The strange film career of writer-director Todd Solondz, responsible for "Welcome to the Dollhouse" (1995), a heartbreaking yet hilarious chronicle of junior high school life, has provided some quirky twists to the standard Hollywood success story. Born in Newark and raised in suburban Irvington, New Jersey, the eight-year-old future filmmaker wanted to become a rabbi. This desire propelled him through a succession of religious, public and private schools. Having decided against the ecclesiastical life, Solondz eventually landed among the decidedly humanistic literary set, studying English at
