Odd Girl Out (2005) (TV)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Tom McLoughlin

Writers (WGA):

Rachel Simmons (book)
Matthew McDuffie (story) ...

Release Date:

4 April 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The secret life of girls... it's not pretty.

Plot:

A mother and her daughter confront the intimidation of teen peer pressure and the emotionally brutalizing social rituals of high school...

Plot Keywords:

High School | Bullying | Friends Who Hate Each Other | Overdose | Bully

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Alexa Vega	...	Vanessa
Lisa Vidal	...	Barbara
Leah Pipes	...	Stacey
Elizabeth Rice	...	Nikki
Alicia Morton	...	Tiffany
Shari Dyon Perry	...	Emily (as Shari Perry)
Rhoda Griffis	...	Denise Larson
Nancy McLoughlin	...	Ms. Donnely
Margo Moorer	...	Principal Jessup
Chad Biagini	...	Tony
Joey Nappo	...	Ezra
Maureen Brennan	...	Soccer Coach
Michael Arata	...	Dave Larson
Asia Larkin	...	Wannabe #1
Krizia Vega	...	Wannabe #2

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic issues and language.

Runtime:

120 min (including commercials) | Brazil:84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, USA

Company:

Jaffe/Braunstein Films

Trivia:

Based on the book "Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls" by Rachel Simmons.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Vanessa is rejected from the lunch table for the second time, she runs to the bathroom and into a stall. She puts her backpack on the floor and stands on the toilet seat to hide when she hears the other girls coming. One of the girls takes a picture of the bottom of Vanessa's stall with their camera phone. When the picture is shown later, you see Vanessa's backpack along with her feet clearly planted on the floor.

Soundtrack:

I Luv How You Feel

Dead on. And a sizable minority of boys are like this, too.

I'm a man. Previously a boy.

Except for certain advances in communications technology made since 1982, I had basically the exact same experience as the girl in the movie (with all the genders reversed, of course).

For people who have been through an experience as vindictive, drawn-out, thorough, and unrelenting as the experience suffered by the girl in the movie, this will be a movie-watching experience both very painful and very valuable.

Perhaps even more so for those of us who didn't have a parent as ideal and understanding as the one in the film. But, for the purposes of the film and its messages, that character is well-designed and serves many useful purposes.

This film covers a lot of bases in a lot of ways. It's an impressive accomplishment, seeing as it's impossible to really do justice to the subject matter in the space of a standard film. Very, very impressive.

I like hard-hitting, gritty dramas like Requiem For A Dream, Bad Lieutenant, and that sort of thing (also, harsh black comedies like Shallow Grave, Bitter Moon, etc.). This film hit me harder than any of those.

Girls can be as visibly and simply and physically violent as the stereotypical boys (e.g., the tormentors and killers of Reena Virk in British Columbia, Canada). And boys can be as invisibly and complexly and non-physically violent as the stereotypical girls.

It's not a simple world out there. And it has a lot of barbarians in it. Male and female. And they don't all fit within the usual gender roles.

There are plenty of masculine, heterosexual evil boys who behave like evil girls -- because they know it's tougher to get caught that way and that the damage done is deeper; in other words, the smarter ones use more complex and indirect methods. And everyone is far less aware of them than the big, dumb, loud, physically-violent ones -- indeed they likely never get caught because their male victims wouldn't be manly/masculine/tough/cool/honourable/etc. if they were to complain about it or admit to being bothered by it or to cry about it, would they? Just show me all the girls who lust after and fall in love with men who cry about getting bullied. Oh, that's right, there aren't any -- they're too busy fawning over the thoughtful, intelligent, emotionally-literate, understanding Alpha-male goons who are beating those other guys up. Sorry, I forgot.

It's frequently unlike the stereotype of "boy beats guy up, and it's over -- simple." And in those cases, it's particularly damaging when you've been socialized into the idiotic philistine social orthodoxy of boys not being allowed to cry, and boys have to keep a stiff upper lip and hide and suppress their feelings.

Anyway.... the film accomplishes its goals and its messages beautifully. 9-outta-10.