“Dollhouse” Throws Open Its Doors

What if you could tell the story of a bubblegum pop star, and then show her smothered and stamped on by those hoping to gain from her celebrity? And what if your message was so intense, you used dolls to show the extreme lengths that we as a celebrity-obsessed society go to lift and crush our idols?

Nicole Brending does just that in Dollhouse: The Eradication of Female Subjectivity from American Popular Culture.

In her first feature-length directorial effort, Nicole gives us Junie Spoons, a Lindsay Lohan-type character skyrocketing her way through childhood celebrity and beyond. She is aided and abetted by her stage mother, Patricia, a smoking, careless matriarch who, like the rest of the cast of dolls, shows little empathy or resolve in actually caring for Junie.

Along Junie’s journey, she stumbles on a bevy of heartless characters, all personally fabricated into doll form by Nicole and voiced by her and her fellow actors.  

Initially, we see Junie suffer through a tumultuous marriage with a Timberlake lookalike by the name of “Zachary Wilderness”. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s just a small precursor to the inevitable sex tape that emerges from said coupling. 

She then meanders through her career, propped up by the notion that she can do no wrong as long as she remembers to mention her belief in God when she’s interviewed by the voracious media.  

The film is cohesive enough, spooling out at a breakneck pace at just under 80 minutes. The original music and vocals are a standout, tracks that Junie Spoons herself “records” during her ascent through pop stardom.

As it progresses, more malicious characters begin to trickle into the framework of the film. And the foundation beneath Junie begins to crumble.

Late in the movie, it reaches an apex where she deliriously parades around a beach proclaiming who she is loudly, much like Bette Davis as “Baby Jane”.  

In all, Dollhouse attempts to show the tragic way we as a culture and the media compromise the intellect and equality of women. It unyieldingly displays the transgressions against them. So, if you are not afraid of a skewering unapologetic portrait of celebrity culture and fanatic fandom, settle into the Dollhouse for a riveting yet rocky ride.