"Welcome to the Dollhouse" is an iconic film of the grunge era

The only few films that more define this era that I can think of off the top of my head are "Killing Zoe," "Kalifornia" & "Pulp Fiction." "Welcome to the Dollhouse" seemed lost in the heap at that time for me at age 24, but I've come back in later years and seen the film. It is brutally honest and real, which is weirdly why perhaps people my age resented it.

Nearly no "teen" films of the '80s were like this except possibly "Heathers" or "Rivers Edge," but those films are marred by this "cool kid" aesthetic that "Welcome to the Dollhouse" certainly does not have.

One of the amazing things about this film is how realistic the characters talk. This is how the average 13 to 15 year old communicates. Perhaps the catharsis in '90s films made people my age resentful, because '80s films tended to be so impossibly fake (e.g., "the Breakfast Club").

Whenever I look back on films like "Welcome to the Dollhouse" I get heartsick and miss the '90s. It was the only time I can vividly remember, when it was trendy to be an authentic human being. In the early to mid '70s, I was a little kid, so I don't remember that golden age of cinema very well.