NP: From the Lynch to the Solondz

[Steven Koteff]

Just finishing David Lynch in our movie project (whom I have become sort of
obsessed with; I can't overhype the esteem I hold him in now; he's on my
internal Olympus of artmakers) and moving into Todd Solondz.

We watched TS's *Welcome to the Dollhouse *last night, and I really
recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. It's kind of a remarkable movie.
It's really just the story of a very socially-unfortunate suburban
11-yr-old named Dawn. The persistent agony of her life as she comes of age.
It manages to be remarkably sad and moving about straightforwardly
emotional material without ever (in my opinion) becoming sentimental. It's
interesting to watch it on the heels of Lynch's stuff, as they both include
a lot of material that is overtly high-drama yet earn it in totally
different ways, despite both embracing the drama head-on. Solondz is much
dryer, though not at all disaffected. Very dark, very funny. Also maybe the
best and truest treatment of young characters (and use of young actors) I
can remember seeing in a movie. Maybe it helps that I was a child in
roughly the same era of the movie. But I think it's really well-done. There
are a few minor story elements I might quibble with, but not enough to
really diminish the effect of the movie much.

Anybody seen this thing? Is Solondz generally on your radar?

Apparently his new movie stars Greta Gerwig as the girl from *Dollhouse *all
grown up.
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