Devant Dispatch: The Surreal Suburbia of Welcome To the Dollhouse
plus 3 new music videos inspired by the film
Hellow fellow deviants!
Welcome to the Deviant Dispatch, your Brooklyn-based guide to culture that defies the norm. I hope you’ve been chilling out and staying healthy. NYC now has the most infections in the country, and the USA has the most infections in the world! We did it, folks. This means that I won’t be going back to work in the non-essential world of retail anytime soon. So, please consider becoming a paying subscriber to Deviant Dispatch!!! Besides live stream recommendations every Tuesday, you’ll get an email every Friday like this one. The Friday email will be movie / TV recommendations, music reviews, monthly playlists, and even fashion coverage. I have a lot of fun stuff on the way, so don’t miss out! Upgrade your subscription here.
OKAY! Now that we’re done with housekeeping, a review of the 90s dark comedy Welcome to the Dollhouse.
If I have one thing to thank Miss Rona for, it’s for giving me the chance to finally watch this gem. I’ve been seeing screencaps of this movie for years, many in praise of the main character’s 90s nerdy pastel fashions. They did not prepare me for how dark and surreal the film would be.
Welcome To The Dollhouse starts as a pretty typical tale of suburban disenfranchisement. Dawn, the subject of those fashion screenshots, is a nerdy girl in junior high with only one friend. The film captures the horror of middle school that I remember: the frequent use of homophobic slurs by classmates, the violent bullies, the impassive adults, the hopeless crushes.
What starts as a standard tale of nerd grows slowly more terrifying. A bully threatens to “rape” Dawn. Her family at first seems normal and then becomes increasingly crueler and crueler. There’s a joke about a pedophile kidnapping a girl and then an actual kidnapper appears.
All of this would be depressing if not for the delightful images the film serves up: Dawn sawing a Barbies head off in a pink shirt, the teacher who wears an eyepatch after getting hit with a spitball, the glittery shrine Dawn builds for her crush. As in all great coming of age movies, we eventually see Dawn start to bash back against some of her bullies. Even more joyful is watching Dawn navigate her fresh newfound sexuality while still being a total dork. I too have lusted after slacker guys, wore loud clashing outfits, and wondered what the heck fingerbanging was. Relatable content!
Welcome To The Dollhouse s both hilarious and heartbreaking. Def a must-watch for any fans of 90s camp and dark comedies. If you don’t want to commit to a full hour and a half long exploration of budding nerd libido and fab outfits, here are three music videos in honor of Dawn herself.
Girlpool - “Like I'm Winning It”
When Dawn gazes at a crush I imagine this song playing in the background. Girlpool has always explored growing up with nuance. What started as plucky harmonies and bare-bones guitar/bass between Avery Tucker and Harmony Tividad have blossomed into dark omnivorous pop. Their new video is filled with the same sense of camp and fashion as Welcome to The Dollhouse. It hints at how disturbing and surreal desire can be. Harmony’s plaintive verse sounds like Dawn personified (“I’m just checking, can I be your baby?”).
2. Ghost Piss - “Beats in Bed”
In Welcome to the Dollhouse, Dawn watches her older brother’s shitty band practice in her garage. The film implies she does so to spy on a crush, but she also starts singing along. After her crush leaves the band, it’s not hard to imagine a scenario where Dawn asks to be in it. Her jerk of an older brother would no doubt refuse.
Beats in Bed is the song that Dawn could have written after. It’s an anthem of musical independence. Ghost Piss sings about her ability to make music in her bedroom, no men required. She doesn’t need any help, just her drum machine from the 80s. The Ghost Piss aesthetic lines up perfectly with Dawn’s love of neon and hyper-feminine accessories. My fantasy is that Dawn grows up to become Ghost Piss, using her creative eye to make something on her own terms, no crush or older brother required!
Macy Rodman -” RUNNIN’ DOWN MY BACK”
If you didn’t already know, Macy Rodman is incredible. This song is an ode to getting covered in cum. It’s both hilarious and disturbing, with a strut-worthy intro before mounting to a viceral climax. Visually the stark set has little in common with the kitschy scenes of Welcome to The Dollhouse, but it’s the video’s embrace of sex paired with awkwardness (Macy laughing while drool runs down her chest) that link it to the movie. Plus, Macy Rodman is a fucking star. I’d find a way to include her new music video no matter what.
Okay, that’s it for this dispatch! If you liked this email forward it to a pal! If you’re the pal and you liked what you saw, subscribe!!! <3 <3 <3