How this was different from Welcome To The Dollhouse (spoilers)

Todd Solondz movies are much alike in the sense that they're all crude, shameless, controversial and mean. I loved this movie and I hung on to every word said in every dialogue, every expression on their faces, every tone of their voices. It really fascinated me, put me under a spell. Much more so than Welcome To The Dollhouse. It surprised me that I liked it so much, because unlike WTTD, I didn't feel a single shred of sympathy for any of the characters. I didn't like any of them and honestly didn't care what happened to them (I was actually happy when that spoiled little brat was gassed to death in the end, which is alarming, because it's kinda sick to rejoice over the death of some little kid).

I still like WTTD more, but I would say for me the biggest difference between the two was that in WTTD I had a lot of sympathy for Dawn and kept hoping things would work out for her.
Storytelling was more reminiscent of Happiness. Also a great film, but I felt nothing for any of the characters, they were all too emotionally unavailable to me, somehow.