Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
An unattractive 7th grader struggles to cope with suburban life as the middle child with inattentive parents and bullies at school.
Todd Solondz's debut feature is a remarkably singular vision of suburban misery and adolescent alienation. Dawn Wiener is one of cinema's most uncomfortably real misfit protagonists, and the film's refusal to sentimentalize or redeem her suffering gives it a distinctive, almost cruel authenticity. The dark comedy tone is perfectly calibrated — never fully funny, never fully tragic — which is genuinely novel. Heather Matarazzo's raw performance anchors the film, though the supporting cast is more uneven. Cinematography is functional and deliberately unglamorous, matching the suburban drabness but not particularly inventive. The ending is characteristically bleak and honest, resisting easy resolution while perhaps feeling slightly abrupt.