Just imagine for one second that you are an 11 years old girl with ugly glasses. You are a middle child (the film also known as Faggots and Retards (working title) or Middle Child) with an older brother who is a computer wiz and a little sister, a pretty ballerina. Your name is Dawn Wiener, and almost every student in your middle school hates you, tells you in your face that you are ugly, and nobody remembers your name, you are called Dog Face or Wiener Dog', and one of your classmates greets you every morning with the words, "I'll rape you today at 3 pm" . The film should be called "Welcome to Hell", and Todd Solondz is our Virgil in this Inferno.
Heather Matarazzo is absolutely terrific. She was able to play both, an archetype of an insecure, unloved, misunderstood, and lost in this cruel world child as well as one very real suffering young girl from New Jersey. That's why I could not forget her Dawn, I wanted to talk her, to tell her that yes, the world is cruel, and she was dealt the mixed cards from the beginning but she could play them, there is always hope, there are books, music, and art. Hang on; I would tell her, you are not going to be an "ugly duckling" forever. You'll take off your stupid glasses, you will grow up, you'll be just fine and you will find friends just wait. But how can one wait at 11? The time drags so slowly in childhood, and every day is descending to Hell
One of the best films about the "happy" school years I've ever seen.
9.5/10
Heather Matarazzo is absolutely terrific. She was able to play both, an archetype of an insecure, unloved, misunderstood, and lost in this cruel world child as well as one very real suffering young girl from New Jersey. That's why I could not forget her Dawn, I wanted to talk her, to tell her that yes, the world is cruel, and she was dealt the mixed cards from the beginning but she could play them, there is always hope, there are books, music, and art. Hang on; I would tell her, you are not going to be an "ugly duckling" forever. You'll take off your stupid glasses, you will grow up, you'll be just fine and you will find friends just wait. But how can one wait at 11? The time drags so slowly in childhood, and every day is descending to Hell
One of the best films about the "happy" school years I've ever seen.
9.5/10