Yasmin, Cloe, Jade and Sasha (Ramos, Shaye, Parrish and Browning) are four buddies who head off to high school together and are immediately confronted by clique society, which divides them based on their interests in music, sport, science and cheerleading, respectively. Two years later (!) they finally realise they need to stand up to the school-ruling Meredith (Staub), daughter of the befuddled principal (Voight), and crush the divisive system. And there will be plenty of opportunities, as Meredith throws her second sweet 16 party and plots to win the annual talent show.

Despite referencing such astute teen comedies as Mean Girls and Election, this film has one of the laziest scripts imaginable, shamelessly skimming the surface to tell a wafer-thin story about fashion and lip gloss that undermines its muddled "stick together and be yourselves" pseudo-message. Along the way, it insults anyone in the audience who has a brain, especially if they're Latino, deaf, musical or from a broken family.

It also panders to the very young in the audience, delighting them with trampy fashions, obsessively set-decorated bedrooms and exceedingly thin girls who are made-up and hair-extended to look like they're 35. The girls are all smiley and glamorous, the boys dreamy and soulful, the adults goofy and clueless. The high school is a cheerfully bizarre cross between Shawshank, 1984 and Circus Circus. There's a constant song underscore and endlessly sassy dialog.

And yet there's no edge to the film at all, gosh darnit! So the young girls who will be delighted with all this pink fluffiness are being lulled to sleep while they're sold clothing, records and make-up by the truckload. They won't notice the lame plotting, clunky editing, cheap stereotyping and excruciatingly over-stretched running time. Perhaps the adults who accompany them will be glad a movie entertained the giggling kiddies so much, but they should be ashamed of themselves for not paying closer attention, painful as that may be.

themes, brief violence

29.Jul.07

Amy McDonald, America: "This movie was horrible! It made no sense, especially the fact that the character Dylan is deaf and can read lips so well that he can tell what you're saying even if you're not facing him! Sooo, the movie was dumb. I just wanted to have a laugh at it, so ha ha!" (17.Oct.07)