Remember how awkward life was in junior high? It’s that uncomfortable time when bodies go through changes, and kids don’t know exactly how to feel. Hormones lead to crushes, which lead to rejections. 1995’s Welcome to the Dollhouse explores these themes relentlessly, satirizing this uncomfortable phase between childhood and adolescence to an extremity that is sure to make you cringe from empathy.

We first see Dawn Wiener, played flawlessly by Heather Matarazzo, in a scene that’s become a cinematic cliché: she stands in the cafeteria, lunch tray in hand, ready to eat, in search of an open seat. She walks through the room. Everyone else has a seat. The other kids all have friends. But not Dawn. She is an outcast. She’s relieved to find the only empty seat in the room, and sits down, only to be informed someone vomited on that seat before lunch.

To say the least, Dawn has social problems. Her fashion sense is atrocious. Her glasses are too large, her clothes are strangely colored and don’t fit quite right, her stature is crooked, and her face is constantly pouty. These flaws feed her low self-esteem and make her a target to other kids, who attack her because they, too, have low self-esteem. Funny how that works.

Her classmates at Benjamin Franklin Jr. High call her names like “wiener dog” and “dogface.” Even her parents ignore her. They prefer her adorable little sister, Missy, who spends her afternoons practicing ballet on the front lawn. Dawn’s older brother Mark, a computer science geek, is too focused on his college application to give her any attention.

Dawn’s only friend is a younger boy named Ralphy, who’s also tormented by his peers, gets beaten up and called names. This commonality between Ralphy and Dawn is the foundation of their friendship. However, Dawn destroys this relationship when she, much like the bullies who torment her, insults Ralphy to make herself feel superior because of her own insecurities.

Like anyone else, Dawn needs acceptance and love. Unfortunately, she sets her heart on one of the sleaziest of sleazeballs in town: Steve Rogers. Steve is in high school, plays the guitar, has a car, and is willing to date any girl of any age, as long as she’s willing to “go all the way.” Dawn sets herself up for rejection with her infatuation with Steve, who never really seems to notice her desperate advances.

I hope I’m not making this out to be some cheesy coming-of-age melodrama. It’s not. Writer-producer-director Todd Solondz finds the darkest forms of humor in the saddest of situations. Its extremely cynical outlook on junior-high life makes for some brilliantly crafted dark humor. Events that would be horrific in any other movie are treated satirically, thanks largely in part to the music by Jill Wisoff. The music is used sarcastically to help bring comedy out of tragedy.

If this story were told by anyone other than Solondz, Welcome to the Dollhouse would be a tear-jerker with heavy-handed lessons about the fragility of youngsters going through puberty. However, Solondz uses the humiliation and misery of Dawn’s life to show us the stupidity behind bullying and mean-spirited action in a sharply funny way.

Welcome to the Dollhouse won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Solondz went on to make Happiness, Storytelling and Palindromes. His latest film, Life During Wartime, has been screened at this year’s Toronto and Venice Film Festivals.

Welcome to the Dollhouse is available for checkout at the Odegaard Media Center.

Reach contributing writer Andrew Mitrak at weekender@dailyuw.com.