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| Odd Girl Out | |
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| Directed by | Tom McLoughlin |
| Starring | Alexa Vega Lisa Vidal Leah Pipes Shari Dyon Perry Elizabeth Rice Alicia Morton Rhoda Griffis |
Odd Girl Out is a 2005 drama telefilm starring Alexa Vega, Lisa Vidal, Elizabeth Rice, Alicia Morton, Leah Pipes, Shari Dyon Perry, Joey Nappo and Chad Biagini. The movie was first aired on April 4, 2005 on Lifetime. It is the story about the struggles of fourteen-year-old Vanessa Snyder, who must deal with the brutality and peer pressure of the students at her middle school.
This film is based on the advice book Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls by Rachel Simmons. It sheds light into the topic of girls' hostility and bullying which is usually non-physical, indirect and unnoticeable. Simmons tells the reader that this problem is harmful, destructive and usually ignored, leaving victims to suffer in silence.
Plot
Vanessa Snyder is an adored eighth-grader in her school. She has a loving single mother, Barbara, who is proud of her well-placed daughter. Vanessa is also "in" with a popular clique, led by her best friend Stacy Larson, the Queen Bee, and Nikki Rodriguez, who is secretly jealous of Stacy and Vanessa's friendship. On the outside of this exclusive friendship circle is the recluse, Emily, and blonde wannabe, Tiffany, who's dying to make it into the pack.
The terrible nightmare starts when Nikki tricks Vanessa into getting close to Tony, a boy whom Stacy (and somewhat Vanessa) has a crush on. A web of lies, nasty rumors and manipulation ensues, and Vanessa is ostracized by the clique for "backstabbing" Stacy. Helpless, Vanessa soon faces the non-physical conflict and verbal violence from her former friends, Nikki and the others. Making the clique stronger is Tiffany, who has been accepted into the group and poisoning the others against Vanessa. Although Nikki is the main girl who is tormenting Vanessa, Stacy plays her part by pretending she's still Vanessa's best friend and not stopping the verbal attacks on her. She has shown being uncomfortable in some of the situations, hinting she might regret this happening, and that "The Pack" is going too far. Vanessa is slowly pushed out of class activities, called names, socially isolated and the worst, her tormentors create a hate site about her on which they put embarrassing pictures of Vanessa.
Emily tries to convince Vanessa not to go running back to the clique, but Vanessa keeps attempting to seek reconciliation with Stacy, to disastrous results. The bullying escalates, with Stacy, Nikki, Tiffany and others cornering Vanessa inside a bathroom and brutalizing her verbally, including degrading every aspect of her and revealing her embarrassing secrets. Vanessa ends up chopping all her hair off while in a nervous breakdown. Then she starts cutting school, fearing the agony in the hallways. Stacy offers several fake "truces" for her to help her in schoolwork, only to dump her repeatedly.
Once Vanessa's mother, Barbara, sees a print-out of comments about Vanessa, she tries to help by informing the school about the bullying, to no avail as the principal is unable to take disciplinary action against non-physical bullying. Barbara even tries to talk to Stacy's mother but only ends up straining their friendship. Even an adult like Barbara is helpless in the face of teen violence.
After Vanessa is invited to a party which doesn't exist, she goes ballistic. She takes an overdose of sleeping pills, but survives, and also befriends Emily, the only person to visit her in the hospital.
Back home, Barbara spots malicious instant messages popping up on Vanessa's computer. She sends them to the school principal, who threatens to expel the culprits, who were Nikki, Tiffany, and Ezra, another tormentor, if they deny that they cyber-bullied Vanessa.
When Vanessa returns to school, she and Stacy reunite after Stacy convinces her that she's sorry about the bullying. They IM each other about how great it feels to be best friends again. Then graduation day comes and the final decision happens when after the graduation: Nikki and Tiffany read aloud the chat between Vanessa and Stacy, which was printed out by Nikki. Vanessa finds Stacy and confronts her in front of everyone (including the parents) and stands up to the bully, something that no one has dared to do before. Vanessa brings everything down on Stacy and sees right through her offer of fake friendship, ending the fight by saying "You have nothing that I want."
The movie ends with a humiliated Stacy fleeing the school after having her methods fly back in her face, de-throned, and her two "workers" Nikki and Tiffany left powerless without a leader. Vanessa is cheered for by extras and she hugs Emily, the only true friend she's had. They both leave for an after-party, effectively disbanding the bullying clique.
Cast
- Alexa Vega - Vanessa Snyder
- Lisa Vidal - Barbara Snyder
- Leah Pipes - Stacy Larson
- Elizabeth Rice - Nikki Rodriguez
- Alicia Morton - Tiffany
- Shari Dyon Perry - Emily
- Joey Nappo - Ezra
- Rhoda Griffis - Denise Larson
- Nancy McLoughlin - Ms. Donnelly
- Margo Moorer - Principal Jessup
- Chad Biagini - Tony
- Michael Arata - Dave Larson
External links
- Odd Girl Out at the Internet Movie Database
- Web Wise kids - A national non-profit helping teach youth to be their own first line of defense
