|
Odd Girl Out is a 2005 telefilm starring Alexa Vega (Vanessa), Lisa Vidal (Barbara), Elizabeth Rice (Nikki), Alicia Morton (Tiffany), Leah Pipes (Stacy), Alexis Fields (Emily) and Chad Biagini (Tony). The film was first aired on April 4, 2005 on Lifetime, and is about the struggles of Vanessa, who must deal with peer pressure and the brutality of high school girls. The movie 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' aggression and bullying which is usually non-physical, indirect and hard to detect. Rachel Simmons tells the reader that this thing is harmful, destructive and usually ignored, leaving victims to suffer in silence.
Plot Vanessa Snyder is a smart, beautiful and adored girl in her high school. She has a loving single mother, Barbara (Lisa Vidal) who is proud of her well-placed daughter. Vanessa is also "in" with the most powerful clique in school,led by her best friend Stacy, the Queen Bee of the Pack, and Nikki, who is secretly jealous of Stacy's and Vanessa's closeness. On the outside of this exclusive friendship circle is the new girl Emily, and blonde wannabe Tiffany who's dying to make it into the pack. The worst happens when Nikki tricks Vanessa into getting close to Tony, a boy whom Stacy has a crush on. A web of lies, nasty rumors and manipulation ensue, and Vanessa is ostracized by the clique for "backstabbing" Stacy, her bestfriend and "leader". The helpless Vanessa soon faces the non-physical conflict and verbal violence from her former friends, Nikki and Tiffany,who has been accepted into the Pack, with Stacy giving signs of approval in the background. Vanessa is slowly pushed out of class activities, called a slut, socially isolated and the worst, her tormentors make an online website bashing Vanessa. The new girl Emily, tries to befriend Vanessa and coaxes her not to go running back after the clique, but Vanessa keeps trying to seek reconciliation with Stacy, to disastrous results. The bullying escalates, with Stacy, Nikki and Tiffany(with other hanger-ons) 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 in a nervous breakdown and then she starts cutting school, fearing the horror in the hallways of the school. The bullies also offer several fake "truces" for her to help them in schoolwork, only to dump her over and over again. Once Vanessa's mother, Barbara learns the awful truth about her daughter's ordeal, she tries to help by informing the school principal about the bullying, to no avail as the school board 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. Only when Vanessa becomes hospitalized after taking an over dose on sleeping pills because of the fatigue she feels after a disasterous prank was pulled on her, does she realize what she must do. She befriends Emily, the only girl to visit her in the hospital. Fueled by her recent brush with death, and her own mother's secret past of being a bully victim, Vanessa confronts her tormentor Stacy, 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 through her offer of fake friendship. The movie ends with a humiliated and crying 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 on by bystanders and she hugs Emily, the only true friend she's had, before they both leave for a party, effectively disbanding the bullying clique. | |||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
| |