewer. This really doesn't let up(there are those that will use the word "nihilistic"), it's pure bared nerve endings, and it shows with no pretense the kind of cruelty some of us experience, and what effect it has on us. Everyone lashes out at someone weaker than them when they're in agony. While some of the actions do encourage headscratching, the characters in this are entirely realistic(I would say almost everything in this is), credible and well-developed. No one is a hero or a villain(don't expect to like everything about any of them). The acting is amazing. Matarazzo(who I can barely believe was willing to play the role) is impossibly perfect. Her body language, voice, eyes, everything is spot-on. Everyone is convincing in this. The tension is present and thick right from the beginning. I suppose one could argue that this doesn't have all that much genuine plot... we get a string of scenes in chronological order, and several things aren't followed up on. A ton does happen; I think this is mainly meant to show a small portion of the girl's life. Don't expect a lot of growth or change, or for this to have a conclusion(it kind of just stops... one can interpret the last image to mean something, though, and it certainly isn't randomly chosen). I'm not sure I understand classifying this as a comedy... if so, definitely note that it's black and sardonic humor. You can really *feel* the setting. The lunch-room, class-room and the suburban home... you're *there*, and you feel as suffocated and trapped as our lead does. This is filmed and edited impeccably well. There is disturbing content and strong language throughout this. The DVD comes with a trailer. I recommend this to anyone who wants an uncompromising look at what for many are the worst years of their life. 8/10