Talk:Welcome to the Dollhouse

Black Humor/Black Comedy?

Regarding "No basis for black comedy claim in lede", I have seen the film and read the Wiki plot summary, and both seem pretty dark. Information in both http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_comedy#Motion_pictures and http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-blackhum.html seems to support characterizing this particular film as "black humor" or "black comedy". Any comment on restoring the "black comedy" description? David F (talk) 20:55, 1 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Not without a reliable source that says so. ---The Old Jacobite_{The '45} 21:59, 1 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Fair enough. I found the phrase "black comedy" or similar in a number of reviews of this film, including reviews published by two newspapers (the San Francisco Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Dollhouse-a-model-of-adolescent-miseries-3141698.php and The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/welcometothedollhouse.htm#kempley), three film review websites (IMDB http://www.imdb.com/reviews/69/6926.html, Rotten Tomatoes http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/welcome_to_the_dollhouse/, Allmovie http://www.allmovie.com/movie/v135762), and book and film online store Amazon.ca http://www.amazon.ca/Welcome-Dollhouse-Todd-Solondz/dp/0767827740. David F (talk) 23:40, 1 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think the genre as currently provided in the lede "coming-of-age comedy film" is probably more accurate as it is. It may have some elements of black comedy by some sources, but it's not the most representative description. Allmovie has it down as a comedy and list three sub-genres (black comedy/coming-of-age/domestic comedy), while the NY Times describes it as a "comedy drama", and both the AFI and Yahoo describe it as a "teenage comedy drama". The only genre that is common to all four sources is "comedy", while three describe it as a "drama" and three "teenage/coming-of-age"; you can probably tweak it to "coming-of-age comedy-drama film", but describing it as a "black comedy" probably isn't as representative as we already have. Betty Logan (talk) 13:43, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with Betty. The critics who call it a black comedy can be quoted in the critical reception section, but the lede should be succinct, and should go with what the majority of critics say. ---The Old Jacobite_{The '45} 14:19, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Understood. I reverted my edit to the lede. David F (talk) 17:09, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

As The Old Jacobite_{The '45} suggested, I have quoted critics who term it a black comedy in the critical reception section. David F (talk) 04:37, 4 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Undid major revision - vandalism?

A January 2014 revision deleted essentially the entire plot section other than a single sentence. The user stated in their accompanying note "You are probably not supposed to give away the entire plot of a movie in a wikipedia article." This is not a Wikipedia guideline - while overly-long and detailed plot descriptions are discouraged, the purpose of Wikipedia is to be an encyclopedia.

--76.218.68.67 (talk) 18:58, 24 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]